Hearing my PC through my monitors

[Remo Shiva]

Hey,

I have a fairly old and quite cheap USB audio/midi interface (Edirol
UA-20), I was wondering how I could, if it's even possible, get rid of
the high pitch pc noises I can hear through my monitors (pair of KRK
Rokit6 connected through RCAs). I have updated to the latest ASIO
drivers for this particular card and have tried to keep all the wires
apart to stop them picking up unwanted electrical noises, but I'm left
with this rather annoying and quite loud PC sound when I play audio.
When Cubase and Reason aren't open, and windows media player isn't
playing anything, they are silent. Am I to assume this is a driver/card
problem then?

And if so, will buying a new card sort this issue out? Which would you
guys suggest are good ones to go for? My budget is around £150 (not much
I know, music is a hobby not a job for me). Any external card would have
to be USB though.

Cheers for any help/advice, if I could get rid of the noises with this
card and save myself some cash I'll be a very happy man :)

[Todd H.]

Remo Shiva > writes:

> Hey,
>
> I have a fairly old and quite cheap USB audio/midi interface (Edirol
> UA-20), I was wondering how I could, if it's even possible, get rid of
> the high pitch pc noises I can hear through my monitors (pair of KRK
> Rokit6 connected through RCAs). I have updated to the latest ASIO
> drivers for this particular card and have tried to keep all the wires
> apart to stop them picking up unwanted electrical noises, but I'm left
> with this rather annoying and quite loud PC sound when I play
> audio. When Cubase and Reason aren't open, and windows media player
> isn't playing anything, they are silent. Am I to assume this is a
> driver/card problem then?

I'd be curious to know how the noise changes with changing the
windows volume control. Given what you've described, I'd expect it
got vary in proportion to the windows volume control. I'd point the
finger at the sound card hardware itself.

Another test to try is putting a battery power ipod or similar device
and playing the speakers through the ipod while the speaker's input
lead is in the same position it is when plugged into the PC. This a/b
test could eliminate the speakers' power supply or noise induced onto
the line level input leads as causes.

> And if so, will buying a new card sort this issue out? Which would you
> guys suggest are good ones to go for? My budget is around £150 (not
> much I know, music is a hobby not a job for me). Any external card
> would have to be USB though.

Give the Griffin iMic a whirl. Quite inexpensive little USB audio
interface. http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/imic Nice
little clean audio capture device too.

> Cheers for any help/advice, if I could get rid of the noises with this
> card and save myself some cash I'll be a very happy man :)

Curious do you have a wireless access point active anywhere near your
PC? What happens when you turn it off? How bout when you unplug
your network cable? Is it possible that the wall wart power
supply of the speakers might be involved somehow?

--
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[Remo Shiva]

Todd H. wrote:
> Remo Shiva > writes:
>
>> Hey,
>>
>> I have a fairly old and quite cheap USB audio/midi interface (Edirol
>> UA-20), I was wondering how I could, if it's even possible, get rid of
>> the high pitch pc noises I can hear through my monitors (pair of KRK
>> Rokit6 connected through RCAs). I have updated to the latest ASIO
>> drivers for this particular card and have tried to keep all the wires
>> apart to stop them picking up unwanted electrical noises, but I'm left
>> with this rather annoying and quite loud PC sound when I play
>> audio. When Cubase and Reason aren't open, and windows media player
>> isn't playing anything, they are silent. Am I to assume this is a
>> driver/card problem then?
>
> I'd be curious to know how the noise changes with changing the
> windows volume control. Given what you've described, I'd expect it
> got vary in proportion to the windows volume control. I'd point the
> finger at the sound card hardware itself.
>
> Another test to try is putting a battery power ipod or similar device
> and playing the speakers through the ipod while the speaker's input
> lead is in the same position it is when plugged into the PC. This a/b
> test could eliminate the speakers' power supply or noise induced onto
> the line level input leads as causes.
>

I actually tried messing with the volume control in windows and it made
no difference to the high pitch noise. When I have a tune on pause in
the media player, or when I have cubase or reason open you can hear it.
But as soon as they are closed, or I actually hit stop on the tune in
WMP, the sound stops and my monitors are silent, ruling out the mains
cables for the monitors. I can't try running anything through the
speakers because I have nothing with RCA outputs apart from this card,
an ipod doesn't have these.


