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Old 07-11-2008, 12:01 AM   #1
jus
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Default extra noise when reaper opens

Hey all, been lurking in the shadows of the forums for a little while now, gleaning and learning as much as I can. I am a guitarist and like most are becoming addicted to the home recording hobby and will be looking to upgrade components as money becomes available.

Before I ask my question my setup is this Yamaha 24/14 mixer > Realtek HD onboard sound card > back to mixer and using headphones. (Can't afford monitors or better soundcard yet)

My question is this, when opening reaper it introduces more audible hum and noise in my headphones/speakers. Why is this?

I realise the soundcard probably has everything to do with it but what doesn't make sense is I can play my guitar through my pod>di box>mixer>computer soundcard>mixer>phones without reaper open and though I do hear very low level of hum it nearly doubles as soon as I open the reaper application. When reaper opens there are no tracks armed to record and when I do arm a track it doesn't make things any worse.

Also, when I record arm a track my meter shows about -60db. Is this acceptable?

Hope this post isn't too dumb even for the newbie forum. I just like to understand why things happen.

Thanks
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Old 07-11-2008, 01:10 AM   #2
frog_jr
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Maybe if you post more details such as what hardware, and if you save your project file and let more experienced users look at it you may luck out and somebody will be able to troubleshoot for you. (Maybe not of course. People are busy.) Me, I've only used Reaper with a Delta 1010 and have not experience this problem.
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Old 07-11-2008, 02:08 AM   #3
Captain Damage
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-60 dB noise floor is pretty high. I'm not sure why Reaper would cause the noise to go up. It might have something to do with the way monitoring works.

I'd at least go through the standard motions of making sure it's not caused by your own gear: Make sure any unused chanels on your mixer have levels and trims set to 0. This goes for aux and effect busses as well. Make sure there's no cables plugged into the mixer, but not into an instrument or mic. If your mixer has built in effects that aren't being used, set them to "off."

If it's none of these things it could be a bad cable. Unplug all inputs to your mixer. Is the noise still there? If so, try replacing the cable that goes from your mixer to the soundcard. *important: make sure you're going to the line input on your soundcard, not the mic input.

If the noise went away when you uplugged the mixer inputs, plug them back in one at a time and see if one of them is causing the noise. If so, it's either a bad cable or the cable is connected to a bad instrument or mic.
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Old 07-11-2008, 09:50 AM   #4
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" realise the soundcard probably has everything to do with it but what doesn't make sense is I can play my guitar through my pod>di box>mixer>computer "
I also use a Pod,Can't you go directly fro the pod output to your soundcard and moniytor thru your Pod headphone spot?
That was how I used to do it before upgrading my soundcard.
Which Pod do you have?
What kind of outputs on it?
I used to use the USB output into the computer.
Let me know how it goes.

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Old 07-11-2008, 07:50 PM   #5
jus
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thanks for your help so far.

It doesn't matter what is connected or more importantly not connected as soon as I open Reaper I hear more hum.

I tried opening the program with nothing on or plugged in and just my phones into the soundcard and it still does it so it can't be cables. It's like the progam is slightly amplifying the low computer 'airy' noise as well as i can hear a noise at around 200 hertz (i think) introduced.
I don't have this problem when opening audacity (the only other recording type software i have) Also I don't have any monitoring on in Reaper so its not that.

If reaper is open and i say have explorer open in a diferrent window, switching to explorer window will cut the extra noise

Bardo, I am using POD v2 so its pretty old model, has stereo outs and midi outs but I don't have a midi interface at this stage to try this. I don't have a cable or connections at the moment to try straight to the soundcard. I have tried connecting straight to the mixer line level but thats worse than the DI.
My pod doesn't introduce any noise but turning the volume on my guitar up does introduce a bit more (its nearly 20 years old, probably needs a good rewire)

Frog jr_ Yeah I can understand people being busy the only times I have are a few nights a week after my daughter goes to sleep. Thats why I wouldn't bother posting a project. I want to upgrade anyway (and i was looking at the delta 44) so I'll see if it still happens then.

Captain Damage, I've tried both line in and mic with no difference though I do have it at line in. And as mentioned above even with the mixer off it happens


WHILE typing this I recorded without any signal to audacity and reaper.
Audacity recorded the "airy" computer noise while reaper recorded about the same level of noise (no extra like I can physically hear) but with the low pitch hum I said above. I might have to get myself a 'soundclick' or similar profile to upload them and see what others think.

Last edited by jus; 07-11-2008 at 08:11 PM.
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Old 07-11-2008, 10:12 PM   #6
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It sounds almost like the soundchip picks up interference from within your computer and/or (more probably) an input (most probably "mic") is wide open in your Realtek chip, picking up the noise.

So I suspect the culprit in the Realtek Mixer application. There is one scenario I could think of that could probably have the effect you describe:

You have selected the stereo out of the soundchip as record source (instead of line-in) and the mic input is not muted on the "playback" row of faders in the Realtek mixer, picking up the noise and hence passing it to the stereo out (from which you record). I don't understand why Reaper passes this signal back to the chip without a channel switched to monitoring (which would explain the louder noise when Reaper is open) but that's another story...

So please 1.) check the Realtek Mixer (or the normal windows mixer app.) and 2.) tell us what kind of computer that is.
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Old 07-12-2008, 01:25 AM   #7
jus
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Steindork, thank you you are right, knew there had to be a simple solution.
Muting that made any noise barely noticeable, even at full deafening volume.


When recording no signal I still get the hum at 200 hz but I just to get that new soundcard soon and I'm sure it won't be an issue. At least my ears aren't going to by subjected to constant hum now while using my phones and Reaper.

Thanks
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Old 07-14-2008, 04:34 PM   #8
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As much as Behringer is maligned they have a hum eliminator for about $20. I have both an Ebtech and the Behringer hum eliminators and can't tell any difference. They work great for reducing that last bit of hum before tracking.
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