Ground noise

[emreyazgin]

Anyone had a noise problem through the earth connection of electrical cables? I get noise whenever i plug the electric socket of my keyboard even though the keyboard is not actually on. I checked all my cables, connections etc. It all came down to the power socket of the keyboard. (I only have a keyboard connected to the preamp). I beleive its the ground or neutral line. Do you think a power conditioner will fix this kind of noise?

[Geoff_T]

Originally Posted by emreyazgin

Anyone had a noise problem through the earth connection of electrical cables? I get noise whenever i plug the electric socket of my keyboard even though the keyboard is not actually on. I checked all my cables, connections etc. It all came down to the power socket of the keyboard. (I only have a keyboard connected to the preamp). I beleive its the ground or neutral line. Do you think a power conditioner will fix this kind of noise?

Hi

I don't think there's sufficient info for an in depth answer but I can tell you the last question won't help!

Question #1... the ac cord for the keyboard... is it a 2 core/2 pin plug or 3 core/3 pin plug?

Question #2... Did you have this problem before or have you changed the set up?

Question #3... Are you using any of those horrid ground lifting 2 pin adaptors on any of your ac power cords?

Generally, you'll get a ground hum if there's a difference in potential between your equipment and one item is trying to get a ground return via another via the shield of your audio cable.

I'm assuming, though this could be Question #4, that all your wiring is unbalanced?

[emreyazgin]

Originally Posted by Geoff_T

Hi

I don't think there's sufficient info for an in depth answer but I can tell you the last question won't help!

Question #1... the ac cord for the keyboard... is it a 2 core/2 pin plug or 3 core/3 pin plug?

Question #2... Did you have this problem before or have you changed the set up?

Question #3... Are you using any of those horrid ground lifting 2 pin adaptors on any of your ac power cords?

Generally, you'll get a ground hum if there's a difference in potential between your equipment and one item is trying to get a ground return via another via the shield of your audio cable.

I'm assuming, though this could be Question #4, that all your wiring is unbalanced?

1) They are all 3 core
2) To be honest i did change my setup :) (you got me)
3) Only wierd thing i use is the belkin surgeprotection 8 way adapter
4) If we are talking about electrical wiring, then no.

[Kiwiburger]

Electrical earth is the toxic waste dump of electrical power. It can certainly be a huge carrier of hum and spikes and general crap.

I had a huge problem with contaminated ground, and the only thing that fixed it was getting my own dedicated ground spike and completely disconnecting from electrical earth.

Your region may be completely different from mine (New Zealand has 240V 50Hz, and only Phase and Neutral wires connect each house. The Earth is connected to Neutral at the meter).

It was crazy trying to identify the problem - because I got in sparkies who, in theory, knew their business and they told me my ground was excellent. But I found I could take a pair of headphones, and touch the tip onto my hot water tap, or other electrical ground, and induce a hum in the headphones with no active circuits required. I then found that I could drive a basic spike into the ground, and between electrical earth and real earth, I have 1.5V AC. Enough to drive a 12" speaker very loud - for free.

This was a real problem for guitar amps - which is why I had a real headache tracking the problem down. I messed around with balanced power transformers and stuff, but the problem was simply this contaminated ground that was completely outside my control.

I got a good ground spike put in - but when the sparkie connected this up to electrical earth, it just drew far more crap my way. I believe if you have the best ground in the neighborhood, and connect it up to the grid, you will draw more hum and buzz and crap your way. You need an Isolated Ground Receptacle as it's called.

[Geoff_T]

Originally Posted by emreyazgin

1) They are all 3 core
2) To be honest i did change my setup :) (you got me)
3) Only wierd thing i use is the belkin surgeprotection 8 way adapter
4) If we are talking about electrical wiring, then no.

Hi

No. # 4 I should have been worded better... I meant is your studio audio wiring unbalanced?

I have a feeling you may even know the answer to this if it didn't misbehave in a previous set up... what did you alter that brought on the issue? I have a suspicion that there's nothing major wrong and you just need to sort out a ground seeking issue in your set up.

So, is the audio wiring unbalanced... where the shield is the return path of the audio... or balanced where you can lift a shield at one end to fix a problem?

If you didn't need a ground spike before... you shouldn't need one now.

Grounds can be a pain in the ass... I've been to studios with ground spikes and connected a scope between the spike cable and a water pipe... there was a huge radio signal riding on the cable... the spike was worthless. I thumped in three new spikes and bonded them together.. that fixed it!