Is it possible to knacker an isolated power supply so it starts humming?
I've been running my board from a Donner DP-3 since March with no worries, including 3 pedals daisy-chained from one of the outputs with almost no noise.
I bought a bigger board (Harley Benton Spaceship 80) and decided to run a whole load more off it, but got a good deal more hum. Figured I was just running too much off it and took some things back off.
I've spent the last week or so pulling things out and in but to no avail, it's still pretty loud (only when the drives are on, but they weren't as hummy before, I'm sure). I set it up the same as before, took out the bypass loop, changed everything about, still humming.
I'm questioning whether it was doing it all along now - along with my sanity. Is it possible that in all my overexcited yanking of cables and turning it off and on (and sometimes not) I might have fucked it?
Is it worth chucking money at a CIOKS or a VoodooLabs to quiet the beast down, or would it be just as bad? I like the look of the gigrig stuff but don't think I can afford the 4 isolator units it would almost certainly need.
Here's a pic of the board
Any suggestions happily received.
Comments
Dont know if you’ve tried that yet.
Also have you tried just using one pedal per output and no daisy chains?
My final thought is to try moving the power supply away from the board if you can, see if anything changes.
I’m sure someone more knowledgeable will come along soon though.
I’m guilty of doing it too..
Now I turn everything off, unplug the extension from the wall which has my power supply plug and amp plug in, so its certainly off.. but I dont know if this is paranoia or if there is actually a risk in not doing it!
You need to adopt a methodical approach or you will never solve the problem. Try guitar > amp, then add pedals one at a time and monitor for hum. You'll then know what the cause or causes of the problem are, and be better placed to find a solution.
You are unlikely to have knackered your PSU but they are made to a budget so may have failed. You could also have issues with dodgy patch leads. Test and listen...
hours of fun
Like I said - you need to break the problem down, very simple to find the culprit by adding one pedal at a time.
I'm starting to think that if I want to have Boss pedals, and overdrives it's going to hum unless everything is off.
It is fine when everything is off.
I'm stumped now. I've tried just the MXR and the DD7 with every combination of power and lead I can (did the same with the MXR and the Biyang Reverb and perfectly silent) including two wall warts.
Am just giving in to the fact that Boss pedals are noisy.
My rig is as quiet as can be!
I use evidence audio sis cable too which I can't recommend enough. It's expensive but worth it.
I know it's only 1 person. But it still sticks in the head when splashing out money on stuff!!
Best of the bunch will ensure aa good low noise basis to develop;
- Strymon stuff - the no.1 for me
- Gigrh distributor
Doing this from memory, because I'm just about to run out of the house and get on a train to go see Froomie and G cruise around Central London, but...
- +1 for Waz. Expensive high quality power supplies just work and repay the expense in the end. Are you using one to power your Isolator? I'm not clear on that.
- Boss analogue pedals are not particularly noisier than anything else. Never knowingly used a digital one apart from my GT-100 MFX.
- Daisy chaining (or a Distributor) works fine for low demand analogue pedals.
- If you want to be anal, try running DC power cables away from signal cables and crossing them at 90 degree angles. Some say that works. I've never needed to try.
- Digital pedals don't play nicely with analogue pedals and introduce noise to systems unless isolated.
- The GigRig Isolator has poorly documented limits to the amount of power it will supply per isolated line (150mA from memory) which isn't usually enough for a high demand digital pedal. I had a very noisy Line6 M5 that an Isolator couldn't power or isolate properly. The solution GigRig peeps suggested was a dedicated Time Machine (I didn't bother, just powered it off the Line 6 wall wart and all went quiet).
- If you get a noisy pedal, just use a dedicated power supply and see if it goes quiet. If so, it's not the pedal that's the problem, it's something on your board.
Good luck! Hoping to come home tonight and read you've fixed it.@gavrichlist ran a huge board with two cioks power supplies and I am pretty sure he didn't have an issue either
I had to buy one recently to power a modestly sized board with a mix of analogue and high draw digital pedals. My best option was the Strymon Zuma and if I ever decide to go larger I can add Oija expansion - could potentially then run the Broadcast at 24v by using two 12v outputs and a voltage doubler cable rather than the single 18v output currently powering it. My board = zero hum.
Plenty people successfully powering much more impressive boards than mine but this gives an idea of what can be powered with a single supply.