>> And if so, will buying a new card sort this issue out? Which would you
>> guys suggest are good ones to go for? My budget is around £150 (not
>> much I know, music is a hobby not a job for me). Any external card
>> would have to be USB though.
>
> Give the Griffin iMic a whirl. Quite inexpensive little USB audio
> interface. http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/imic Nice
> little clean audio capture device too.


That iMic thing is quite useless for what I need, I need outputs for
studio monitors, either unbalanced RCAs or balanced XLRs


>
>> Cheers for any help/advice, if I could get rid of the noises with this
>> card and save myself some cash I'll be a very happy man :)
>
> Curious do you have a wireless access point active anywhere near your
> PC? What happens when you turn it off? How bout when you unplug
> your network cable? Is it possible that the wall wart power
> supply of the speakers might be involved somehow?
>


No wireless here, I'm on a wired network, and if wireless devices were a
problem then it would happen all the time wouldn't it?

Anyway, thanks a lot for taking the time to reply :)

[Eeyore]

Remo Shiva wrote:

> Hey,
>
> I have a fairly old and quite cheap USB audio/midi interface (Edirol
> UA-20), I was wondering how I could, if it's even possible, get rid of
> the high pitch pc noises I can hear through my monitors (pair of KRK
> Rokit6 connected through RCAs). I have updated to the latest ASIO
> drivers for this particular card and have tried to keep all the wires
> apart to stop them picking up unwanted electrical noises, but I'm left
> with this rather annoying and quite loud PC sound when I play audio.

A wav file or similar of the 'noises' might help us provide an answer.

Graham

[Remo Shiva]

Eeyore wrote:
>
> Remo Shiva wrote:
>
>> Hey,
>>
>> I have a fairly old and quite cheap USB audio/midi interface (Edirol
>> UA-20), I was wondering how I could, if it's even possible, get rid of
>> the high pitch pc noises I can hear through my monitors (pair of KRK
>> Rokit6 connected through RCAs). I have updated to the latest ASIO
>> drivers for this particular card and have tried to keep all the wires
>> apart to stop them picking up unwanted electrical noises, but I'm left
>> with this rather annoying and quite loud PC sound when I play audio.
>
> A wav file or similar of the 'noises' might help us provide an answer.
>
> Graham
>


I wish I could, got no mic sorry. My best explanation of it is take the
noise a fax makes when it's being sent and pitch it up ALOT.

[Arny Krueger]

"Todd H." > wrote in message

> Remo Shiva > writes:

>> I have a fairly old and quite cheap USB audio/midi
>> interface (Edirol UA-20), I was wondering how I could,
>> if it's even possible, get rid of the high pitch pc
>> noises I can hear through my monitors (pair of KRK
>> Rokit6 connected through RCAs).

Odd.

>> I have updated to the
>> latest ASIO drivers for this particular card and have
>> tried to keep all the wires apart to stop them picking
>> up unwanted electrical noises, but I'm left with this
>> rather annoying and quite loud PC sound when I play
>> audio.

What program are you using to play the audio. Does it also put something on
the screen?

>> When Cubase and Reason aren't open, and windows
>> media player isn't playing anything, they are silent. Am
>> I to assume this is a driver/card problem then?

If your music player also does something with the video, then it might be
interference from the video.

> I'd be curious to know how the noise changes with
> changing the windows volume control.

That suggests that the noise is present at the input to the audio
interface's volume control. IOW, the noise is part of the source to the
audio interface.

> Given what you've
> described, I'd expect it got vary in proportion to the
> windows volume control. I'd point the finger at the
> sound card hardware itself.

Usually, the audio interface's volume control is digital, and it is actually
software running in the PC.

> Another test to try is putting a battery power ipod or
> similar device and playing the speakers through the ipod
> while the speaker's input lead is in the same position it
> is when plugged into the PC. This a/b test could
> eliminate the speakers' power supply or noise induced
> onto the line level input leads as causes.

I'd be interested in the results of tests like these, as well.

>> Which would you guys suggest are good ones to go for? My
>> budget is around £150 (not much I know, music is a hobby
>> not a job for me). Any external card would have to be
>> USB though.

It is possible that the source of the noise is bus contention inside the PC
if the sound changes with other activity in the PC, or changes depends which
program you run.

> Give the Griffin iMic a whirl. Quite inexpensive little
> USB audio interface.
> http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/imic Nice
> little clean audio capture device too.

Yes, the output of the iMic is very good, but the input side is trash. Noise
and restricted frequency response due to a cheap op amp.