On my recent Linux Asus laptop I have some problems with noise. One
solution which always work is to play from batterys but I think that
killed one performance at Piksel where Asus seems to decide to lower the
USB voltage during a set and renderd my P5 Glove suddenly useless.
Its differs from location to location and I passed some gigs plugged :)
while I remember a gig in Berlin where the hum was an anoying high
pitched tone which was transmitted over the buildin soundcard real loud
but also over a RME PCMCIA Multiface.
Today I had some time to research and rememberd that the RME and my
mixing desk has balanced plugs which I never used that way, I have to
confess. I was always happy with unbalanced cables and think I have
never problems with an old Powerbook TI with which I did lot of
recording (thats not praising Apple equipment, a Quicksilver G4 Tower
gives a hell of noise out of the builtin soundcard, you can heare every
byte which is shifted around).
Anyway I found only 1 'balanced' cable in my arsenal which I seldom use
('stubid stereo cable, what can I use it for') and voila, humming
reduced to 98% I would say. There is still a tiny silent high pitch
sound, I have to crank up all possible volumefaders to even notice, a
good way to ruin speakers and ears btw., by accidently triggering a
sound :).
I compared it with noise from other, none digital equipment and its in a
good league so I am happy for now, except that I now want
stupid-stereo-cables-no-one-can-use, to go balanced, but unfortunally my
bankaccount is not balanced either so it has to wait.
Cheers,
Malte
--
Malte Steiner
media art + development
-www.block4.com-
