Need help! Radio signals coming in through headphones (Recording Newbie)

[glockgirl]

Hey there!

I'm a real novice with recording, so please forgive me if I sound out of my element here. I'm a songwriter, and recently got a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 interface to do some home acoustic guitar/vocal demos.

My set up looks like this:

-MacBook Pro
-DI guitar and XLR cables into the Scarlett 2i2 interface
-headphone quarter inch jack into Scarlett 2i2 interface
-Scarlett 2i2 directly plugged into the USB on my Macbook

Here's my issue:

I just bought a new pair of Sony MDR 7506 headphones and when I plug them into the Scarlett interface, even without the interface being utilized through Ableton, I'm getting AM stations coming into my headphones. I unscrewed the 1/4" to show just the smaller headphone jack and plug that into a different adapter to see if it would fix the problem, but the transmission is just as loud.

Obviously, the radio static goes away if I unplug the USB chord (because I wanted to make sure the headphones weren't haunted).

After reading a few forums online about what other people have dealt with I will say:

-I'm in a brand new house (because I've read that the wiring of old houses can have an influence)
-I'm on the second floor (not sure if that matters but hey..)
-The USB cord is about 3 feet long
-The headphone cord is 9ft long and coiled.

Any help (in as layman's terms as possible) into getting the transmissions to stop would be greatly appreciated!!

Thank you!!

 

[rhythmgj]

Unplug the interface from everything else (except its USB power). Plug your Sony headphones in to it and listen. Any AM radio? Now add an XLR cable; any change? Unplug that, and plug in your guitar cable (first unconnected to the guitar and listen, then connected to the guitar and listen-- any change? AM radio or no?). Without anything going in or out of your computer, plug the mini-jack headphone plug into your computer's headphone jack (with the computer powered "on" obviously), and listen. Any AM radio? Put it all back together and listen. AM radio? Try running everything together except without the guitar and guitar cable plugged in-- any AM radio? Another silly thing to try-- what happens when you set everything up in a completely different room? You are trying to isolate if any particular component or cable (or space) is the problem.

It is most likely either your guitar pick-up/cable, or the computer power supply that is acting as an antenna. Or, it could be both combining. Is your computer power supply plugged into a three-pronged/grounded outlet? You haven't said, but I'm assuming that all of this stuff is plugged in somewhere in the US?

If you find it is your guitar cable, try swapping it out with a different one. Try changing position in the room, or spinning 180 in the other direction. Try recording acoustically without the DI (oh, btw, what brand of DI? It's unlikely but possible that that is part of the problem too). If it seems like it's the computer, you can try a couple of things. You will need a few different types of cables to jimmy things around. You could try going guitar cable into a line-level shifter or an anti hum box like this: https://www.amazon.com/Ebtech-LLS-2-Level-Shifter-2-Channel/dp/B0002MSVDY or this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0002E4YH4/ref=psdcmw_11975661_t3_B0002MSVDY before going in to the Scarlett. Guitar signal is not line-level, but sometimes it works anyway. You could try plugging your computer power supply into this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0002E4YI8/ref=psdcmw_11975661_t1_B0002E4YH4 before plugging it into your wall outlet.

Actually, before spending all of that money, you should try a couple of other things. One would be a surge protector with an rf filter to reduce crosstalk problems like this: https://www.sweetwater.com/store/de..._id=SS6Block&gclid=CN2Z2qbJ6tECFY-Lswod-lMH5g . Another would be putting an rf filter like this: https://www.amazon.com/Ferrite-Core-Cord-Noise-Suppressor/dp/B0002MQGE0 or this: https://www.amazon.com/X10-XPPF-Plug-Noise-Filter/dp/B0002M5OJI on your computer.

Hope some of that helps and it doesn't cost too much coin to get there...

GJ