steevo1977 Posted July 29, 2016 Share Posted July 29, 2016 Greetings fellow forum-ites Recently bought a condenser mic to use with my Helix. Plug it in and turn on phantom power then start to bring up the mic gain and all is good..... ...plug in the USB cable and all of a sudden there is horrendous noise. This noise translates to recordings also. Moving the mouse around modulates the noise. This does not happen when using Variax or Guitar. I'm not really sure I understand why the USB input/output is involved in the gain and input for the microphone. As I said without the USB cable inserted there is no noise and everything is good. Anyone else experiencing this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klangmaler Posted July 29, 2016 Share Posted July 29, 2016 ....sounds to me that you have grounding / shielding trouble... You activated phantom power - what if you turn this off (USB cable still plugged in) - still that noise? Helix has trouble with 48V activated and connections to XLR; maybe same thing with USB?? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roscoe5 Posted July 29, 2016 Share Posted July 29, 2016 I think this is pretty common and generally resolved by NOT plugging Helix into the same outlet or power strip as the computer. Also, I found USB cables with ferrite core filters (little black cylinders) on the cable are worse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steevo1977 Posted July 29, 2016 Author Share Posted July 29, 2016 ....sounds to me that you have grounding / shielding trouble... You activated phantom power - what if you turn this off (USB cable still plugged in) - still that noise? Helix has trouble with 48V activated and connections to XLR; maybe same thing with USB?? The condenser mic doesn't work with out the phantom power obviously however the noise is still there when its off yes. The noise is greater/worse as you increase the 'Mic In Gain' as you would expect. I think this is pretty common and generally resolved by NOT plugging Helix into the same outlet or power strip as the computer. Also, I found USB cables with ferrite core filters (little black cylinders) on the cable are worse. Im gonna get this tested shortly Roscoe. Thanks for the responses peeps Cheers Stephen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steevo1977 Posted July 31, 2016 Author Share Posted July 31, 2016 This is well and truly the PC causing the noise. Had the Helix plugged into a different outlet and the same noise. I tried the Helix in my wife's laptop and although there is a very high pitched (but quiet) whine the horrendous noise from my PC is not there. May have to sneakily use my work laptop which is more powerful than my wife's when doing microphone related work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steevo1977 Posted July 31, 2016 Author Share Posted July 31, 2016 Although it is still a mystery to me why my usb has ANYTHING to do with mic signal or gain.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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