Re: [LAU] Behringer and Linux

On Thu, April 2, 2015 10:39 pm, mark hadman wrote: Now that has been resolved, here's some suggestions for resolving the issue. (1) The mixer and the Linux box both use switching power supplies. They are plugged into the same outlet strip. This will occur with most switching power supply audio devices and most laptops. Much less of a problem with workstations with large well filtered motherboards and power supplies. Less of a problem if the devices are on separate power circuits. Not a problem if the audio device is powered from a linear supply or battery. Often goes away even if just the laptop gets powered off its battery. The two switching power supplies operate at frequencies that are close but not identical and not synced. The noise generated is very buzzy. (2) If Fons had audio cables from his workstation plugged into the mixer (even if the faders are all down) with the USB plugged into same, then the odds are he had a "ground loop" as the "digital ground" and "analog ground" of the workstation do not reference the same points (i.e. are not the same "ground"). This will happen with ALL gear that does not have audio isolation transformers on the inputs and outputs. The solution is to either use external ones (Jaycar and Altronics in Australia, and many other outfits supply them.) The other solution is to not use metal connected USB but rather fibre optic SPDIF or ADAT (the reason for their existence!). Ground loop noise has its primary frequency the power line frequency and may have a large second harmonic component. Fon's description of the noise is consistent with this problem. If his Linux audio workstation is a full-out desktop workstation with a big high-end power supply and the motherboard has a premium audio chipset, then the above "ground loop" is almost certainly the problem. Both of these, are not really Behringer problems. It is nearly impossible to sell new audio gear with linear supplies due to regulations about power efficiency in many countries. Only very exotic (and correspondingly expensive!) high end studio gear has either (and sometimes both), high quality audio transformers on all analog inputs and outputs, and/or common mode rejecting (true-differential) semiconductor circuits on all analog inputs and outputs. Marschall Acoustics Instruments P/L (*) electronics always has true-differential semiconductor inputs and outputs, with additional isolation transformer coupling available on request at extra cost and physical device size (not to mention weight). MAI equipment also only uses linear supplies (not switching). It is usually sold as "research instrumentation" for import purposes, but could never be sold to consumer retailers. (*) http://hydrophones.com -- Patrick Shirkey Boost Hardware Ltd