noise in sequencer

[scopus]

hey guys lately ive been having this very noticable scratching noise i hear only in my sequencer(cubase 6) whenever i load any kind of plugins. if theres no plugins in the project theres no noise, and also when i mixdown doesnt mixdown the noise. And outside the sequencer moving things around there is a very faint different kind of random electronic noise can hear if turn up volume loud enough. Im not sure if this is a problem with my soundcard/scope or something else, ne ideas?
thanks




1 SCope pro, 1 scope home, windows 7 64bit, cubase 6 64bit

[JoPo]

Does this happen with Scope or VST plugins ?

And have you another soundcard to make a test and see if the noise is hearable in both soundcard ? Maybe you have a little soundcard in your motherboard to try...

The fact that the noise is not in the mixdown makes me believing the problem is in the soundcard, on the output stage.

Is the noise continuous or only when you move the mouse ? (scratching noise ??) Can you record it and upload a 10s mp3 ?

I think only some tests with another soundcard would allow you to discover where the noise comes from.

[scopus]

yes i have 2 cards plugged in, 1 scope pro and 1 scope home and my output was with the pro card. Just did some testing by plugging both soundcards into an external mixer, and it looks like the noise is only coming from the scope pro. odd that even if disconnect/remove the scope pro analog dest from the routing window the noise is still there. Also changing the volume on the stm mixer doesnt affect the loudness of the noise. the noise is constant and again only present when loading vst plugins, however there is some barely noticable different kinna random lite noise on the scopepro card i can hear if i turn the volume high enough on my external mixer when doing things in scope n windows as well like moving things around with the mouse. I also tried now moving the card to a a different pci slot with no luck. heres soundclip recorded of the vst noise with my phone
thanks

[JoPo]

The weird thing is the noise appears with vst plugin only on one soundcard ! It's not coherent... If it's vst issue, it should be noisy on both card, if it's a soundcard issue, it should be noisy with or without vst plugin..
Are you sure there was no noise before ?

There 2 noises I hear in the m4a file (?) : one from start to the end, like a regular vibrating thing and one much louder at the end, like one's pulls up his trouser zip !

I suggest you to clean your pci connection card, move away power cables from audio signal cables but I must confess that I don't have much more advice.. I'm sure Gary has some other ideas to help you, and he will as soon as he comes on Z like every day.

[scopus]

yes i would have noticed or it might have been just very low and got much worse lately. It happens with any vst i load, its the vibrating kinna noise, sorry bout the end had to go tryed cleaning n changing pci slot...there is again noise even out of the sequencer just barely noticable different kind of random noise when moving things around with the mouse. perhaps it is indeed something on the soundcard output stage..it is a pretty old card 2004, or myb something with the breakout cable?..
thanks

[garyb]

a vst would affect the card's output in any way, unless it was distortion from an overdriven source, which is unlikely.

it's more likely a computer resources/setup issue. it's very strange that only one card would do this. power supply, maybe?

[scopus]

hey gary, not sure if power supply issue as computer never dies on me n everything else in the system seems to be working good, wish had another powersupply to test it, n yes odd that only on one card ..
ideas?
thnks

[garyb]

well, there's always contact cleaning.

use 99%(never less!!!) pure alcohol or a commercial contact cleaner. also clean the contacts on the i/o card. CAREFULLY remove the 4 nylon screws and separate the two parts, then reassemble...

test the cable whip and output cables. wiggle the connectors and cables and see if that adds or removes noise....

[scopus]

k ill pick up some alcohol soon n try cleaning, played with the cables no luck
thnks

[garyb]

you played with the cables while sound was going through the system?

there really isn't any way for a vst plugin to do anything to the card. is this with all plugins or just one?

[scopus]

hey little update, k cleaned the card no difference but just tested it on an old pc (32bit), and no noise!
returned the card to original computer and noise still there, happens with any plugin.
thoughts?
myb a windows reformat should b in order erggg
thanks

[JoPo]

hey little update, k cleaned the card no difference but just tested it on an old pc (32bit), and no noise!

This is THE test which allows you to be sure the problem is in the computer ! Not in the cards...

Excellent..
Let us know if the noise disapeared after formating the hardrive.
It could also be a MB hardware damage and in this case, the noise will be still present after formating..
But I don't want to be pessimistic !

[scopus]

yes very glad its not the card well getting everything reinstalled is gonna take a while n going touring now for few weeks ill let u guys know when get back with hopefully with some good news..talk then
cheers!

[scopus]

hey guys little update, tryed the full system reformat with no luck , so guess it must be something hardware related. myb ur right jopo n its the motherboard but cant make sense of y the noise is only present with the scope pro card and not the home and that the problem is regardless of which pci slot the pro card is in..
and just did same test again on the older 32bit system to make sure and still no noise there, just on the new system
Thoughts?
thanks

[JoPo]

I don't understand everything. You tried with 32bit OS on the same MB and there was no bad noise ?
If you did, it doesn't proove the MB is ok : it can also be the ram...

The best test would be to try with another MB, the over best would be the same MB reference but if you could have a try with any other MB, you could know what's wrong : if the bad noise is still there -> try your scope card one by one to find which one has a problem, but we have seen that it's probably not the scope cards.
-> if there is no noise with the other MB, your MB is broken somewhere.
-> if there is no noise with the other MB, try (if it's compatible) with your ram memory, and again : noise=bad memory, no noise, good memory, bad scopus MB ...etc...

The only way I know to determine what is broken in a computer is to have all its components in double and try them one by one. The difficult thing is to find the double components... If you know some nice computer shop people (where you let some money already.... ), perhaps, you can ask them to go in there shop for you to make the diagnostic.

Good luck !

[scopus]

no the tests where came out no noise on the cards was a completely different computer/motherboard. just mentioned that old computer is a 32bit system not sure if has nething to do with it

so to sum it up, on my newer computer no matter what i try theres noise coming out of scope pro card only, not home card. but on an older pc (all completely different components) there is no noise from the cards

[yayajohn]

how about ribbon cables or internal pwr cables touching the Pro card or maybe the bottom of the overhang of the pro card touching something on the motherboard?

[scopus]

just tryed internal cables n card position check and also tested the ram by leaving in 1 stick same problem. Looks like must be something with either the scope pro card, motherboard, psu, or cpu. Not gonna be easy finding out which as dont have double components can just myb chek psu through a friend, the rest will be problematic

thanks

[ronnie]

Boy, this is a stumper. Could it be a radio interference issue that somehow exists in that computer and only affects the Pro card? I wouldn't think so because it only happens with VSTs. That's the thing that has me bugged, only with VSTs. All VSTs? 32 bit and 64 bit?

Are all other audio drivers disabled so there's no chance of any output except from Scope? No onboard soundcard, no audio from the video card (like HD audio)? No HDMI audio or SP/DIF from the onboard card. Are they all disabled in Windows except for Scope. It could be it's not coming from the Scope card at all!

BTW, since it's Cubase 64, Cubase 64 is known to have issues with the VST Bridge technology (32 to 64) with non-Steinberg 32 bit plugins. That could be why you don't hear noise on the 32 bit system. Why that affects only one Scope card, I have no idea but I would try loading only Steinberg 32 bit VSTs, only 64 bit VSTs and see what happens. Others got over the non Steinberg plugin problems by using JBridge.

JBridge

You can also download a free VST host like Cantabile Lite (32 or 64) and try loading VSTs in there and see what happens.

[scopus]

thnks ronnie but tried all that stuff, n happens with both 32 bit n 64 bit plugins n i use jbridge. think has to be either the pro card, motherboard or cpu