BRW Posted October 30, 2018 Share Posted October 30, 2018 I bought a vintage Roland M-120 line mixer for synth / sampler summing purposes, because I've been getting into buying more hardware again. I've connected it to my Yamaha n8 Firewire audio interface, that's going into my Mac with a pair of balanced XLR cables. I'm getting a fair bit of noise, though. Mild, but still. The M-120's main outputs are supposed to be clean and quiet (the monitor outputs are supposedly more noisy), so I'm wondering why. The Master output is at a moderate level, at 12 o'clock. Here is an example (.AIF recording). NOTE: this is recorded with the audio interface's "Pad" switches off so this is exaggerating the problem in a major way - just for demonstration purposes. It's not nearly this bad. Is this normal? What should I do about it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRW Posted October 31, 2018 Author Share Posted October 31, 2018 Anyone? I know this might better suit a forum like Gearslutz, but figured since it's sort of keyboard-related, you folks might know...? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Markyboard Posted October 31, 2018 Share Posted October 31, 2018 When you said noise I was thinking hiss which would make sense in an older mixer like this. But your audio clip sounds like ground loop hum/buzz. What is/was hooked up to your mixer when you recorded that? Start disconnecting one input at a time and see if you can identify the culprit. If it takes disconnecting everyhing then the problem could be in your cable shielding providing an alternate ground return. Otherwise it may be your AC which can be solved by changing where you plug the unit into or using an AC filter like HumX. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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