Neo Ventilator - Hi freq noise

[Gorantovic]

Hi everyone,

 

I am a proud owner of Neo Ventilator 1 for keyboards. I use it on my concerts for couple of years. In the last couple of months, the FOH guy told me that he receives a high frequency noise from my Vent. I assumed that it was some failure, and i borrowed a friend's Ventilator 1 to do some concerts and to compare with mine, and it behaves the same. When I plugged mine and his Ventilator to spectrum analyzer (connected to line inputs of my audio interface, about 30db of gain), I got the same noise from both units. I tried with couple of power sources, and I also tried to combine power supplies, (original and Voodoo Labs isolated power supply), but it is the same. In attachment you can see screenshots of both measurements. I use in in Lo input mode, in Keys position. When I switch it to Hi input mode, that noise is much lower, but when I change my gain staging to get similar level, it is the same.

 

Please could you tell me is this a normal behavior of this pedal, or I am making some mistake with connections. I used unbalanced and balanced cables, several preamps for measurements, but it is the same. That noise is very significant on acoustic concerts, in venues with silent audience.

 

Thank you very much in advance! I will appreciate your answer, whatever it is.

 

All the best,

 

Goran

 

[Baldwin Funster]

You have to use the power supply that came stock with the vent. Or replacements recommended by neo. At least for the v1.

[Delaware Dave]

What do you have the distance knob set to? If counter clockwise (less than 12 oclock) the noise increases. If fully clockwise the noise is minimized. A setting of 7AM to 11am simulates a closely mic'd leslie and you will hear phaseyness and the simulated motor noise which increase the noise floor. Try setting at 5 oclock (fully clockwise) and see if the noise floor is reduced.

[Gorantovic]

Hi,

 

thank you for your answer. I am feeding it usually with Crumar Mojo, or line output of my Motu audio interface (when I play raw organ from Mainstage), but whatever source I use, and also when nothing is connected to, I am getting that oscillating hi pitch noise, which is not connected to Ventilator rotor noise simulation. On those pictures you can see spikes around 8 kHz and above. It sounds like hi pitched sine oscillator.

I also use original power supply on both units, and I also change it with isolated, transformer based analog power supply, which is used for guitar pedals, to prevent all kinds of noises. The output ia the same.

I also didn't notice it earlier, but my FOH guy call me to hear it on PA from the audience, and, on that amount of power, it oscillate very significant.

If anyone of you would like to try this, I will appreciate. Just two outputs, directly to two line inputs, with little bit more gain, and tell me what you hear, beside "wind noise" from the pedal.

 

Thank you in advance!

[Baldwin Funster]

These guys do some service on the vents.

 

 

DISTRIBUTION, INFORMATION,

ARTIST RELATIONS & SERVICE:

Gand Music and Sound

Elk Grove Village, IL

Contact Joan Gand

[Baldwin Funster]

I remember that the vent 1 is very sensitive to outside interference. It could be recieving noise from something next to it. The power supply could also have something close that causes interference. Try putting the vent and its power supply away from everything and test it.

[Paul Harrison]

I have a Ventilator 1, and it does make a little noise, but not an excessive amount. Even with the volume turned up high in a quiet room, the noise is barely noticeable. On my unit, the level and character of the noise are affected a little by the Balance, Drive, and Distance controls, and by the Guitar/Keyboard switch, but the Lo/Hi switch does not affect it noticeably. I use unbalanced cables, and I normally use the power supply that came with the unit, but when I checked it with a spare generic power supply, the noise level was about the same.

[Gorantovic]

Sorry for disturbing you all. If I may ask anybody, just to connect his Ventilator 1 to some recorder, a record couple of seconds of Vent's output noise. Nothing on the input, just little bit of gain on the recorder, to hear what is going on with your pedal. Lo input sensitivity switch, and Key mode.

 

I will appreciate a lot.

 

Happy New Year to all of you guys!

[Baldwin Funster]

I dont have mine hooked to a recorder but it is hooked to a mixer and 2 JBL 305s. With the gain cranked loud enough to blow my speakers if I hit a key, I listened for a high pitched whine. I dont have it. I just hear the low level whoosh of the rotors and a small amount of system hiss.

[Paul Harrison]

With the gain cranked loud enough to blow my speakers if I hit a key, I listened for a high pitched whine. I don't have it. I just hear the low level whoosh of the rotors and a small amount of system hiss.

