IceNine

The Hum occurs in Recording as well as live monitoring. correcting it in post is a solution for the long term as far as creation and not user experience but the experience of the set up doesn't feel very good at all when the hum is consistently occurring when not recording.

I don't know what hardware I would use for noise cancellation. Since the monitoring must be 0 delay, it cannot be passed through software first. Not having it play back would not be a solution. If you have other microphone suggestions that you feel would fit the criteria or close to it, I am willing to hear them.

I feel the premise of this post (Searching for entirely new hardware to solve the issue) is a large enough update to warrant its own post. The posts are roughly a week apart or more. If you think otherwise, ill take this down. Thank you for your reply and good day.

I'm at a point of extreme frustration now and hope only to find an answer to my issues. Recently, I purchased a pair of Sennheiser HD 7 DJs, A modmic 5.0 and a Behringer Xeynx 302USB in hopes of getting excellent audio, great mic capture, and a decently loud active sidetone as a cherry on top. At first, this set up seemed great. Powering the mixer off of the wall and bypassing its DAC properties provided the best experience. However, when the mic monitor is turned up, there is a noticeable hum in the background. I have already made an extensive post about this issue which has received some views but has not yet lead me to the answer I seek. I type this message now to state how terrible the situation has grown to. I failed to mention in my post that I use a wireless mouse which when plugged in to charge then held in hand produces an UNBEARABLE amount of this AC hum! That noise, complimented by the keyboards noise causes the situation to be so horrible that I would rather mute the microphone and avoid friends rather than try to bear the horrible hum to speak with them. At this point, Money is now longer a factor. I'm looking for anything to make this setup work. I do wish to try to get the solution to follow a few criteria. 1. The headphones receive sound from both the PC and the Mic so I can hear myself as well as in game audio. 2. The PC must receive audio from the Mic and not loop the PC audio back to itself 3. I would prefer if the Mic was discrete like the ModMic 5.0 and does not extend over my keyboard or hover above the set up like a stand alone XLR microphone. I have looked into replacing the mixer with one like the ProFX4v2 but I am unsure if this mixer can stop the PC audio from looping back to itself. Any response or help will be appreciated. Thank You! -IceNine

This problem would not be so bad if it weren't my interactions with my peripherals causing most of the issues. It seems the hum is at minimum when I'm laid back in my chair. Increase when I lean in (even if the cables stay in relatively the same place) and massively increase when my hands are hovering over they keyboard. No audio cables are near or on the keyboard when this happens so it must have something to do with contact with me right? It just seems so odd...

Hopefully I didn't kill my own thread by waiting too long. The PC is plugged in with the proper power supply cable (3 pined) into its own wall socket (no use of power strip) I hope that's what you mean by properly grounded. However, even with this, plugged the usb power into rear I/O, Front I/O or even a usb hub results in a noise that sounds similar to the LED interference from the hand over keyboard scenario at all times. I've also kept all power cables, monitor, keyboard, mouse, and connecting cables away from the others. I'm beginning to think I have the audio monitoring up high enough that I'm picking up interference from any source of power in the room. This still does not explain why it travels so noticeably through my hand and why grounding with my finger eliminates it

I did attempt plugged the USB into both a space on the motherboard directly and on the front IO of the case. Neither helped the situation with the humming and plugging into the back of the motherboard increased a bit of background static. Is there any way for a cable to pick up less emi? Some sort of aftermarket cable extension with a more resistant housing? I understand that a ground loop might be to blame, would you suggest a ground loop isolator for the USB power connection of the mixer?

The mixer came with a wall adapter for the USB much like a phone wall charger so I had tried plugging it into both a separate wall outlet and the same wall outlet as the computer. If this made a difference, it was likely undetectable by ear's alone. Would you advise buying a usb ground loop isolator? Also, I'm no where close to an expert but the connector on the mod mic is TRS Tup Ring Socket. I was under the impression that TRS was balanced and TS Tip Soclet was unbalanced. If I'm wrong than I would guess that the wire picking up emi is the most likely case but I don't understand why using my finger as a ground eliminates this and why hovering my hand over the keyboard causes interfere just like placing the mic wire over it. Thank you for your reply! I'll be around for any follow up questions!

Unfortunately, the Mod Mic seems to be pretty quiet out of the box. I have the Gain set at the second tick from max (directly facing right) and the volume in the same place (directly right). With gain completely down and volume max, I'm unable to sufficiently hear the monitoring until the headphones are turned up so high that the static from amping the headphones becomes more of a problem and the humming is still easily heard as well. Adjusting the volume and gain in windows additionally wouldn't help because I am not running the audio through Windows back to my headphones. Doing so would add latency. I do appreciate your comment though \o/ Thank you for the swift reply!

