First of all;
Had most of my gear for years now and have done the migration from mostly hardware to mostly software and am now somewhere in the middle of wanting to utilise both
I have very little understanding of signal paths/ground loops/leads blah blah, and am just looking for some straight up info in laymans terms about what i should be doing to obtain reasonable, 'BBZZZTTT' free quality. I'm hoping you can be quite specific too
Here is my list of now stripped down gear;
Akai S3000 sampler (8 unbalanced mono outs/1 pair unbalanced stereo outs/1 pair balanced XLR ins)
Roland Juno 6 analogue synth (1 mono unbalanced out/1 stereo unbalanced out)
Macbook Pro with M-Audio FW410 soundcard (8 unbalanced outs/2 unbalanced ins/2 balanced mic/instrument Neutrik ins)
Old Sony DAT machine
I am trying to hook all of this shit up with an (unbalanced) patchbay/16:8:2 analogue desk setup.... between the dodgy leads from about 1990 and basically having no idea of what the fook i'm doing, i ended up pulling my hair out with it all last week... trying to set it up without mad buzzing noises appearing when i'd patch certain things in/out
All i want to do is basically;
1) be able to patch a pair of the soundcard outputs into the Akai's inputs
2) be able to patch the Akai outputs/main desk output into the soundcard inputs
3) be able to patch the Juno/DAT into either the soundcard or the Akai for sampling
The patchbay i'm using is an unbalanced Behringer one - i've fed the outputs of the Akai/soundcard/Juno/DAT machine into the top row (rear of the patchbay), with the corresponding lower row (again, rear of the patchbay) so they're all outputting accordingly to the mixer. I then set up another 2 of the rear patchbay connections directly into the Akai inputs, and a further 2 to the soundcard inputs - allowing me in theory to hit record in either the mac or the Akai and capture whatever i want.
I'm getting mad buzzing going on, not all the time, but depending on which patchbay ins/outs i use.... i'm thinking it's probably just a shite combination of working/half-working cables, but don't want to fork out for all-new cabling if i'm not completely sure.
Should i be looking at ditching the unbalanced patchbay in favour of a balanced one, and then try to use a combination of only balanced/pseudo-balanced cables to try to cut out this noise/feedback?? Bearing in mind - esp with regards to pseudo-balanced stuff - i'm hardly electronically minded so was hoping i could just buy pre-made leads as opposed to having to solder stuff etc
When i dicked about endlessly i finally got the point where i just about cut out all the buzzing - i'm not really arsed about desk noise, but just don't want the sound of industrial generators going off when i sample a break or whatever. The Akai and the patchbay are both screwed into a metal rack, would this make any difference to ground loop noise etc?
Finally, i've always noticed that the amp (a Samson Servo 150) always seems to just make a buzzing sound when it's powered up, although it doesn't increase in volume when the monitors are turned up, it's kind of just 'there in the room' Would this possibly be affecting the other gear?
Apologies for the largest technical enquiry ever, i'm just amazed that i've still never managed to get all my shit plugged in together and not had to 'work around' things to avoid all this buzzing bollocks. Why the frig does it have to be so complicated?!
ALL HELP APPRECIATED
Had most of my gear for years now and have done the migration from mostly hardware to mostly software and am now somewhere in the middle of wanting to utilise both
I have very little understanding of signal paths/ground loops/leads blah blah, and am just looking for some straight up info in laymans terms about what i should be doing to obtain reasonable, 'BBZZZTTT' free quality. I'm hoping you can be quite specific too
Here is my list of now stripped down gear;
Akai S3000 sampler (8 unbalanced mono outs/1 pair unbalanced stereo outs/1 pair balanced XLR ins)
Roland Juno 6 analogue synth (1 mono unbalanced out/1 stereo unbalanced out)
Macbook Pro with M-Audio FW410 soundcard (8 unbalanced outs/2 unbalanced ins/2 balanced mic/instrument Neutrik ins)
Old Sony DAT machine
I am trying to hook all of this shit up with an (unbalanced) patchbay/16:8:2 analogue desk setup.... between the dodgy leads from about 1990 and basically having no idea of what the fook i'm doing, i ended up pulling my hair out with it all last week... trying to set it up without mad buzzing noises appearing when i'd patch certain things in/out
All i want to do is basically;
1) be able to patch a pair of the soundcard outputs into the Akai's inputs
2) be able to patch the Akai outputs/main desk output into the soundcard inputs
3) be able to patch the Juno/DAT into either the soundcard or the Akai for sampling
The patchbay i'm using is an unbalanced Behringer one - i've fed the outputs of the Akai/soundcard/Juno/DAT machine into the top row (rear of the patchbay), with the corresponding lower row (again, rear of the patchbay) so they're all outputting accordingly to the mixer. I then set up another 2 of the rear patchbay connections directly into the Akai inputs, and a further 2 to the soundcard inputs - allowing me in theory to hit record in either the mac or the Akai and capture whatever i want.
I'm getting mad buzzing going on, not all the time, but depending on which patchbay ins/outs i use.... i'm thinking it's probably just a shite combination of working/half-working cables, but don't want to fork out for all-new cabling if i'm not completely sure.
Should i be looking at ditching the unbalanced patchbay in favour of a balanced one, and then try to use a combination of only balanced/pseudo-balanced cables to try to cut out this noise/feedback?? Bearing in mind - esp with regards to pseudo-balanced stuff - i'm hardly electronically minded so was hoping i could just buy pre-made leads as opposed to having to solder stuff etc
When i dicked about endlessly i finally got the point where i just about cut out all the buzzing - i'm not really arsed about desk noise, but just don't want the sound of industrial generators going off when i sample a break or whatever. The Akai and the patchbay are both screwed into a metal rack, would this make any difference to ground loop noise etc?
Finally, i've always noticed that the amp (a Samson Servo 150) always seems to just make a buzzing sound when it's powered up, although it doesn't increase in volume when the monitors are turned up, it's kind of just 'there in the room' Would this possibly be affecting the other gear?
Apologies for the largest technical enquiry ever, i'm just amazed that i've still never managed to get all my shit plugged in together and not had to 'work around' things to avoid all this buzzing bollocks. Why the frig does it have to be so complicated?!
ALL HELP APPRECIATED