Excessive Noise/Interference

smudge_lad

I use two different rooms at our band rehearsal space, and in both rooms when I plug in my HX Stomp (using the Line 6 supplied plug), even with the patches bypassed there is some very loud background noise/interference. To the point I couldn't use it at all.

My the rest of my board seems ok, maybe a little louder than at home.

I only have a cheaper extension chord I bought from Aldi some time ago, and wonder if upgrading this will make any difference?

If so, what kind of extension cable should I be looking for? Most seem to advertise "surge protection" but is this really what I need? Or do I need to find some kind of "power conditioner"

Slimbert

Monster make some decent extension cables/leads/adaptors. I'd definitely buy something of better quality just for better build quality or even just to rule it out. They aren't massively expensive even for premium branded ones.

Not quite the same situation but I had a brand new "Eveready" branded one from B&M under my bed and had no end of trouble with it. It was only for a phone charger, bedside lamp, etc but stuff would flicker and there was a constant buzzing sound coming from it. I dread to think what an amp would've sounded like if plugged in to it.

Not all power supplies are made equal.

ICBM

It won't be the extension cable. The Line 6 power supply is not earthed (by design), so a faulty earth connection would make no difference, and if either the live or the neutral was faulty it wouldn't work at all.

It could be mains-borne interference, in which case you may need a power conditioner - a simple surge protector/filter is unlikely to be effective although you could try one. Or it could just be a very noisy electrical environment, in which case you have a more difficult problem to solve... it's usually necessary to find the cause of the noise and suppress it at source.

smudge_lad

Well last night I tried a few things. I plugged in the Stomp on it’s own - no noise. Plugged in the rest of my board, powered by a Zuma - tons of noise! 

So, I took the board to bits and plugged each pedal in one by one to find the culprit, and guess what?? No noise!! So, I’ve absolutley no idea what was going on at all.

Now I need to re-wire the whole thing....

skunkwerx

Plugged each pedal on its own but powered by the zuma? 

I'd be surprised if its coming from the zuma though, even with all 9 outlets in use. Mines silent as fuck. 

Did you try the zuma powering 1 pedal with the Stomp too? 

Wondering if theres something going on by using 2 seperately powered things if you know what I mean. 

If not, the patch cables maybe? 

ICBM

smudge_lad said:

Well last night I tried a few things. I plugged in the Stomp on it’s own - no noise. Plugged in the rest of my board, powered by a Zuma - tons of noise! 

So, I took the board to bits and plugged each pedal in one by one to find the culprit, and guess what?? No noise!! So, I’ve absolutley no idea what was going on at all.

Now I need to re-wire the whole thing....

Sounds like there’s just been a bad connection somewhere so you’ve ended up with something like the audio ground going via the power supply rather than a patch cable. Taking it all apart and reconnecting it has fixed it.