Old 11-07-2012, 03:17 PM   #1
Alsklaftsk123
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Default Guitar picking up mac noise?

Hi guys. I currently have a hp pavilon dv6 pc. A big problem is that i am a guitarist and record guitar music in reaper. The pc is giving extremely much electromagnetic noise, so i need to set my noise gate pedal very high compared to gain, and i have humbucker pickups in all my guitars. When i turn off the noise gate i get very much electronic hiss that increases when i move closer to the laptop. One of my guitars have a coil split function, and when i use that the hiss is as loud as the actual notes when the gate is on. When i turn of the pc, the guitar is almost sillent. I have bern thinking about getting a telecaster, but its almost impossible with my setup.

I have been thinking about getting a mac in the future. Does they send out alot of electronic noise, because alot of guitarists have a mac. Can you play a telecaster whitout a noisegate in front of a mac? Btw, does reaper work as well on osx as windows 7?
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Old 11-07-2012, 05:10 PM   #2
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I have a HP Pavilion desktop and the hiss does not get louder when I move the guitar closer to it, so maybe you should just get a desktop computer.
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Old 11-08-2012, 02:40 AM   #3
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What are you plugging the Guitar into, an audio interface?
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Old 11-08-2012, 07:08 AM   #4
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What are you plugging the Guitar into, an audio interface?
Amp, but it happens in i plug into an audio interface too. My question was if macs does send out this sort of electronic noise.
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Old 11-08-2012, 07:46 AM   #5
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I have a similar issue. I believe it will depend on context. Some MB's will radiate more electric noise than others. Some PS's are more noisy. Your monitor could also contribute to the problem. Coil splitting/single coils will only make things drastically worse. Your guitar might not be shielded properly. There might be grounding issues between your computer and guitar.

It's probably more trouble than it's worth to try to fix. Either move the most offending source(Computer properly) further way from your keyboard/mouse/monitor if possible. Learn to record away from the computer when you want higher quality recordings.

You can use your guitar to locate the source better by using it like a Geiger counter. Once you locate the source(changes are it will be your MB or possibly PS) you can also try to do a better job insulating the computer case.
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Old 11-08-2012, 10:02 AM   #6
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Amp, but it happens in i plug into an audio interface too. My question was if macs does send out this sort of electronic noise.
Pretty much all electronic devices emit some type of electromagnetic field and they don't call them guitar "pickups" for nothing. That means some of it comes with the territory. Your description makes me wonder how close your pickups are from the laptop. It could be an unnecessarily, electromagnetically noisy laptop or you could simply be too close. Does it do it when the guitar is over 1 meter away from the laptop? Does it improve if you leave the laptop on but close the lid? Changing the angle of the pickups in relation to the laptop can help as well if you can get the laptop's noise in a null of the pickup's magnetic field.

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Old 11-08-2012, 11:18 AM   #7
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Does it go away if you unplug the laptop and run on battery? If so, probably a ground loop, get a ground loop isolator.
If not, then almost certainly it's to do with insufficient shielding in the guitar. I get it from my Jazzmaster (single coil pickups), with PC or Mac, plugged in or on battery, but it's a level I can live with. You might look into some DIY extra shielding for the guitar. If it's a cheap guitar it may not have much to begin with. Only other solution is like someone else said, sit further away from the computer!
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Old 11-08-2012, 11:22 AM   #8
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Does it go away if you unplug the laptop and run on battery? If so, probably a ground loop, get a ground loop isolator.
If not, then almost certainly it's to do with insufficient shielding in the guitar. I get it from my Jazzmaster (single coil pickups), with PC or Mac, plugged in or on battery, but it's a level I can live with. You might look into some DIY extra shielding for the guitar. If it's a cheap guitar it may not have much to begin with. Only other solution is like someone else said, sit further away from the computer!
Just a note that the magnetic part of picking up noise can't be fixed by shielding... It comes in via the magnetic flux lines of the magnets themselves which are also outside of the guitar. Shielding will of course help the wires themselves inside the cavity from allowing noise into the signal and could be just as much of the issue.
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Old 11-08-2012, 01:15 PM   #9
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Guitars are excellent antennae aren't they...

I can tell you that Macs are more or less on the same level as the custom gamer systems for hardware quality. Much higher quality that anything from HP/Compac/Dell/etc FWIW. I use my Macbook Pro for my guitar rig. It's right next to me and does not add any interference.

Check the obvious: cords
Maybe there's room for improvement in the guitar's shielding?

Good luck tracking it down!
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Old 11-08-2012, 03:00 PM   #10
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Do you get this noise while holding the guitar strings? If not, then you can take a second cable, input it to another input of your audio interface (or to some metal part of your guitar) and connect it to yourself - put it in your trousers or something. That may sound stupid or dangerous maybe... and maybe it is! hahaha but it works though.
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Old 11-13-2012, 02:11 PM   #11
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Do you get this noise while holding the guitar strings? If not...
What I do in a situation like that, is that I touch the strings of the guitar when I play. It isn't actually that hard... ;o)

To the OP, I would check that the amplifier itself is in a grounded socket. Don't know how it is in your country, but in Finland we have both grounded and ungrounded sockets, and an ungrounded socket obviously makes the amp and the guitar more vulnerable to surrounding noise.
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Old 11-13-2012, 04:09 PM   #12
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Haha, yeah it's probably hard to play without touching the strings.
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