RE: 60 cycle hum in racks - stopping the insanity / share your magic

["Alan Kroeger" <nospam@akroeger.com>]

 Arrrrrrgh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
:( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( 
Gadzooks don't it drive you nuts? I am working on some prototype violin
transducer systems hum is bad enough in crude prototypes but, it gets to be
a real pain to determine if your connections are bad or a component is
humming aieeeeeeee!!!
Heck even my mixer has hum if the gain is set high enough *head shaking*

-----Original Message-----
From: Krispen Hartung [mailto:info@krispenhartung.com] 
Sent: Monday, January 31, 2005 12:46 PM
To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
Subject: 60 cycle hum in racks - stopping the insanity / share your magic

60 cycle hum....drives me insane too. I've been meaning to post something 
on
this to the group, ways to eliminate it in racks.  

I've tried:

- Separating power chords from audio cables
- Mounting effects with nylon washers (two), inside and outside (don't 
worry
about the systems they sell for asinine prices on the web...you can do it
for a fraction of the cost by going down to a hardware store and buying 
your
own nylon washers...boy, I wish I could sell 16 nylon washers online for
$5...what a mark-up)
- Installing a nice Furman power conditioner with so-called zero ground
protection, also cleaning up some of the wall warts
- Tried different outlets and circuits in the house; unplugged other 
devices
in the circuit, including the computer, lights, reostats, etc
- Changing audio cables
- Running effects in series versus parallel via mixer board AUX channels
- Lifting the ground, adding back the ground
- Removing specific effects from the power and audio chain

...everything short of incantations, hexes, and attempting black magic!
:)

I discovered the wall wart power supplies have a lot to do with it...they
produce some serious electro-magnetic fields. Also, I have a Lexicon LXP5
and LXP1 that did not come with the original power supplies, so have 
ordered
two more from Lexicon, just in case. They should be here any day.  The 
power
supply for my Boss SX700 is a strange one too. Just picking it up or
changing it's direction produces different degrees of hum.  I may order a
new one of that as well.

This issue is very slippery. There are so many factors, and just tweaking
one thing in a system can impact other factors, and visa versa.
Before I built this new rack system, I had absolutely no 60 cycle hum.
Then when I added all those effects in my rack (LXPs, VF-1, Akira, etc) and
their respected power supplies....the hum appeared.  It's definitely a
systematic issue, because one thing does not cause the hum by itself, and
removing one thing does not eliminate it.  In short, nothing is sufficient
or necessary to produce hum...one of those concepts that baffles
philosophers when trying to define a thing, state, or event.

For record, I absolutely loath and despise with every fiber of my being
those freakin' wall wart power supplies. I wish everyone would just build
them internally and use a standard PC power cord, like with the EDPs.  

Kris





-----Original Message-----
From: mungenast@earthlink.net [mailto:mungenast@earthlink.net]
Sent: Monday, January 31, 2005 8:49 AM
To: info@krispenhartung.com
Subject: baby monitor as musical tool RE: emulating a cheap sampling toy


Another Great Idea, Krispen! As a parent, I remember how much fun the
monitor's static was...I normally hate static, but this was more like
cool artifcats, the "wee--oooo" pseudo-shortwave kind of noise, quite
musical. And the substrate for the artifacts was a rather comforting
hiss. (I can dig a little hiss... it's 60-cycle hum that drives me
insane.)

Sonic 

-----Original Message-----
From: Krispen Hartung <info@krispenhartung.com>
Sent: Jan 30, 2005 11:22 AM
To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
Subject: RE: emulating a cheap sampling toy

How about this...buy youself an inexpensive baby monitor system.  The
cool thing is that it is wireless...plus I think it's a totally
ludicrous use of the technology! :)  You could just put a mic on the
receive side (parent) and put the transmitter side (baby) next to your
sound source (amp, percussion devices, mouth, etc).    I'm thinking you
could do all sorts of clever things with the wireless part, like leaving
your music loops go, and wandering around with the transimtter, corny
audience interaction, etc.

http://www.babyuniverse.com/search.asp?store=baby&searchstring=monitor
(some of these have two receivers, so you could get really clever)

Sorry if someone already suggested this...  Hah!!!

Kris