A question to those with huge boards / tech geniuses.

GavRichList

Right, I need to stop my board being so noisy. Currently I have on my board, the following:

Boss TU2
MXR Micro Amp
Crowther Hotcake
Mr Black Eterna
Boss PS-3
Line 6 Echo Park
EHX Freeze
Boss DD20
Zvex Fat Fuzz Factory
Zvex Instant Lo-Fi Junky
Earthquaker Devices Bit Commander
Earthquaker Devices Arpanoid
Boss OC2
Ibanez LF7
Boss RV5
Boss NS2
Digitech Whammy IV
Empress SuperDelay
TC Electronics Ditto
Nobels CO-2

I currently power the Whammy, Line 6 and Empress off their own supplies, then One-spot & Daisy chain the rest, and unsurprisingly enough, it's noisy as all hell.

I AM AWARE THIS IS GOING TO BE EXPENSIVE

My question is twofold!

1. Is there a way of powering all this with one unit / plug?
2. Will it stop the noise??

Will the Voodoo Lab Pedal Power Mondo do it? Would I need to buy anything additional to that? - I really can't get my head round this stuff.

Here's the majority of the power requirements, but for the Zvex and ED stuff.... And the Muff has gone... It's an old list!

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff193/guitarsforminnaars/Mobile Uploads/image-7.jpg

GavRichList

Oh, and the synth Wah has gone too

Fazer

what kind of noise? buzzy, hummy, hissy?

stickyfiddle

Basically can't be done from one PSU as the Whammy IV needs AC power. Swapping to Whammy V would fix that (I may not be helping here..)

Otherwise it should be doable. You need isolated power for the Line6 and maybe Empress and the rest could be daisy chained with maybe the odd virtual battery type thing here and there. 

Is the noise you're getting buzz from lots of gain stages electrical hum?

The trick to getting on one plug is to get whatever PSUs you need under PT-type board all plugged into a 2 or 4-way extension and then you just have one thing to plug in when setting up.

Gassage

Gav

1. Yes- gigrig system will do it, but you'd need to email Dan for the right solution. It won't be cheap. You can run an AC supply off that IIRC.

2. I do think you've a lot of competing pedals and buffers there. You are going to have different types of noise issues too. An integated supply will help with the earth hums.

I really hate to suggest this route, but I'd get a great bypass strip with all of those (LoopMaster, Quartermaster etc) and I'd have a buffer on input and output.

At least then you'll have all the controls in one place and you'll isolate competing buffers and pedals.

Make sure to get great cables- Lava minimum. Don't use GL's (well i wouldn't!)

GavRichList

It's electrical hum. Actually, given that the whammy, the empress and the line 6 all have their own appropriate independent PSUs, is it more likely that the noise is down to my shitty hotch-potch of interconnect cables?

mike_l

Are you running pedals into the front and loop off the same daisy chain? If yes, this can give some noise issues, try separate daisy chains for the loop and front.

Also the NS-2, although not a bad noisegate, I found the MXR Smartgate was better for removing the pedal hum/singlecoil hum. I prefer the NS-2 for staccato high-gain riffing (Ala Pantera)

shuikit

GavHaus said:

I AM AWARE THIS IS GOING TO BE EXPENSIVE

This made me chuckle....  I went through something similar earlier this year, had some annoying noise, decided enough was enough and bought a voodoo labs 4x4 and that hurt the wallet, but never had to think about it again so it's been worth it!

Corvus

Is the whammy psu or wire close to others? My HT Dual caused hum cos of that.

GavRichList

@billkat how do you mean? It's PSU is plugged into a 4-gang along with the other 3.

steamabacus

Corvus said:

Is the whammy psu or wire close to others? My HT Dual caused hum cos of that.

I've had this issue with the ac psu of my Line6 DL4. Keep ac wall-warts and cables well clear of other pedals as much as possible and make sure ac power cables and signal cables cross at 90 degrees to each other.

robinbowes

TheGigRig made a Whambo module for their power supply solution - it's not currently on the website, but I have one.

If you've got cash to spend I'd drop TheGigRig a line - they're very helpful.

R.

meltedbuzzbox

You do realise your guitar will be adding to that noise as well?

A vintage Jag is not a quiet guitar 

GavRichList

Plugging in direct to my amp takes away the noise. It's def my board unfortunately. Tempted to Lava up first. Of course I could do with selling my amp first....

Anyway, my guitar is a VM Squier, you know that!

meltedbuzzbox

GavHaus said:

Plugging in direct to my amp takes away the noise. It's def my board unfortunately. Tempted to Lava up first. Of course I could do with selling my amp first....

Anyway, my guitar is a VM Squier, you know that!

I didn't like to mention that bit. :-P

How bad is the noise? IF you hit the tuner pedal does it kill it all off?

GavRichList

Yep. Reasonably noisy. It'll be all the shite Maplin patch cables. 

meltedbuzzbox

there is a really good thread on shortscale about psu noise with pedals. 

Something to do with daisy chains not being isolated so they make more noise etc. 

I think you should just use less pedals ;-) I think you could use a Squier Jag through that lot and not tell the difference :-P

GavRichList

pfffffffffffft. Imagine how good it'd all sound with decent cables and power supply!

 

MIND.

BLOWN.

meltedbuzzbox

GavHaus said:

pfffffffffffft. Imagine how good it'd all sound with decent cables and power supply!

crunchman

With that many pedals I'd go for some king of looping/switching device.  You would reduce the length of the signal chain significantly (assuming you are not actually using all the pedals at the same time) which should improve tone overall.

It would still be worth getting a supply with isolated outputs.  Even if you don't have isolated outputs for everything, you could run 2 or 3 pedals that work nicely together off of each output.

thisisguitar

I'd start by connecting one pedal to the amp, then add one at a time until you find the culprit… a ball ache, but it's the only way in my opinion. I had to do this to work out why my Hartman was making strange noises, turned out it just hate my Compressor. Quality cabling and power is definitely a good idea though, I wouldn't use a one spot. 

I run my board off a Cioks Eventide and a Pedal Power 2+ and have no problems at all (use Evidence Audio Monorail and Switchcraft jacks too). The are both run off a single power cable and daisy chained. The Cioks Ciokolate does 800mA AC power along with tonnes more, http://www.thomann.de/gb/cioks_ciokolate.htm

You may need 2 different supplies to make that many pedals work.