My recording station buzzes horribly!

[bjl2655]

I have a Boss 900cd recording station that I bought on ebay. When I plug the guitar cable in (no guitar on the other end... just the cable) I get buzzing...even on clean channels, but worse with distortion. The cable is a new monster cable, and the other two cheap cables that I have do not improve or worsen the problem. The recording station will run on batteries, and if I unplug it from AC power it is a little better, but still bad. Could it be that the cable is bad (I heard monster cables were good), or did I get a bad recording station? I have no flourescent lights or dimmer switches nearby. Turned off all power in the house, yet still got buzz (or hum... whichever).
Thank you for your help.

 

[ErichS]

I have a Boss 900cd recording station that I bought on ebay. When I plug the guitar cable in (no guitar on the other end... just the cable) I get buzzing...even on clean channels, but worse with distortion. The cable is a new monster cable, and the other two cheap cables that I have do not improve or worsen the problem. The recording station will run on batteries, and if I unplug it from AC power it is a little better, but still bad. Could it be that the cable is bad (I heard monster cables were good), or did I get a bad recording station? I have no flourescent lights or dimmer switches nearby. Turned off all power in the house, yet still got buzz (or hum... whichever).
Thank you for your help.

It's not unusual to get buzzing and other stray noises if you just plug in a cable and turn up the volume. How does it sound with a guitar attached?

 

[bjl2655]

It gets a bit better when it is plugged in, but you can still hear the interference through the tones, even when touching the strings. If I am recrding a tone to 0db, the noise will be at -20 when touching the strings, and around 0 when not touching the strings. If I plug a cable into the XLR post (just the cable, no guitar), there is no interference at all. ????