White Noise/Static/Hissing?

baken1925 · January 07, 2018, 04:42:45 AM

Hey guys,quick question for you. I did some research but am not sure if the info I found was right. Recently I upgraded to v2 and also moved my radio PC to a different room.
I seem to be getting some white noise/static/hissing in the background of the music. I did a test where I turned the input music volume all the way down and listened to the stream and could clearly hear it as well.

I have the audio coming out from the Behringer USB Sound Card and into the mixer in Channel 3.
Then I have the Main Output going back into the Behringer USB Sound Card.
I have the Sound Card selected in the options (Not the input sound card though)
I am using BUTT and have it picking up the USB sound card for the stream
Main PC volume is set to 1
Music Channel on the mixer is about half way, so is the Main Output volume on the mixer

I took a break for a bit and now I can't remember how I had it setup before when it sounded great

Thanks

neutralhills · January 07, 2018, 05:00:09 AM

Quoteand also moved my radio PC to a different room

The most likely source of the problem is some sort of interference in unshielded cabling. Are your cables shielded? Do you have unshielded cables crossing over a power line and picking noise from them? It's likely that your cables are now arranged in a manner where there is interference between them. As well, is there a motor (e.g. furnace or washing machine) behind the wall behind your computer that could be messing with it?

rkriggs · January 07, 2018, 08:02:04 AM

If you are using a Laptop, unplug the battery charger. It could be a ground wire. Or as mentioned above wire could be lying on top of each other.

Randy

dommel · January 07, 2018, 11:29:27 AM

Use a ground loop isolator whenever you connect to external equipment.

baken1925 · January 07, 2018, 04:09:57 PM

Thanks, I will look into this today. I am not at the house right now.

It could very well be the cables are laying on top of each other.
I do have my server PC in the same room, I don't think it would be the problem but again I will check and see and report back later.

If all else fails I will look into the ground loop isolator. I read about that yesterday but wasn't sure if I'd need to go that far yet.

neutralhills · January 07, 2018, 04:40:13 PM

Quote from: dommel on January 07, 2018, 11:29:27 AM
Use a ground loop isolator whenever you connect to external equipment.

Yes, sorry. These are absolutely essential to have. I just assume that everyone uses them because I do. 3.5mm audio inputs and outputs are incredibly susceptible to interference.

baken1925 · January 09, 2018, 04:24:07 AM

So after quickly going over things I found this out.

I did have the cables crossing each other but that doesn't appear to be the issue.

I noticed if I unplugged the Main Outs from the mixer, the mic XLR cable and the Inputs for the music, only leaving the headphones plugged in....I noticed if I turned the headphone volume up half way I still hear this noise. While leaving the headphones at this volume, I plugged the cables back in and nothing changed...it sounded exactly the same.

I tried two other mixers (three in total) and had the exact same issue for all 3.

Do you still think it could be the cables or do you think one of those ground loop isolator things would benefit or would it be something else?

neutralhills · January 10, 2018, 02:27:24 PM

Quote from: baken1925 on January 09, 2018, 04:24:07 AM
Do you still think it could be the cables or do you think one of those ground loop isolator things would benefit or would it be something else?

I've you've taken the cables out of the mix and you're still getting polluted sound, it could be the sound card itself picking up crud from the power supply in the system (if you're using a desktop).

baken1925 · January 14, 2018, 07:56:24 PM

Quote from: neutralhills on January 10, 2018, 02:27:24 PM
I've you've taken the cables out of the mix and you're still getting polluted sound, it could be the sound card itself picking up crud from the power supply in the system (if you're using a desktop).

I am just messing around with it right now and I am still getting it. I unplugged the mixer and moved it to a completely different room and plugged it in. No other cables are plugged into the mixer. Just the headphones and as soon as I turn the mixer on and turn the headphones volume to about 50% you can hear it.

I have tried 3 different mixers, all have the same effect.

Maybe it's just my volume settings? I have the Windows PC volume on 1. The input from the PC around 50% and the main output volume around 50%.
I noticed the lights on the mixer for the main output don't even show anything. Aren't those lights supposed to be in the green/yellow? It's acting like there isn't even any volume being input but there is. BUTT shows it in the green and yellow for broadcasting out.

I also tried turning the PC volume to 100 and the mixer volumes down lower but that was way too loud and muffled the stream.

baken1925 · January 28, 2018, 03:16:19 AM

I had a chance to setup Voicemeter Banana with RadioDJ and I have to say so far my stream sounds much better than the previous ways I was talking about here.
I now have RadioDJ as an input on Voicemeter (A2) and I have my mixer with my XLR mic only coming out of the main outputs into the line in on the PC. (A1) (I'd rather control the volume sliders on the mixer for the music but it is what it is)

The only issue I seem to be having is slide the slider for RadioDJ down to lower the music and raise the slider for the Line In Microphone...I get some static and buzzing when I talk. As soon as I slide the microphone slider down and the music slider back up it's fine on the stream....

Any suggestions? Maybe dirty mixer board or still bad cables? I will possibly try tomorrow switching out the mixers again and see if that is it.

FreerunMedia · February 04, 2018, 02:21:39 PM

I know that Video cards can be a real pain. When a more advanced videocard is near an audio card, it can give problems. Most of the time that can be the hiss you hear. Also monitor calbles near audio lines can give problems. Reason for that is the high frequency running through the cables, and picked up by the unbalanced cables. An XLR or "stereo jack" that runs 1 channel per cable ( 2 channels stereo with "stereo jacks" will need 2 cables ) is less of a problem. Not impossble, it still can happen.

An XLR Microphone can also pick up hum and hiss. When you use a dynamic microphone ( like Sure SM58 or something like that ), most of the time it's not balanced audio. With the cheaper end of the microphones it it for sure that only 2 wires are used. Condensor mic's are less perceptibel for humm and hiss but also in this case, not impossible.

Check video cables and check if the video card has some distance to the audio card.