i9300 + Audigy ZS + Mixer = TONS of line noise: Help!

O

Odie812

n00b
Joined
Nov 13, 2004
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36
Hi all,

I'm relatively new to recording that is more advanced than, oh say, recording to minidisc via stereo mic, so please bear with me.

I just got a Dell Inspiron 9300, and with it I got the Creative Audigy ZS PCMCIA card. I'm really digging the optical in/out with my stereo receiver set up. But here's the deal, I'm a musician, and I need to make recordings of recitals/lessons/concerts/demos fairly often, so I bought these items to record with:

http://www.behringer.com/B-2PRO/index.cfm?lang=ENG

http://www.behringer.com/UB1204FX/index.cfm?lang=ENG

I have a dual-1/4" male to dual-RCA cable running from the mixer to a RCA-to-1/8" stereo adapter, which is connected to the analog-in on the Audigy PCMCIA card.

I was using Sound Forge, and experienced a tremendous squeal and popping static on every recording I made. I found that when I plugged my headphones into the mixer's output, the sound was crystal clear, but when I plugged into the laptop's output, there was the noise. The noise was worse with the mic jack than with the line-in, so I was using line-in, and muted every other output. Still, I got the unwanted noise in the worst way.

I'm frustrated almost to the point of returning this stuff. I can't tell if the problem is software or hardware-related. This is a pretty good sound card, I don't see why it would do this poorly a job with recording. I am able to pass my MP3 player playback through the 9300 and into my receiver with no problem, so why's it giving me a hard time with the recording? What am I not doing properly?

Any ideas?

My tremendous thanks,

Odie
 
I read some reviews that the audigy was pretty bad at recording, but you might want to double check
 
i read the same, for recording, you shoulda got the Echo Indigo or one of its variants. they're more expensive though. I think the lowest i saw for an Echo was almost the lowest price i saw for an Audigy 2 ZS notebook ($170 vs $90 for an OEM off newegg).
 
How are the Echo Indigo's for basic movie watching/gaming? I don't need any fancy EAX or anything. Just something that'll sound good in games and movies.
 
also, try updating to the latest drivers at the soundblaster website, i used to have similar issues with my desktop audigy then they fixed it with a driver patch. Best of luck!
 
Good news and bad news:

Bad news is that none of your solutions seemed to help. But thank you anyhow.

The good news is that I think I found the problem. When I run the laptop off of AC power, the noise is there, but when I run off of the battery, the sound disappears. So it appears that there is a grounding problem somewhere.

So, that said, how in the hell do I fix this?!
 
its probably electromagnetic interference, not grounding. Try one of those ferrite things that you can wrap the cord around like they have at stores.... it might cut it down a bit? unless there is one there already...
 
The_Engineer said:
its probably electromagnetic interference, not grounding. Try one of those ferrite things that you can wrap the cord around like they have at stores.... it might cut it down a bit? unless there is one there already...
Click to expand...

I agree, are you using a grounded powerbrick, or a 2 prong one?
 
Are you using balanced outs from the mixer?

Does your mic use phantom power? If so, have you tried a mic without phantom power?

Good quality shielded cable?

Have you tried using one cable rather than a bunch of adapters?
 
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