Trying to Get Rid of Noise in the Setup (Steinberg UR22MkII)

[The_Ogre]

Very well, guys!

As I play and record mostly rock / hard / metal, I use a bunch of ampsims for dirty tones through a DI into the interface (and sometimes I use my Marshall DSL100H into the loadbox into the DI into the interface).

However, I've been struggling for a while to try to get rid of some noises I'm having here. If I turn up the volume of one of the channels of my Steinberg UR22MkII half way or above, and start to turn up the volume going to the monitors, I can hear some noises, even without anything plugged in. And that ends up getting a bit more hearable when I need to record distorted guitars using ampsims. During the playing, it doesn't bother that much, but as soon as I let the notes ringing, after a few seconds the noise starts to show up, 'til it gets higher than the note that's fading out. Then, I need to keep a noise supressor turned on with somewhat high threshold full time, losing the fade out, specialy in the higher notes. Sometimes it's a PITA.

This is happening even after I tried to do a cable management here at the home studio, avoiding running audio cables together or in parallel with energy cables, and running every device into a single 2000KVA UPS, it is, everything plugged in the same wall outlet, which is grounded (the whole building is grounded here) (the video where I show what I did is below - in portuguese).

Some more considerations:
- to connect the UR22MkII to the JBLs I'm using Roland TRS cables;
- the power for the UR22MkII is coming from an smartphone charger 5V/2A (but the noise occurs both with the charger and the USB connection)
- the interface is updated to the last firmware and last drivers;
- the USB cable used is the Steinberg's stock one; and
- the DI is being used with the ground lift "on", which helps a bit when the guitar is plugged.

Things I'm considering to do:
- iFi iDefender (or any other similar device) to ged rid of ground loops;
- a higher grade USB A / USB B cable; and
- a power conditioner post-UPS.

Any tips?

Thanks in advance.

[kingozrecords]

Keeping all cables under a meter (or even a half meter) is one of the most important things.
Copper I think is best; but solid copper and not braided.
Gold connections are good but often that uses metal that's thinner.
Instead; maybe I'd use thicker, cheaper looking connectors should there be a need.
Ground your tower electrically.
Make sure that your tower can conduct and that you learn the principles of a faraday cage.
A faraday cage is an ideal step towards combatting feedback.
It's quite simply running an un-noticeably small current through your tower and electrifying it.

That's the parochial list of things I know.
As I understand, in the way of power supplies; a sata connector for inner pcie cards is also more stable and has a greater yield than molex, but that could just be a popularly conveyed youthful optimism. It's hard to discount the thicker steel in a molex connector, that kind of impedance and connectivity is usually a favorable condition.

I would avoid wifi, I would shut off all bluetooth. Any services that accept bluetooth must be turned off; any physical bluetooth connections should ideally be covered in silicon better yet taken of the board with a solder iron.
Furthermore, I would not rely on a realtek built in motherboard audio card. There's nothing louder to My ears than a chip which is not isolated and exposed to the inner workings and electrical mayhem of the motherboard's inner workings. Good things are said about creative cards that may be true. That could also be subjective; I have one and to a degree have noticed less "modem" sound in the distance when running apps in general. I might even try a broadband signal jammer to avoid feedback in extreme cases, but again; subjective and entirely theoretical; but grounded in various sciences.

I hope you hear from someone with first hand experience, good luck .
Some though; will surround their studio with copper or lead lined walls and electrify so as to create a clean room; with a faraday cage preventing such wireless transmissions. About as old school as you can get though, haha.

Edit: I just wanted to add that copper or lead lined walls is really expensive as are jammers (which would likely make you unpopular with your friends/eavesdropping buddies and /or neighbors -_-). That's really why you'd want to instead make your tower into a faraday cage. You'd need to get special dust covers though made with a ferrous metal and the holes dependent on the needed frequency range to circumvent would need to be calculated (there's a few online). You'd have a certain threshold of allowable space (cracks between components) and that could be tricky; perhaps requiring some kind of sealant with an additive allowing conductivity.

Another thing to add is to consider replacing your motherboard with one that has no wifi. It's why I just wouldn't use one with wifi. Some thankfully will only activate after you've used a firmware patch thanks god of gods (who hate wifi). Bluetooth is of course just as bad and should be shunned like the devil's ice-cream truck if you're serious about avoiding unwanted noises.