Hey people of the circuit sounds. Not sure if anyone has had similar experience, but here's my situation:
I'm running three Roland boutiques, all clocked in to Ableton but outputting their sound straight to a mixer. On a 4th channel on the mixer I have my MacBook/SSL sound card's output.
I can run sequences and patterns and play the synths all sounding fine, but when I open Ableton, I get a buzzing sound coming from a couple of the boutiques through the mixer (JU06 and Tr08), and it only happens when Ableton is on.
Everything is plugged in to the same power strip... and since this new MacBook only has two USB ports, I'm using a couple of external dongles to hook things up. But yes, I can't find the culprit.
Help.
Hardware buzz with boutiques and Ableton
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- KVRAF
- 6427 posts since 22 Jan, 2005 from Sweden
A couple things come to mind....get rid of the snakepit of usb cables.
- ground will have many ways to travel
#1. I have a Boutique D-05 and run it on a separate usb power plug
- just plugged into mains power somewhere
- this will make only signal ground travel from that unit
- just don't get phone chargers, they may not have constant 5V
You can probably have one such power unit with multiple usb that you take power from, important is to separate from computer and the rest of the snake pit.
#2. And use midi interfaces with din midi to plug your gear to sequencer
Din midi is clever in the sense it's electrically isolated since it's using opto couplers.
- you will not add extra ground routes connecting midi stuff
I know it seems convenient using usb to computer for power and midi, but for reasons mentioned it has limits.
Don't try to understand everything strange with ground loops first, just try some things is my suggestion.
I get similar things on floorboard with guitar pedals sometimes, and I just try another order connecting power to them, and it usually fix it. But have no idea exactly why it happend.
- ground will have many ways to travel
#1. I have a Boutique D-05 and run it on a separate usb power plug
- just plugged into mains power somewhere
- this will make only signal ground travel from that unit
- just don't get phone chargers, they may not have constant 5V
You can probably have one such power unit with multiple usb that you take power from, important is to separate from computer and the rest of the snake pit.
#2. And use midi interfaces with din midi to plug your gear to sequencer
Din midi is clever in the sense it's electrically isolated since it's using opto couplers.
- you will not add extra ground routes connecting midi stuff
I know it seems convenient using usb to computer for power and midi, but for reasons mentioned it has limits.
Don't try to understand everything strange with ground loops first, just try some things is my suggestion.
I get similar things on floorboard with guitar pedals sometimes, and I just try another order connecting power to them, and it usually fix it. But have no idea exactly why it happend.
