Excess noise on my laptop

[gtrhrcane]

Hey, I'm having trouble eliminating a lot of excess noise on my laptop. I'm running my electric guirat to a Behringer GX112, from there it WAS going to my Tascam 4 track mixer, through to my laptop via the mic input on my CPU.(Laptop). I had all my recording levels adjusted in my OS, and it was working out fine ( sort of, it wsan't picking up the effects signals) until my power supply pooped out on me. :( Got a new one, and tried to hook everything up again...well now I get all this excess noise in my recordings, and had to go and mic my amp with a crappy mic I can plug in to my CPU. Does anyone have any clue what is going on here? Where did this noise come from, why wasn't I getting it before, and how can I eliinate it, while still picking up my effects. ( The only good thing about micing for now). N E help would be much appreciated. Once that is figured out, MAYBE before hand, I can get my demo done and share some of my tunes. Thansk and wish me luck.

[tiredollie]

umm, there may be a problem with your sound card, you might need to reinstall the drivers.

[Concretekiller]

It could be from the 4track. My tascam 4 track gives me noise problems from time to time. So I bought a head cleaning kit for cassette heads. It helped out a bit, but I still hesitate to rely on it. -Jason

[StoneDragon]

I'm guessing the noise is do to interference from the new power supply. How you describe it, that's the only thing that changed.

[b3n]

Yeah StoneDragon, I get the same thing from my laptop's cooling fan. It's a bugger to get rid of as it's not only with a microphone - I've plugged my guitar (actually my acoustic with external pup) directly into the mic jack and still get noise from the laptop's internals. My solution at the moment is to remove the noise using CoolEdit Pro software. It's not ideal though as the noise reduction tends to make the guitar sound thin and over-processed.

I guess a full sized desktop machine would be better for recording as everthing is jammed in so tight in a laptop. Try picking up some free software though if you can't kill the noise in the first place.

b3n

[gtrhrcane]

I'm guessing the noise is do to interference from the new power supply. How you describe it, that's the only thing that changed.

I think you're right. It's all going to work out anyways. I'm just micing it for now. I can't be stopped anyways. Thanks for the tips fellas.

[Dr. D]

You need a "Hum Eliminator" check at your local guitar center. It will eliminate all of the problems. :toohappy:

[gtrhrcane]

You need a "Hum Eliminator" check at your local guitar center. It will eliminate all of the problems. :toohappy:

I'll check that out, thanks. Can you tell me a bit more about it? Who makes it, how much, etc? Otherwise that would probably do the trick. Especially since now I'm living in an apartment so it's not as easy to just mic my amp. Volume levels have to be lower, etc.

[Dr. D]

I use one on my laptop, I use it to KJ/DJ and without it I either get a hum, or a shrill hard drive whine. if I unplug the power supply and run off the batteries it goes away.

I also use it to plug my Marshall headphone/line out jack into my mixer. without it I get a loud hum on that even tho Marshall says it will work. It is a lot cleaner than mic'ing an amp. and you get all the effects.

cost is $50.00