advice on upgrading my recording setup

[Bill Davis]

Hi David,

Just looking at your pictures, the audio old timer in me says: “That’s going to be noisy.”

It’s not that anythings “wrong” necessarily (tho there may be.)

It’s more the level of haphazard thinking the photo represents. It looks like it was put together by thinking only about getting signal A to point B – damn anything else.

The “anything else” can be really, really important in signal flow.

Some simple examples. Did you consider the issues of balanced verses unbalanced signal paths when wiring things? If ANY of those 1/4″ phone plugs have just two connectors (tip and sleeve) you’re whole system is likely UNBALANCED. Which doesn’t suppress common mode “ground loop” hum. Which sounds like what you’re experiencing.

Also, did you consider signal lines crossing AC lines? It’s another common place where noise infects signals.

All those internet posted “pretty” wiring photos, where signal lines are run super carefully and planned out in great detail, bundled, color coded, affixed with cable ties and brackets so that they are all scrupulously neat and tidy — aren’t just about making things LOOK nice. They are “best practices” developed over years because they are technically CORRECT in moving various signals to various places. AC line power, low voltage power, line level signal cables, microphone cables, computer cables – AND the connectors you use with them – ALL matter.

“Just plug it in and drop it where it sits” actually CAN work. But when you work that way – you LOWER your chances of initial success – and if something goes wrong, it’s a royal pain to figure out what’s wrong and fix it.

So start there. Clean things up.

That will make it easier to do what you need to do – which is to ISOLATE each system and sub-system and bypass them, in order, until disconnecting ONE of them makes the problem disappear. Then fixing or replacing that.

Hope that helps. Good luck with your project.

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[Al Bergstein]

I agree with everything that Bill says. The statement that your headphones are experiencing noise while the recordings don’t point to some possible issues that Bill didn’t state. On many low end consumer or prosumer devices (some that would surprise you!) the headphone jacks appear to be the cheapest quality. It’s a problem of the headphone pre’s. No answer but to buy better quality gear, I fear! It should be a feature that you check before buying, or if online, return the unit immediately for a better piece of gear. I’ve not found too many pieces of gear these days that give me that problem, from companies like Zoom, Tascam, Sony, and never expect it from Sony or higher end units like Sound Devices for example.

I would certainly start and find out where the buzz in the headphones is coming from. Are you grounding your entire plug in chain from the wall out? Are the headphones defective? you did try swapping them out and the problem continues?

Back out each product until you isolate it. Then you can proceed.

Al