Hello people of LLT forums! I'm looking for help from the audio enthusiasts and professionals that may be out there in the world! I have run into an issue regarding my audio set up. I will first give a list of the materials used, say how they have been connected, then give a brief description of the issue. Set Up: -Asus Maximus IX Hero mother board -Sennheiser HD7 DJ headphones -Behringer Xeynx 302USB Mixboard/Preamp -Antlion Mod Mic 5.0 -A few 3.5mm to Stereo RCA splitter cables Connections: The goal of my audio set up was to receive audio to the headphones while being able to monitor the microphone in real time. The groundwork for this project what laid out in another LTT forum post which I have been able to find again. In my set up, A 3.5mm to RCA cable runs out of the audio output on the motherboard (which uses on board DAC, enthusiasts please don't eat me Dx). The RCA runs into the Line In 1 of the mixer. A second RCA to 3.5mm cable runs from the main mix output of the mixer to the mic input on the motherboard. The Mic and Headphones then connect in their respective 3.5mm inputs/outputs on the top right of the mixer. The button to the right of the red one is pressed so audio from line 1 does not pass back to the mic input on the motherboard and Mic input from the Mod Mic is input instead. The mixers power is connect to the wall via the included USB to Wall adapter and cable. This allows for mic monitoring with zero latency as well as a full control over the audio experience. Quite fantastic, thank you to the forum poster out there who helped me achieve this. The Problem: To an enthusiast, EVERYTHING WILL ALWAYS HAVE A PROBLEM. Nothing will ever work exactly as we want it. But that's what makes an enthusiast an enthusiast. Its the pursuit of perfection and ironing every last detail out no matter how small to achieve the best possible experience. My problem lies somewhere on this extreme scale of 1st world problems. Unfortunately, the Mod Mic is so quiet that I have to boost mic input, gain, or headphone levels in order to monitor it as I want to (which is quite loud considering the goal of it is to keep my voice volume down during the night). As a result I have Mic input set to 80%, Gain set to 80%, and headphone output set to 30% on the mixer because I find these settings give minimal status and distortion. Unfortunately I mean minimal with a grain of salt... At this volume there is a background hum (which is separate from the background static) that persists through the Mic Monitoring set up. This hum has a few odd characteristics... which I will list because lists are great... The Problem's... Quirks: -The hum is completely eliminated when touching a connection with bare skin on the mixer, mic, or headphones (but not the motherboard or computer) This includes occupied inputs, Occupied output, unoccupied inputs/outputs, the mic wire extension housing (exposed metal at connection), and even the USB power. -The same does not work when touching these parts with a piece of metal that is not touching human flesh... -If the Mic cable is near the keyboard, it will make a high pitched humming sound (this will not happen with any other cable) *I'm told LED controllers are notorious for making these kind of noises* -The same noise will occur if hands are hovering over the keyboard... which continues but to a much much lesser degree if the mic is moved away from the user. -Touching the exposed metal like before eliminates the humming from the keyboard and the background hum. -Bringing the mic cable close to a power cable or wall outlet increases the hum. Touching the connectors still reduces the hum but not 100% (maybe 5% of it is still audible) *not a problem just adding info* -While not a solution connecting the headphones and microphone to the motherboard and using "Listen to device" in Windows has no background hum (This was more of a proof of concept to show that the blame does not fall soley on the mic. -With no mic plugged into the mixer, there is none of the same hum in the headphones even when cranked to 100% (Proof of concept for the mixer... problem in the cable? Then why would touching the mixer's connection eliminate it??) -When using the Mod Mic's inline mute piece set to mute, the hum is completely eliminated Solution?: I'm very dumbfounded on this one guys and girls... I currently have the computer plugged into a wall outlet and the mixer plugged into a powerbar that draws from the outlet directly below it. I have tried moving the mixers power adapter to a completely different outlet in the room with no change to the hum. I am beginning to think it is some sort of grounding problem. I had researched and found something called a "ground loop" that occurs when two grounds have separate voltages in a house hold. I decided to give it a shot and bought a 3.5mm to 3.5mm ground loop isolator from amazon. I plugged it into the mic end but the humming persisted even louder and the microphone did not work. I have that now taken out of the set up. I did however try it on the headphone output and the motherboard output with no help there either. I'm a bit dumbfounded. My next idea is to buy a ground loop isolator for the USB connection but that is a bit more expensive and I'd rather not throw money away. Conclusion: So there you go members of the LTT forum. In situations where everything seems hopeless, no one makes it work better than people who have seen Linus perform... I call out with a plea to those in the community, help me achieve my enthusiast perfection! I will be watching this thread to answer and additional information or replies as quickly as possible. Thank You! -IceNine