Unwanted sounds in MIDI output

[FRENCH396]

I use an m-Audio Keystation 49e to input notes into my Powerbook G3 running Reason 2.5. It puts out some outstandingly realistic sounds - pianos, guitars, drum - everything ! It's my first excursion into MIDI.

I run a line from my computer speaker output jack into the "Line In" sockets in a Roland BR8 recording deck (the cord is like the line out cord from a portable CD player).

As I play the notes I get an weird sound in the background - it's a faint buzzing, phased kind of sound - like the sound you get tuning an old fashioned AM radio. It's not a power hum - it's like a wavering sound.

I only get it when I hit a note. It's totally quiet when I let off the key. It's destroying my recording efforts ! The folks from m-Audio tried to tell me that it's some kind of ground loop or power source problem. I tried lots of different configurations... that's not it. Help ! I've got all this expensive equipment and I can't get a decent recording !

 

[TexRoadkill]

Hard to say without hearing it. Can you post a clip of it?

 

[FRENCH396]

I think I got the answer here from the Roland tech people. I'll post it here in case anybody else has a similar problem.

The audio output from my computer does have a little background noise when I send a note via MIDI (Keystation 49e through a Powerbook with Reason). I don't hear it when I use headphones in the headphones jack, but I get it when I use the head phone jack to send a "line out" to my Roland BR8 digital recording deck.

Here's the solution: the Roland BR8 has a boatload of onboard effects. THere are about 50 presets which use a combination of effects. The default is to have the preset ON. The preset I was using had a combination of compressor, flanger, and digital delay. The effects were "hearing" the background noise and applying all these effects - this is what created the phantom noises. I switched "BYpass" to ON - thus passing all the effects - and the noises disappeared.

I still don't know why I get the noise when I use the headphone jack to send a line-out signal to the deck, but it's not noticeable on the recording (as long as the effects are off). - Andy in Maine

 

[Light]

I still don't know why I get the noise when I use the headphone jack to send a line-out signal to the deck, but it's not noticeable on the recording (as long as the effects are off). - Andy in Maine

Because a headphone jack does not send a line level signal. You need to use a line out, not a headphone out.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

 

[FRENCH396]

LIGHT -

Thanks for the note. If my machine does not have a line out jack, do you know of anyway to convert the headphone signal to a line out signal ?

Can I run it through a powered mixer or something ?

Andy in Maine