Huge amount of white noise/humming - Lexicon Alpha

[jamieofs]

Hello all,

I am extremely new to all this so please forgive me for my painful lack of knowledge in advance.

I have recently purchased a Lexicon Alpha Audio interface to record some guitar tracks. However, when I either put the 'line1/intrument' dial past half way or put the 'Output/Level' past half way, I get a horrible amount of humming and white noise. I tried using it in both Cubase AI 5 and Audacity and get the same problem in both. Strangely It does improve a bit it i touch the jack head so I don't know if it is a loose connection or something?

I also tried a Yamaha Audiogram 6 audio interface and had the same problem in both programs. I have tried fiddling around with the sound levels in the control panel ect. but nothing seems to make any difference. This is really annoying me as it is literally 'unrecordable'? Anyone got any ideas as to what would be causing this?

Any advice would be very much appreciated as I'm at my wits end with this.

Thanks

 

[ecc83]

Hello all,

I am extremely new to all this so please forgive me for my painful lack of knowledge in advance.

I have recently purchased a Lexicon Alpha Audio interface to record some guitar tracks. However, when I either put the 'line1/intrument' dial past half way or put the 'Output/Level' past half way, I get a horrible amount of humming and white noise. I tried using it in both Cubase AI 5 and Audacity and get the same problem in both. Strangely It does improve a bit it i touch the jack head so I don't know if it is a loose connection or something?

I also tried a Yamaha Audiogram 6 audio interface and had the same problem in both programs. I have tried fiddling around with the sound levels in the control panel ect. but nothing seems to make any difference. This is really annoying me as it is literally 'unrecordable'? Anyone got any ideas as to what would be causing this?

Any advice would be very much appreciated as I'm at my wits end with this.

Thanks

I am fairly sure this is the common problem of Windows 7 (and W8 probably?) seeing usb audio devices as microphones and giving them the appropriate amount of gain, i.e. far too much.

Go into the Sound Devices menu and search for "recording devices" , find the usb device and go to "levels". This will almost certainly be slammed to 100% and needs backing off to a very much lower level of 5% often even lower. I am sorry to be a bit vague about these settings but your W7 version might be different from mine.

If and when you get this sorted you should aim your recording levels at an average of -18dBFS with peaks no higher than -8dBFS. Fortunately, -18 is marked on the Audacity meters. You should also be running 24bits and 44,1kHz.

Hope this helps,
Dave.

 

[jamieofs]

Thanks Dave, that has really helped!

There is still a slight hum in the background but it is much improved.

 

[ecc83]

Thanks Dave, that has really helped!

There is still a slight hum in the background but it is much improved.

If you arm arm record on a track with the input controls at zero and you get a standing reading on the meters what is it?

If it is higher than -80dB then I think you need to turn the record level down even more.
Can you post attachments yet? If so just a 10 second bust of the noise floor will do for a bit of diagnosis.

Dave.