millsmobile
WARNING!! Half drunk anal retentive supernerd psychobabble!
For anyone that was actually concerned about my inability to record, I have almost solved my problem. But it hasn't come without a war. I managed to get Audacity to run on the old 700mhz Dell running Windows ME. While I couldn't install the real MKII drivers, it did recognize it as a "usb sound device." So I get everything plugged in; laptop into the XP10s, XP10's to the Mackie, Mackie to the sound system and also to the MKII via booth output, and MKII to Audacity on the old Dell. Everything seems to work, but I get a NASTY 60hz hum in the recording. With the faders off on the Mackie, I get a noise floor of -32Db, not exactly what you would call studio quality. I figure there is a ground 'loop' somewhere and attack the whole system with a multi-meter. To start I hooked up a ground wire to the phono section of the Mackie. I read .001 Volts between the MKII ground and the Mackie. No big deal. What is interesting is that when I remove the RCAs from the MKII, I measure .35 volts between the two grounds. This is an interesting problem. Electricity does not just disappear, so when I plug the RCAs back in, this .35 volts must be going through them. When I hook ground wire of the Mackie directly to the MKII ground, I get a noise floor of about -39Db. This is an improvement, but not great. Every step of the way I have recorded both the silence and a short mix to evaluate the sound quality. I also tried an aux out from the sound system with about the same results. Even with the best so far, the noise is immediately apparent both on dj phones and the JBL studio speakers. So I go to the bar. That doesn't help either. When I return I start tearing through the source power supplies for everything in the room. Lo and behold I discover that the Dell I rescued from computer hell is the only component not plugged into the same power strip as the rest of the equipment. I had hooked the monitor to strip instead. So I switch the two and boot everything up again. I use the multimeter before anything else, and measure just .11 volts between MKII and Mackie's grounds. This is obviously a good thing. I record in audacity and get a -48db noise floor. WOW! This outlet is less than 5 feet from the other, and on the same circuit in my house, I checked. Then I see the ground wire isn't hooked up, so I screw that down and get a noise floor of -57Db, four times quieter than without it.
So I am listening to that right now, almost a 30Db improvement since the beginning, and I can still hear a tiny bit of hum and digital chatter on the recording. It is hard to pick out once the music gets going, but it is a far cry from the dead silence I used to enjoy when recording directly in VDJ with the MKII. I measured a couple of my old files, and they are actually dead silent in the background.
Any ideas on how to further reduce the background noise? Am I just crazy?
For anyone that was actually concerned about my inability to record, I have almost solved my problem. But it hasn't come without a war. I managed to get Audacity to run on the old 700mhz Dell running Windows ME. While I couldn't install the real MKII drivers, it did recognize it as a "usb sound device." So I get everything plugged in; laptop into the XP10s, XP10's to the Mackie, Mackie to the sound system and also to the MKII via booth output, and MKII to Audacity on the old Dell. Everything seems to work, but I get a NASTY 60hz hum in the recording. With the faders off on the Mackie, I get a noise floor of -32Db, not exactly what you would call studio quality. I figure there is a ground 'loop' somewhere and attack the whole system with a multi-meter. To start I hooked up a ground wire to the phono section of the Mackie. I read .001 Volts between the MKII ground and the Mackie. No big deal. What is interesting is that when I remove the RCAs from the MKII, I measure .35 volts between the two grounds. This is an interesting problem. Electricity does not just disappear, so when I plug the RCAs back in, this .35 volts must be going through them. When I hook ground wire of the Mackie directly to the MKII ground, I get a noise floor of about -39Db. This is an improvement, but not great. Every step of the way I have recorded both the silence and a short mix to evaluate the sound quality. I also tried an aux out from the sound system with about the same results. Even with the best so far, the noise is immediately apparent both on dj phones and the JBL studio speakers. So I go to the bar. That doesn't help either. When I return I start tearing through the source power supplies for everything in the room. Lo and behold I discover that the Dell I rescued from computer hell is the only component not plugged into the same power strip as the rest of the equipment. I had hooked the monitor to strip instead. So I switch the two and boot everything up again. I use the multimeter before anything else, and measure just .11 volts between MKII and Mackie's grounds. This is obviously a good thing. I record in audacity and get a -48db noise floor. WOW! This outlet is less than 5 feet from the other, and on the same circuit in my house, I checked. Then I see the ground wire isn't hooked up, so I screw that down and get a noise floor of -57Db, four times quieter than without it.
So I am listening to that right now, almost a 30Db improvement since the beginning, and I can still hear a tiny bit of hum and digital chatter on the recording. It is hard to pick out once the music gets going, but it is a far cry from the dead silence I used to enjoy when recording directly in VDJ with the MKII. I measured a couple of my old files, and they are actually dead silent in the background.
Any ideas on how to further reduce the background noise? Am I just crazy?
发表时间 Fri 01 Jun 07 @ 7:12 am
andytaylor125
I think it might be the mkII card thats giving you that noise. It's not the best soundcard from what I've heard.
When you were recording before (with really good quality), were you doing everything on the mkII? Both the mixing and the playing?
When you were recording before (with really good quality), were you doing everything on the mkII? Both the mixing and the playing?
发表时间 Fri 01 Jun 07 @ 12:42 pm
millsmobile
Yeah, before I was using just the MKII for the mixing and the soundcard. I think the difference is that the MKII flying solo doesn't have anything to do with the inputs. Just as a sound card the inputs seem to be noisy.
发表时间 Fri 01 Jun 07 @ 4:11 pm