4 Apr
2010
4 Apr
'10
12:34 a.m.
On Sat, Apr 03, 2010 at 05:48:43PM -0400, Rick Green wrote:
I'm using a FOcusrite Saffire pro 26 I/O with
ffado, jack, and Ardour to
make multitrack recordings of live concerts, to my emachines M6810 laptop
running ubuntustudio. I'm plagued by noise that sounds to me like RF
interference from the laptop, getting into the audio portions of the
interface. It's most obvious when I'm at home trying to mix down my
recordings, as its almost constant in my monitors and most noticable in
a quiet room, but it also manifests itself sometimes during shows, showing
up on the input lines to the interface, which are plugged 'half-way' into
the FOH mixer's channel inserts, so it invades the PA and the performers'
monitors. WHen that happens, I've no other choice but to abandon the
recording and shut down the laptop.
Has anyone else encountered this problem? Got any suggestions how to
filter it? I'm going to try some ferrite cores snapped around the
firewire cable first. Anything else I might try?
I had exactly the same problem, almost exactly 3 years ago when I first gigged with a
laptop.
The solution was to lift the ground on the AC adapter, using one of those
three-prong-to-two-prong adapters. Haven't had a problem since then, been gigging my
ass off the whole time (although a year ago I mostly switched to using my EEE netbook,
which only has a two-prong adapter anyway, and never had the problem with it).
-ken