guitar noise gets quiet randomly + a few beginner Qs

[martial-ron]

hi everyone!

i know this is kinda off-topic, sorry.

recently my band started practicing, we're having 2 mics and two effect processors going into a behringer ux-1204, outputting the sound to an amp.

well my guitar tends to get quiet or even silent RANDOMLY :
does someone know what could cause this?
i think its the effect processor (korg ax-100g) but after all i dont know..

also i would like to know if its "bad" to have ones cables coiled up during playing? i like to keep them coiled as much as possible, so they dont get in my way and stuff..

last but not least i would appreaciate it alot if you guys could give me some good links for learning more about the very basic PA stuff like how sound is built (frequencies etc.), and what EQ is all about.. u know what i mean? i'm kinda having a hard time making the best out of my humble english.. LOL

THANKS for every answer!!

 

[AlChuck]

Effects processors often include an "effect" called a noise gate. The way it works is, if the signal it sees drops below a certain threshold, it will "gate" the signal, by either cutting it off abruptly or by smoothly choking the signal. Depending on how this is set it can be useful or not. If the threshold is too high it will start affecting the notes that you are playing.

This might seem random, I suppose, if you are not aware of its existence.

If this is not the case, and it truly is random, something else is going on, possibly a hardware problem. And no, I don't think that coiling your wires will effect then signal noticebaly

 

[knightfly]

The coiling of cables won't hurt much, as long as you keep all power, especially those little black boxes known as "line lumps" and "wall warts" away from your audio cables.

Have you checked out this resource? Plan on spending some time...

http://www.studiocovers.com/

That should get you started... Steve

 

[martial-ron]

woohoo thanks guys!!