Hi,
I’d like to get a power conditioner to try to reduce noise and protect gear from surges.
Question: I have about 20 things to plug in atm.
Does it make sense to get a Furman rack (10 sockets) and then attach a regular cheap extension to it?
Or does everything need to be plugged directly into the conditioner?
Or maybe I can just put a simple 1 socket filter at the beginning of my “chain” since it’s all coming from the same wall outlet?
Thanks for your time
In my experience those „power conditioners“ have no effect on power noise (ground loop problems, etc.) at all.
What helps sometimes are usb isolators and audio transformers, like DI boxes.
Slightly related; I found that there can be a huge difference in noise output between USB charger wall warts. I get the cleanest results from Apple’s 10W USB power adapter on my Boutiques.
so true! I reduced a lot of noise when I eliminated one of those travel usb wall chargers that was powering by beatstep pro
I’m gonna do some re cabling this weekend and check every bit one by one.
Will also be checking stuff with rme digicheck software maybe it’ll help
the crazy thing about noise is that it’s not necessarily coming from audio devices, it can originate from literally any electrical component
If you overload a Fuhrman or any rack mount power bay with a surge protector feature , it will engage the protective quick blow fuse…those rack mount power protection devices are in my experience (pro AV) sensitive…I spend more time sending those units under warranty to be reset after they protect a surge… They work once, they save you, then they are toast. If you need more outlets, chain 2.
From an electrical standpoint - (i am a electronic engineer.) it makes sense to have a very good power source for any amplifier. The ground noise floor can get also amplyfied, for a DAC, it could affect some of the lower signal outputs. Optimal condition is maybe a laboratory PSU, which has multiple DC outputs. (Very good PSU, costs a bit of money though.)
Instead of having 10 individual wall plugs, a single PSU with multiple DC voltages could provide some different voltage rails to your setup.
I agree though, thats maybe most effective to avoid cheap usb wall plugs.
dang it that is some cool looking gear but out of my budget
I am a total noob and I just have about 100 quid (if I really stretch) to sort out this bloody noise issue.
first thing I’ll do is I’ll plug one thing at a time and test, the problem is I have 5 socket extensions plugged one into the other, these are the really super cheap ones, I don’t think they even have a fuse
A few questions…
How would you describe the noise? Is is a hiss you’re hearing or a hum? Not trying to teach you to suck eggs but have you PFL’d your channel inputs to your mixer? As a rule of thumb you want the hottest signal you can get into the mixer then attenuate the signal with the fader. If your instrument vol is only on 1/4 and you’re turning the trim on the mixer channel (or equivalent) up to compensate you’ll be amplifying noise as well as signal. This would usually manifest itself as hiss. Getting input levels right should be something you just do as it’s good practice, in fact something you’d do without thinking about it.
If you’re getting a hum you’re on the right track by plugging in each instrument in turn to see if you can narrow down the culprit. That’s as long as you’re not getting any hum with nothing plugged in. As other have pointed out cheap PSU’s won’t help but cheap audio cables as just as bad. Poor shielding will cause noise issues. USB can be shocking for introducing noise too. I believe you can get isolators but I’ve read they can be a mixed bag in terms of quality too.
Regarding your extension leads they shouldn’t cause much of a problem as long as the earth is good throughout which there’s a reasonable chance of it being. Synths etc draw very little current compared to heaters etc so you shouldn’t find you’re running into issues with overloading etc. The fuse for the extension will be in the plug top. If there isn’t one throw the thing in the bin!,
Let us know how you get on.
That’s because power conditioners are not meant to solve stuff like ground loop problems in the first place, but are meant to stabilize the power coming from your power provider.
yeah that’s kind of what I fear, some usb devices could be causing it
thanks for taking the time to write such a detailed reply!
I’ll do some tests over the weekend
If you wind up with ground loop noise, if all else fails you can get hum destroyers. The behringer hd400 work for me for single signals. They have units with more i/o too.
I recabled my studio and plugged all the gear into one socket. That solved the problem for me.
Problem persists even if all that’s plugged in is Digiface, Pulse 16, speakers and laptop
Thinking it might be the cheap optical cables from audio interface to converters?
Noise comes in when I unmute audio in channel in Ableton.
I will post here a recording soon, thanks
Optical cables are the only thing in your setup that‘s actually immune to hum.
oh really? well then you saved me 40 quid good sir.
I also got a new socket tower with circuit breaker and surge protector so I eliminated the mess of extension plugs.
Nothing else is plugged, maybe I am going mad and this noise is ok, I actually only hear it when the volume is very loud…
…one power socket with a replaceable safety fuse upfront in it…
and then take it ALL from there…via standard further multisockets to count up to what u need…
always layed out in straight forward lines, for avoiding cablechaos and knotted circles…
if one or the other powersupply still likes to hum, tape it’s grounding…
no worries, in case of overvoltage deliverance, u got that safety fuse in fisrt place…
any ground hissing distances to truu signal can be managed by proper gainstaging…
first rule…any signal gets a healthy and solid gain in first place of any audio routing chain…cause if u only add gain at the end of a processing chain, all the hiss ur catching along the way adds up to ear, too…
and before mixing down, always check ur audio files if there is any dc offset to remove…
I had never even heard of dc offset, will check it out thanks!
If you’re hearing some hiss at high volume levels with nothing playing then that could be normal behaviour. You say when you unmute in ableton… I take it that you’re unmuting the external audio into ableton? If that’s the case start by getting your levels set correctly on your gear before it hits the computer. If you’ve not got a good signal to noise ratio going in then ableton will just amplify that noise when you crank the volume. So hottest signal you can going into ableton will give you the best S/N ratio.
No gear is completely silent and once you start adding cables into the equation it adds up.
