Recording bass or guitar on a Hackintosh

[GLN82]

Hi all, I've been dealing with the following issue for years now and I'm wondering if anyone has similar experiences.

Whenever I Record bass or guitar(or anything with passive pick-ups) I get this terrible digital computer noise in the signal.

My current setup:

GA-Z270X-Gaming7
I7-7700K 4,2Ghz
Universal Audio Apollo x8p

When I plug the Apollo into my 2017 Macbook pro and then plug a bass or guitar into the Apollo the noise is gone, it's completely clean.

I've googled this a lot and the most common answer I find is electromagnetic radiation from the cpu getting picked up by the pickups of the guitar.
This makes sense but why is it non existing on a macbook? Even if I hold the guitar very close to the laptop it's completely clean..

Would love to hear your thoughts on this.

Thanks in advance!

Glenn

 

[Gigamaxx]

Hi all, I've been dealing with the following issue for years now and I'm wondering if anyone has similar experiences.

Whenever I Record bass or guitar(or anything with passive pick-ups) I get this terrible digital computer noise in the signal.

My current setup:

GA-Z270X-Gaming7
I7-7700K 4,2Ghz
Universal Audio Apollo x8p

When I plug the Apollo into my 2017 Macbook pro and then plug a bass or guitar into the Apollo the noise is gone, it's completely clean.

I've googled this a lot and the most common answer I find is electromagnetic radiation from the cpu getting picked up by the pickups of the guitar.
This makes sense but why is it non existing on a macbook? Even if I hold the guitar very close to the laptop it's completely clean..

Would love to hear your thoughts on this.

Thanks in advance!

Glenn

how does it connect?
USB or Tunderbolt?

 

[GLN82]

how does it connect?
USB or Tunderbolt?

Thunderbolt 3

 

[Shiitaki]

Digital circuits are bad for noise, extraordinary measures to prevent noise.

The sources of the noise can include the computer power supply, the motherboard having inadequate filter on the USB ports. Another USB creating noise. A cheap USB cable. And of course noise being transmitted though the ground connections, especially if both devices are connected to Earth ground. Turns out ground is not ground, there can be small difference that are picked up by the amplifier, and of course, amplified.

Numerous solutions abound, including a high end PS like a Seasonic Prime+, they have extraordinarily tight regulation and surprisingly low noise, combined with an add in USB card with a direct connection not the power supply using SATA or Moles.

Another option, a powered hub with it's own clean and preferably analog, power supply.

A better or non defective USB cable.

Pluggin in the computer and power supply for your Apollo in to the same power strip.

Some motherboards even have the ability to turn off the power to certain USB ports specifically so you can power a USB interface from an outboard power supply. Which I have not used since I'm rathe pleasantly surprised by the quality of my new motherboard output plugged into a Schiit tone control. Mmmm, class A buffer with in-phase second harmonic distortion! Oddly with all of the crap I have plugged in I'm surprised I don't have noise issues myself. I'm really impressed with the newer motherboards with the hard work of cleaning up the audio noise floor. Some boards are actually independently regulating the USB power for a couple of ports just for audio interfaces. Gigabyte even allows you to turn the voltage up a little bit, which means it must be powered from the 12v line with it's own regulator.

I'm kind of surprised that your MacBook doesn't have noise, all of my Macs have noise on the analog output, Apple does a mediocre job of controlling noise. This makes me wonder about the noise coming through the power connections, as in the power cords and the sockets they are connected too or some other USB device creating noise.

And of course another idea that should have occurred to me is you could be getting interference from any kind of radio device that just so happens to close to your computer. Things like Cell phones, routers, onboard wifi antennas, or bluetooth radios?

I googled Apollo interface to see what kind of power and it turns out there are many Apollo audio interfaces, so I couldn't be more specific. I kind of went of quick sampling of possibilities.

Noise and interference are solved by trial error.

 

[Gigamaxx]

Thunderbolt 3

Is it an add in PCIe card or a mobo USB3.1 type connector?

 

[zipb]

Plugging in the computer and power supply for your Apollo in to the same power strip.

Like Shiitaki said. This is the first thing you should check. Use a star scheme for connecting all your equipment, so everything gets their power from the same outlet.

 

[GLN82]

Digital circuits are bad for noise, extraordinary measures to prevent noise.

The sources of the noise can include the computer power supply, the motherboard having inadequate filter on the USB ports. Another USB creating noise. A cheap USB cable. And of course noise being transmitted though the ground connections, especially if both devices are connected to Earth ground. Turns out ground is not ground, there can be small difference that are picked up by the amplifier, and of course, amplified.

Numerous solutions abound, including a high end PS like a Seasonic Prime+, they have extraordinarily tight regulation and surprisingly low noise, combined with an add in USB card with a direct connection not the power supply using SATA or Moles.

Another option, a powered hub with it's own clean and preferably analog, power supply.

A better or non defective USB cable.

Pluggin in the computer and power supply for your Apollo in to the same power strip.

Some motherboards even have the ability to turn off the power to certain USB ports specifically so you can power a USB interface from an outboard power supply. Which I have not used since I'm rathe pleasantly surprised by the quality of my new motherboard output plugged into a Schiit tone control. Mmmm, class A buffer with in-phase second harmonic distortion! Oddly with all of the crap I have plugged in I'm surprised I don't have noise issues myself. I'm really impressed with the newer motherboards with the hard work of cleaning up the audio noise floor. Some boards are actually independently regulating the USB power for a couple of ports just for audio interfaces. Gigabyte even allows you to turn the voltage up a little bit, which means it must be powered from the 12v line with it's own regulator.

I'm kind of surprised that your MacBook doesn't have noise, all of my Macs have noise on the analog output, Apple does a mediocre job of controlling noise. This makes me wonder about the noise coming through the power connections, as in the power cords and the sockets they are connected too or some other USB device creating noise.

And of course another idea that should have occurred to me is you could be getting interference from any kind of radio device that just so happens to close to your computer. Things like Cell phones, routers, onboard wifi antennas, or bluetooth radios?

I googled Apollo interface to see what kind of power and it turns out there are many Apollo audio interfaces, so I couldn't be more specific. I kind of went of quick sampling of possibilities.

Noise and interference are solved by trial error.

Thanks for your reply!

I'll look into the powersuply, I use an old gigabyte PS so there's definitely room for improvement there.

I don't use USB, the Apollo is connected trough Thunderbolt 3, straight to the motherboard.

Another interesting thing:
When I connect the Apollo to my MBP and plug in a bass/guitar it's clean but if I then turn on my Hackintosh the noise comes back! Eventhough it's not connected to the Apollo or MBP in any way...

 

[GLN82]

Is it an add in PCIe card or a mobo USB3.1 type connector?

It's a Thunderbolt 3 connector on the mobo

 

[GLN82]

Plugging in the computer and power supply for your Apollo in to the same power strip.

Like Shiitaki said. This is the first thing you should check. Use a star scheme for connecting all your equipment, so everything gets their power from the same outlet.

I'm not familiar with a star scheme but I'll google it, thanks!

 

[Gigamaxx]