Reamping the Herbert

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don_huberto

don_huberto

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Hi

I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask this questions. If someone of you has some experience with reamping the Herbert please share your knowledge with me ;)

On reamping the Herbert (especially on high gain takes) a really loud buzz comes from the cabinet. This has nothing to do with the recorded guitar signal because it buzzes also if I do not play anything from my DAW (=Cubase).

I used the following equipment

Cubase => Mackie 1620i => Palmer PAN 01 passive DI in wrong direction => Herbert

I tried also

Cubase => Mackie 1620i => Radial X-Amp => Herbert

Due to the buzzing I do not want to record anything. The Lift/Ground switch does not make it better on the Palmer and on the Radial. I used a stereo jack to XLR female on a balanced out of my Mackie 1620i.

Has anybody of you experience with Reamping the Herbert?
Sounds stupid but... is Herbert reampable?
Maybe the stereo jack to XLR female is the weak point?
Maybe I should use another electric circuit for the Herbert?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Best wishes don_huberto
 
How quiet is you Mackie 1620i? Anything with a little noise is going to become a LOT of noise through gain channels.
Also your interface may have a grounding problem.
Do this: connect your headphones, put a compressor on master, set the threshold pretty low, connect a dynamic mic & see how quiet it is or if you are hearing a ground hum.
 
Are you using a laptop as a DAW? Internal or external sound card?
I know some laptops when connected to the power supply can cause massive hum on the audio outputs of the integrated soundcards. I don't know if that applies when using an external sound card.
If you are using a laptop, try and unplug the power supply and run on battery.
 
You most likely have a ground loop. I use the x-amp as well. No issues with the ground lift engaged. Does the Mackie have balanced outs?
 
Also make sure your levels are high when recording and on playback you shouldn't be clipping loud. Trying to get enough signal level back into the amp is also a problem area.
 
Hi

Thank you for your hints. The last hour I tried a few things...

How quiet is you Mackie 1620i?
It is a really quiet mixer. There are no other buzzing issues with it. I have tried also another Mackie mixer (I think this was a 1642 VLZ3) with which I had the same problems.

Are you using a laptop as a DAW? Internal or external sound card?
No Laptop. I use a PC with an external soundcard (the 1620i has a Firewire Interface)

Does the Mackie have balanced outs?
Yes

Today I noticed the following things:
- The computer has nothing to do with the buzz. It was off and Herbert was still buzzing.
- I disconnected everything from the Mackie 1620i except the power cable and connection to the passive DI Box. Still buzzing.
- One thing I found interesting is that I heard a silent crack as I turned off my TC effect module. The strange thing is that it was not connected to the 1620i. So I switched the lights on and off. Again, a silent crack was there. Hmmmm.... looks like an issue with electricity. Damn.

Best wishes don_huberto
 
I'm guessing it's bad power as you already suggested. I've reamped my Herbert with the X-Amp without any problems. Sorry I can't be any more of help.
 
you can encounter "cracks" trough the mains. switch the light on/off in the room and you will most likely hear a "crack".

if you connect two devices that are driven by mains you can get hum-problems (around 50-60 Hz). it can occur with a device in comination with another and not occur with a third one. it depends.

i would recommend a morley ebtech hum eliminator (or a lehle p-split II) given that you have a ground-humming problem. i use the ebtech for hum-problems with the g-system and it works perfectly. sometimes di's don't work... even with ground lifted.

you have to consider that each little noise, that is being produced by an audio source, gets highly amplified in a distortion channel. and stay away with conductors (like di etc) from other transformers since they grab signal from these sources. also try to use balanced cables most of the times.
 
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