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James Steele wrote:It's not the monitor from what I can tell...

right, but the buzzing changing with orientation is what bugs me, and makes me think you've got some sort of interference issue.

i had a similar problem...but with mine, it turned out to be caused by the pc itself...
it's just odd that it wasn't there before, but is now...

also, just out of curiousity, does the noise stay the same, or does the frequency vary at all?

Hi Guys. i realize that this thread is old, but I am in the same spot. One monitor I have hums at 60 Hertz. I want to clean it up. I looked into Furman and Monster and wanted to ask what you all thought about the APC products that are being released in Q2 of 2007. They are comparably priced and designed primarily for AV situations, however, they are also fine for studio setups. Anyone heard good or bad about APC?
Best,
Stefan

James,, If you are willing to spend some $ to really attack the problem - and it sounds like with your pending order of the Furman unit you are - I would consider finding a guy who wires pro Audio/video suites and have him come out and run tech power to your studio in your home. this will separate your studio from everything else in the house. Done right with the grounds and all and you won't even have to run home-run grounds from your stuff t a ground stake. [sometimes that can even be worse I'm told].

Good Luck!

Just my few 2 cents, James :

Take some care in your lighting equipment choice :
- no fluorescent light
- no light variators
- no low voltage light, unless they use toroidal transformers

If you're really looking for silence :
- no single coil guitar and bass pickups. Go for humbuckers. Gasp ! I have a 1971 Telecaster and have changed the bridge pickup for a Seymour Duncan stk-t3b wich is humbucker and same fitting in place. It broke my heart, but now I have a "silentable" guitar, and not so bad sounding after all.
- try to replace every power transformer by a toroïdal power transformer. This is a long run task. You can try to locate the most offending ones by making a guitar-search (moving your single-coil-guitar around your place with some distortion engaged).

Test your voltage power on different times of day and night.
If changes excess + or - 5%, something should be done. Perhaps a real power regulator installed, and/or changing the electrical installation from your house power entrance straight to your studio.

Buy a few audio isolation transformers and start a big "groundlift-buttons-game". Some 600-600 ohms and some 10k-10k ohms. If you're moving with your rigs those are your absolute must have.

Keep your fingers crossed !

daniel.sneed wrote: - no light variators

I had a hum problem for a while, that I tracked to lighting on a rheostat. I replaced the rheostat with a switch, and installed low wattage bulbs (for the dimming effect), and my hum vanished.

I use a $99 APC UPS from Frys to power all my gear and condition the power.

I still occasionally get a hum from guitars DI'ed. Moving the guitar or changing the cable usually fixes it. If not, change the guitar.

I'm not a super-pro at this. Maybe just lucky.

Remove the ground from the computer's power supply.

Hey, 'Corners

The entire thread was posted on 9 Mar 2006.
James has probably sorted this out by now.

Just wanted to save folks the trouble...

monkey man wrote:Hey, 'Corners
...
Just wanted to save folks the trouble...

Good point

Hi,
THe noise stays the same, around 60 Hertz. I believe it to be AC powerline noise. I just bought a monster unit with basic filtering, not as high end as the 3500. I will try it today and return here with the results. I hope it works.
Thanks for your input
Best,
Stefan

Schubert, filtering won't help with a ground loop, which is what it sounds like you have. Are you plugging all devices into the same outlet? This is the place to start your troubleshooting.

EM had a great article a few months back by Eddie Cilletti. It may provide the kind of info you need.

Are you recording with a laptop?

Ever notice when recording guitar that the null point of hum points the neck of the guitar directly towards or away from the main pole power transformer?

The line drop to your house is a giant em field from the transformer.
Know this is old post but thought some may find this interesting.

The comment about the space heater is interesting. My MOTU MIDI box is like that so much I can't use it any more. Certain gear will dirty up the line and you have to watch out for that too.

I had a separate 20 amp feed run to my gear from the mains outside with big honkin ground wire. helped!

This subject is a worthy one to keep up so bump.

James is the bass the only thing making noise? It almost sounds like you are getting pickup noise from the bass. Do you get this from any of your guitars? Have you plugged a guitar into the bass amplifier? The fact that as you change orientation of your bass and the noise changes makes me wonder if it is the bass or amp. Have you walked around with the bass to see the noise may be coming from?

The apester wrote:Hey, 'Corners

The entire thread was posted on 9 Mar 2006.
James has probably sorted this out by now.

Just wanted to save folks the trouble...

Nothing's changed, and Jimbo seems to have resolved the issue.

Cheers, twisted one.