Hey everyone, I have found that I have a basic noise now on my tracks and I am wondering if anyone can help me pinpoint it. I am using Sonar 3 (Cakewalk) on a windows 10 and I am using the UVA apollo 8 for my interface. If I open a track, and I record with any channel, I get a lot of noise now on the track. I thought it was my synth or the cable at first but I disconnected the cables from the apollo and the recording has exactly the same noise. I am not bright enough to figure out how to whether it is my apollo or the software. Does anyone have any way to trouble shoot the noise other than downloading another DAW to see if that does the trick? \
Hi James, I have an Apollo too. I doubt the DAW is the problem, as DAWs are generally completely transparent. The most likely cause is your signal chain.
What are you recording when you notice the noise? Is it all the time, or.just when you’re using a microphone?
Are you using any of the unison processors, such as preamps or compressors as you record? Those can really raise the noise floor.
Are you using a dynamic or condenser mic to record?
It is any track with anything being recorded, it all has the same noise. Even say the synth turned off, if i record on that track, it still has the same static sound. I am using the Avalon VT-737 plugin but that has never been an issue for a few years now. I have the Townsend mic and i have changed the selection of their models but even with it off and all the plugins on the UVA interface removed, it still has the static. I think its something setting wise on the apollo interface that is causing it, or the preamp in the apollo 8 itself. On the UVA forum there are posts of static and doing a reset which i have done. If I turn the volume up on my monitors halfway, it really has a lot of noise. If turn the preamp knob up on the physical apollo itself, it gets really loud and if I switch from one to another preamp, it gets slightly louder with one over the other 2. Is this something I can spray cleaner in there to improve it or is this not a hardware issue?
Hi James, if it is constant, it is likely to be something in your system. What about USB connectors, or other things connected to your system that could create some sort of ground loop? USB is notorious for this sort of thing.
I’d suggest systematically going through all the things you have connected to your system and, with the speakers on, disconnect each device in turn and see if any one thing being disconnected gets rid of the noise.
Sometimes these things can be devilishly hard to track down. Start with the most recent device you have added to your system.
Who da man? You da man. I found it, it was a fender 1/4" cable for guitars going to the synth. As soon as i unplugged it, it went away. There were two different sounds now that i found the cable issue. The cable was making a variation noise, as it sounded like an old fashion war communication devise, like morris code. But the consistant high buzz was from the actual file. I had made a master song template file and just used it every time i would start a new song. But somehow it got noise, probably from Toontrack EZ Mixer. Some of those presets will buzz like crazy after a long time. I basically opened up a blank project and started a new track with nothing on it and it is dead quiet now. Thank you so much for helping Andrew, you saved the day.