Hi there, I can‘t seem to figure this problem out. Whenever I record something with the Digitakt (within the Digitakt or the Digitakt output over an external soundcard) there‘s always a constant background noise in the audio recordings. How can I get rid of that? Because if I export all tracks and add them in my DAW, the noise sums up and becomes really loud.
Thanks for your help,
Gavriel
There really shouldn’t be that much noise at all. If you could post a short sample we might be better able to tell you what it sounds like. Best would be a few bars of a single track, playing a sound only on the down beat - so we can hear the silence in between the hits, as well as the sound with the hit.
There is no noise at all in normal condition. Check if the noise appear in resample a clean sound. If it will, so it’s maybe a bug and just changing OS can do the trick. If it’s juste with analog I/O I think you machine should be sent to repair.
Is it by any chance a highpitched noise? And do you have the usb cable connected all the time? If so, might be a ground loop over usb. If you are using a laptop you might try running it on battery alone and see if that helps.
Ok so I just realised, that it only happens with recording external gear. I never used the samples that came with the DT, they sound fine when recording a loop. But when it comes to external gear, as long as I keep pushing the note, there’s this background noise. Now when I take the finger off the key (long after the sound of the synth is gone), the noise disappears as well. It seems like a gate that is triggered by touch of a note instead of a sound. You can hear it in this example:
@Geologist No, there’s usually no USB connection nor laptop around.
Thanks a lot for the quick responses!
Assuming I understand correctly: this is a playing a sample on the DT that was made by running a synth audio out into the audio inputs on the DT, and sampled there…
Since the factory sounds don’t exhibit this noise… we can safely rule out the playback engine on the DT, it’s audio outputs, and everything downstream of it. The release is the DT’s amplitude envelope closing when you release the key. So, the noise is in the sample you made.
The noise sounds like broad band white noise - the normal kind of noise you get by when you need to turn up the gain on something, and raise the normal noise that is a signal along with the source sound.
I’d say you’re recording the sounds too quiet on the DT. The DT will auto normalize anything recording you make - so quiet things will get turned up, along with the noise, in a sample. It is important to sample at as high an input level as you can without clipping. Ideally, the peak indicator (the little dot in the meter bar), should be 80% to 95% to the right.
If that dot is less than 50%, then after the recording, when the DT normalizes the sample, it’ll be raising the noise as well.
But if it was the normalizing, I shouldn‘t be able to hear it during recording the synth already, right? Because I can hear it already when I’m recording. The synth volume is 100% up and this is what it looks like, same when i recorded that example (photo). Is that really not enough? Maybe I should get a gain pedal and run it through there before the DT…
Does the noise sound like gain or is it electric sounding (pulses)? You might have RF interference near you (arcing transformer, cell tower, wifi)
Does the synth by itself (not by running through the Digitakt) show this noise floor on its main outs?
When the source of the noise is the synth itself (I guess it is) a gain pedal won’t fix the situation, because it will also amplify the noise floor. A good preamp will only help if the signal is much too low (like with guitar pickups). And, of course, a bad/cheap preamp may even worsen the situation.
a couple thoughts…
A sub-par/faulty/broken/old cable somewhere in the path btwn the synth and the DT.
Patch Bay, cuz sometimes they introduce a bit of signal noise if the audio is routing thru a bunch of devices, on the way to the DT.
Some weird result of TRS/TS cables being mixed.
Analog synths are not always perfectly clean signal.
Witchcraft.
Not sure any of these are your cause, but some things to consider.
good luck.
Yes - if you hear the noise when monitoring (that’s a key piece of information!) - then the issue isn’t normalization. The level you see should be hot enough to avoid undue noise. Either the DT’s inputs on your unit are noisy… or it’s the synth.
When you say that the synth volume is 100% up… I suspect the synth.
The DT’s input’s peak at +19dBu - which means that they are normal “pro level” line inputs. For most gear, when the level is “normal” (so not 100% up), you’d expect +4dBu, which would show perhaps a little hotter than what you see on the meter in your picture. (Caveat: I haven’t tested the calibration of that meter on the DT.) In general, when a pro level source is way up, it should be pegging.
I’m guessing the synth in question is not designed to have pro level outputs, but instead has consumer level - which is -10dBV for “normal”. The scales are different… but this is roughly 1/4th the voltage level. It would be normal to have to boost the output of consumer level gear to get a good signal on pro level gear, esp. for the purposes of sampling.
If it is indeed the synth, what we don’t know is if the noise is from deep within the synth circuit (or DAC if it’s digital) - or if the noise is from the final output stage amplifier. If the former - then it is what it is: a noisy synth. If the later, you may be able to gain stage this by routing the synth, with the volume turned down a bit into a mixer to boost there, and then to the DT… but frankly, I’d put money on it being just the nature of the synth.
What synth is it?
My (analogue) synths would all do that and worse at 100 Percent. Try different volumes to see how it affects signal noise ratio.
You saved the day, it was USB ground loop from the Keysteps 37
