Feedback Noise in my Electric Lines

[BeniRose]

Every now and then when I'm playing my guitar, I hear a noise that sounds like sine wave (like an electronic tuner in pitch pipe mode). I thought it was my guitar, but then my other guitars and even my bass started doing it. On top of this, it started happening on both my recording gear and my amps. They're both plugged into the same circuit, so I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the grounding. My gear is on top of carpet, which is directly on top of the concrete floor of my basement.

http://benrosenbach.com/choons/noise.aif

Here's a sample, about halfway in it starts making the noise. It gets really frustrating when I'm trying to record something and we have to wait for the noise to stop. Does anyone know what's causing it or what I can do to make it go away? I don't really have an option to use a different circuit. Thanks!

 

[BeniRose]

Really, does no one really not know what my problem is or is no one willing to go listen to the sample? I know it's aif, but it's only a 1.9 meg file and 15 seconds long, and I didn't wanna loose the noise when converting it to mp3. Hopefully someone can help me

 

[legionserial]

Do you have a dimmer switch for the light in that room? That's all I can really offer, I know I have problems with that sometimes.

Other factors could be...

TV's
Computer monitors
Washing Machines
Electric shaving equipment
Mobile phones
Vibrators

etc etc.

Most of those things would assume that it has nothing to do with the circuit.

I'm not too up on this stuff, but if it's definitely the circuit there maybe something you can plug in between your equipment and the wall socket to mitigate it. However, if it#s not happening constantly, it might not be the circuit. Do you live near a train line?

Sorry I can't be of more help. I can understand how frustrating this probably is. I can't listen to the sample right now as I'm at work. So I might be completely off base.

 

[dgatwood]

Sounds like a problem with USB audio and a dropout, with the driver failing to get back in sync or something. Wait, this is happening with analog gear?

 

[shackrock]

yeah this is a ridiculous noise. It's frequency is much higher than 60Hz, so I really don't think it has anything to do with power line ground hum. It sounds to me like a computer issue, as dgatwood mentioned.... bad connections, drivers, failing components somewhere...

What do you use to record (what hardware)?

You said this noise comes out of your AMP, even when not recording? Does it come out of the amp whether or not a guitar is plugged into the amp?

 

[ido1957]

I can't open the file in WMP so I imagine others have the same problem.

If you use a laptop try unplugging the laptop power cord and run on batteries only. I solved a big noise problem throughout my system by doing that.

 

[shackrock]

I can't open the file in WMP so I imagine others have the same problem.

If you use a laptop try unplugging the laptop power cord and run on batteries only. I solved a big noise problem throughout my system by doing that.

I second the battery issue. Or, get an adapter that takes the ground out of the power supply (3 prong to 2 prong).

 

[BeniRose]

I should've figured WMP would have a problem opening an industry standard audio file.

I converted it to a wave for those of you on windows: http://benrosenbach.com/choons/noise.wav. You should hear it about halfway through. Thanks for the feedback (GET IT?!?!?!)

 

[BeniRose]

I finally figured it out (on accident of course!)

I went to go pick up my phone which was plugged into the wall, and sure enough, when I touched it, the noise came along! And when I turned the screen on, it got even louder! Now I never have my phone plugged in to the wall at my desk, but I do have it plugged into the computer, which does charge it, so I'm imagining that's giving the same effect. At least now I know what the damn noise is, and can keep my phone unplugged when I'm recording!