 

Same here.

 

Here is a .wav file of my Viscount Legend organ going directly into my Ventilator 1, which is going directly into a Zoom H1 recorder with the recording level set just below clipping. The Vent has the original power supply, the Lo/Hi switch is on "Lo", the Guitar/Keyboard switch is on "Keyboard", and the Balance, Drive, and Distance controls are all at 12 o'clock. I played nothing for about 10 seconds, then a chord with all drawbars out for 5 seconds, then nothing for another 5 seconds. There is a little background noise from the Vent but not much.

 

[Ventilator 1 noise floor]

[Baldwin Funster]

With the gain cranked loud enough to blow my speakers if I hit a key, I listened for a high pitched whine. I don't have it. I just hear the low level whoosh of the rotors and a small amount of system hiss.

 

Same here.

 

Here is a .wav file of my Viscount Legend organ going directly into my Ventilator 1, which is going directly into a Zoom H1 recorder with the recording level set just below clipping. On the Vent, the Lo/Hi switch is on "Lo", the Guitar/Keyboard switch is on "Keyboard", and the Balance, Drive, and Distance controls are all at 12 o'clock. I played nothing for about 10 seconds, then a chord with all drawbars out for 5 seconds, then nothing for another 5 seconds. There is a little background noise from the Vent but not much.

 

[Ventilator 1 noise floor]

 

Yeah that's about what I got. I hear no high pitched whine. Maybe the OP has a defective cable?

 

[Gorantovic]

Guys,

 

I am so happy to hear your feedback and support! Thank you all, thank you Paul Harrison!

 

I imported your wav file, used only silent part, boost it to be noticeable and match levels with my wav file. Here is the download link:

 

https://we.tl/t-UXFpd7CO6F

 

There are also two screenshots of analyzers taken from both files.

 

There is a significant difference. I have this state with two Ventilator 1 pedals. Both use their original power supply. I used correct, coaxial instrument cables. which I normally use for my concerts. I tried to plug it to two or three different kind of inputs (mixers, audio interfaces), and I plugged it to two or three different locations, also with and without filters for mains.

 

Thank you again for your support. Now I see that something is weird, but I still can't figure what and why.

 

All the best!

[Gorantovic]

Now I realized that I matched peak levels for both files, where hi freq spikes in my file are way louder than noise floor, so actual noise floor on my file sounds quieter. If you want to compare those two files side by side, boost my file about 8 db, or lower Paul's file with that amount.

 

Thanks!

[Paul Harrison]

I can see and hear the high-frequency noise you are talking about, but I don't know what the cause might be. Because it is only happening in your setup, and with two different units, it appears that the cause might be some interference being picked up, or oscillation being generated, somewhere in your setup. When you say "different locations", have you tried it in a different building some distance away with different power and audio wiring (and possibly further away from a source of interference)? If you try changing various factors one at a time, you might be able to identify the cause by a process of elimination.

[Gorantovic]

Thank you very much Paul! I am still hunting for the problem, but I changed a couple of different locations, several cable pairs, two different power supplies, and nothing is changed.

Is your Vent soldered for mono or stereo bypass? I checked mine inside and it is soldered for mono. I don't know what to look so I started to go that way. Also, is your serial above or under the number which they mention for stereo bypass mod?

I realized that I hear those high frequency stuff even at bypass. I see those harmonics on the freq analizer.

 

Thank you again! I appreciate your help a lot!

[Paul Harrison]

According to [this info], my Ventilator is above the serial no. for the stereo bypass modification (I bought it new in 2013), but it has not been modified, as I only use it in mono.

[mate stubb]

If you unplug the input to the vent, do you still hear the noise?

[Gorantovic]

Yes Mate, in both cases, connected or not, I hear that hi freq whistle. I will accept that there is some problem inside which is ready for repair, but I borrowed the same model from my friend and I have the same behavior, in every possible combination of powering locations, cables, power supplies, everything.

 

I found one more friend in a city 100km from my, which has the same model, so I will try with the third one.

 

Thank you all guys!

[Gorantovic]

BTW, the Neo Instruments website is updated, and they don't have contact form or email anymore. I found Guido's email (because I wrote him several years ago) and wrote him, but without any answer...