What's Your DAI (Digital Audio Interface)?

Soundcloud links added again.

Now they generated… on well :smiley:

PEBCAK

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And… news.

ifi-audio seem to have little to no influence in the noise that appears… BUT…

This has improved. 30€ pedal with a ground lift… not even using a fantastic charger… but noise pretty much gone… I have to go 100% on bass above 70% on DAI… to start hearing it.

Even if I crank everything up, it’s not as bad as it was before.

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I have a Scarlett 2i2. So far the experience hasn’t been bad. It just works. I’ve done some podcast production, work in Ableton with creating EDM music and I use a Sure MV7X XLR mic as my daily work mike (gives me a smooth sexy office voice) :rofl:

I’d love to hook my bass up and see what recording is like but I remember something in the instructions warning about guitars with active electronics so I need to figure that out first. One feature I like about the 2i2 is both jacks on the front work with both XLR and standard 1/4" jacks.

Using monitors as my PC speakers the thing I hate is they auto turn off at low volumes. Also using a condenser mike like the Sure MV7X means you pretty much have to have it in your face during work calls. I bought a cloudlifter type device to boost the gain a bit. It works pretty well.

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@MattyD I use Sire active bass with my Scarlett 18i20 and Octopre feeding Ableton 11 without any issue. Just don’t switch the input to instrument mode (if it’s available on this Scarlett model) because the signal is too hot then. I used active bass with RME, M-Audio, Motu, Behringer, Focusrite, and Apogee interfaces and haven’t had any problems with neither of them.

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So does it just bring in a super high signal with the instrument mode or does it make the magic blue smoke come out of the device? :magic_wand:

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As far as I’m aware you’ll just get clipping (no blue smoke). I have a Focusrite Solo and play both my bases with active preamp through it. Never had a problem. I do still have the Instrument switch on. Doesn’t work properly with it off. That said I generally have the volume on the bass well down so that’ll reduce the signal some anyway.

You have a gain control and light on your Focusrite so you’ll soon see if your gain is up too high and you’re clipping, then just turn the gain down. Mine generally sits around the 12 o’clock position.

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Oh yea true I do have a gain light. Good stuff to know thanks!

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I have been using Motu M2 with Cakewalk.

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I’ve been using the Scarlett series for a while with my bass (active), and haven’t run in to any issues.

Started out using the 2nd Gen Scarlett Solo and recently upgraded to the 4th Gen Scarlett 2i2. The auto-gain feature comes in handy.

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Ground loops are a pretty common cause of noise. I had one for a while. Try and get everything grounded to the same ground.

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So…

Testing setup… I don’t hear the buzz anymore.

Ignore the playing… first thing that popped up to try dials and tone.

Shoutout to @faydout for suggesting these pedals… mainly the BDI, which seems to be the one to solve the buzz.

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Probably the ground lift on the BDI that fixes it.

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XLR from BDI to 2i2 also helps… but yes… Ground lift did the heavy lifting - pun intended.

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Still I have the feeling that you did not find the source of your issues!?
Did you really really really test with a notebook and disconnected power (so battery only) and no other cable (like ethernet) connected - and still had a hum???

That would be very strange!

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Yes. But on a desk next to my PC… and buzz was there.

I’ve been pushing volumes up quite a bit with the pedals in.

  • Distance to PC affects.
  • CPU / GPU / Case fan speeds affect.
  • Pointing to bass away from PC also.

Attributing it to PC noise… as it can be quite loud when under load(most times).

EDIT: There’s also some threads going around that some focusrite 3rd gens had a weird hiss that got worse. Not sure if mine is one of them… but heck… it’s gone now.

I’m not going to produce anything professionally… and if I do, I quickly move setup to laptop and record there, with my PC turned off on the PSU.

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If that is the case, ground lift should not work - as it is not a ground issue!?!?!?

Ground lift had impact in sound quality also. Reduced the last hum I had. Perhaps a bit of both. Also… Pedals connected to a different non-UPSed wall socket that is grounded also.

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Not strange at all if he had a ground loop. These can be really common.

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As far as I know a ground loop cannot exist when you use a notebook on battery and no other cables attached (except USB to audio interface).

But I’m no expert…

That’s correct; it requires two things at least to be plugged in to mains (or some other common power supply).