AMP without a hiss

[devastone]

Re: AMP without a hiss

You can't compare your stereo equipment to guitar amps, very different. High gain preamps on guitar amps are noisy and noise gates get rid of that when you aren't playing. If the noise is loud enough to affect the signal when you are playing, there is another problem. Sounds like you are using a lot of gain and/or having level or ground mismatch issues with plugging the Blackstar into the PC.

Oh yeah, the noise floor is probably going to get worse when you add the compressor based on your other thread and what you want to do with it.

 

[AxlOz]

Re: AMP without a hiss

Funny, that aside BBD circuits, for me it's always been the digital things in signal line that produce hiss.

Thats true actually - I've found digital things will produce a hiss, whereas analog things will produce hum.. Semantics.. Its all usually unwanted noise once it gets to a certain point.
I've become used to the hum though. I play strats (single coils) with tube amps set slightly dirty, so as soon as I'm not playing some noise is often heard. I just kill the volume on the guitar to nuke it. Some rooms/stages are worse than others though..

 

[mupi]

Re: AMP without a hiss

Reply to some of the remarks posted before.

1) The hiss is in the amp even when it is not connected to anything. It gets very audible at high gain and high volume. It is always there. It is just a bad amp. $159 is actually too much for this junk made in China. If there was no hiss, I would not have complained as I like the "Super Crunch" effect. There are many amps in this price range w/o the hiss. Blackstar has to recall this junk.

2) I can change the line-in level of the PC. But that does not change the fact that the hiss from the amp is always present. The signal that comes from the amp has the hiss. So everything after the amp will receive and reproduce the hiss. I have to get rid of the hissy amp. Whatever solution I find, I dont want this amp to be part of it.

3) The sustain that I get without the compressor isnt enough for what I want to play, even if I hook up the headphone directly to the amp. I never play the amp speaker directly as it is just too loud. So I always use a headphone, either directly connected to the amp or connected to the PC via the small headphone amp.

4) The compressor, Boss CS-3 does incease the sustain but the compressor also amplifies all the unwanted content (noise) like the hiss from the amp, finger noise, plucking noise etc. I dont get enough sustain if I lower the amp gain and volume to reduce the amp hiss.

The longer sustain that I get with the compressor is not enjoyable due to all the extra noise. I guess the compressor itself may also be adding some hiss as many reviews have mentioned that the compressor has noise when used with level and sustain knobs turned high. With those knobs at 12'oclock position, there isnt any perceivable increase in sustain. I see all the rave reviews for this Boss CS-3. Not sure what all those people are raving about. This isnt worth $99. I can return this to Sweetwater. But I have already returned 3 guitars. So I dont like to return the compressor. Will sell it on ebay for half price. They should stop calling this a sustainer. May be "noisy sustainer".

 

[justFred]

Re: AMP without a hiss

you first idea was to replace the amp...that was well thought out and supported by info from other users...stick on the path for a while at least...go check out the Katana and see what you think...talk to the music store guy and online techs at Sweetwater(for example)...Maybe a Yamaha amp will do what it wants...there are a lot of options at that price point...give em all a go...

 

[Adieu]

Re: AMP without a hiss

Reply to some of the remarks posted before.

1) The hiss is in the amp even when it is not connected to anything. It gets very audible at high gain and high volume. It is always there. It is just a bad amp. $159 is actually too much for this junk made in China. If there was no hiss, I would not have complained as I like the "Super Crunch" effect. There are many amps in this price range w/o the hiss. Blackstar has to recall this junk.

2) I can change the line-in level of the PC. But that does not change the fact that the hiss from the amp is always present. The signal that comes from the amp has the hiss. So everything after the amp will receive and reproduce the hiss. I have to get rid of the hissy amp. Whatever solution I find, I dont want this amp to be part of it.

3) The sustain that I get without the compressor isnt enough for what I want to play, even if I hook up the headphone directly to the amp. I never play the amp speaker directly as it is just too loud. So I always use a headphone, either directly connected to the amp or connected to the PC via the small headphone amp.

4) The compressor, Boss CS-3 does incease the sustain but the compressor also amplifies all the unwanted content (noise) like the hiss from the amp, finger noise, plucking noise etc. I dont get enough sustain if I lower the amp gain and volume to reduce the amp hiss.

The longer sustain that I get with the compressor is not enjoyable due to all the extra noise. I guess the compressor itself may also be adding some hiss as many reviews have mentioned that the compressor has noise when used with level and sustain knobs turned high. With those knobs at 12'oclock position, there isnt any perceivable increase in sustain. I see all the rave reviews for this Boss CS-3. Not sure what all those people are raving about. This isnt worth $99. I can return this to Sweetwater. But I have already returned 3 guitars. So I dont like to return the compressor. Will sell it on ebay for half price. They should stop calling this a sustainer. May be "noisy sustainer".

Wait is it hissing thru its own speaker...or just with your half-assed computer connection? Cause line-in to a crappy sound card ain't exactly how things are done

 

[Jacew]

Re: AMP without a hiss

Reply to some of the remarks posted before.

1) The hiss is in the amp even when it is not connected to anything. It gets very audible at high gain and high volume. It is always there. It is just a bad amp. $159 is actually too much for this junk made in China. If there was no hiss, I would not have complained as I like the "Super Crunch" effect. There are many amps in this price range w/o the hiss. Blackstar has to recall this junk.

2) I can change the line-in level of the PC. But that does not change the fact that the hiss from the amp is always present. The signal that comes from the amp has the hiss. So everything after the amp will receive and reproduce the hiss. I have to get rid of the hissy amp. Whatever solution I find, I dont want this amp to be part of it.

3) The sustain that I get without the compressor isnt enough for what I want to play, even if I hook up the headphone directly to the amp. I never play the amp speaker directly as it is just too loud. So I always use a headphone, either directly connected to the amp or connected to the PC via the small headphone amp.

4) The compressor, Boss CS-3 does incease the sustain but the compressor also amplifies all the unwanted content (noise) like the hiss from the amp, finger noise, plucking noise etc. I dont get enough sustain if I lower the amp gain and volume to reduce the amp hiss.

The longer sustain that I get with the compressor is not enjoyable due to all the extra noise. I guess the compressor itself may also be adding some hiss as many reviews have mentioned that the compressor has noise when used with level and sustain knobs turned high. With those knobs at 12'oclock position, there isnt any perceivable increase in sustain. I see all the rave reviews for this Boss CS-3. Not sure what all those people are raving about. This isnt worth $99. I can return this to Sweetwater. But I have already returned 3 guitars. So I dont like to return the compressor. Will sell it on ebay for half price. They should stop calling this a sustainer. May be "noisy sustainer".

Ok. Change the amp. Sounds like that Blackstar is just not very good...

 

[Jacew]

Re: AMP without a hiss

Thats true actually - I've found digital things will produce a hiss, whereas analog things will produce hum.. Semantics.. Its all usually unwanted noise once it gets to a certain point.
I've become used to the hum though. I play strats (single coils) with tube amps set slightly dirty, so as soon as I'm not playing some noise is often heard. I just kill the volume on the guitar to nuke it. Some rooms/stages are worse than others though..

Yep. That too. Digotal hiss is just hideously annoying. Some analog hum is always present in my rig too. That's not a problem at all.

 

[devastone]

Re: AMP without a hiss

The compressor is doing what it is supposed to, you apparently have other issues to deal with.

I would suggest maybe looking for a decent USB interface, although I'm not really sure what you are using to get the signal to the computer. Are you hooking the amp to the computer via USB, then listening on headphones from the amp or computer?

It sounds like there are other issues going on, or, you are just expecting something from your equipment that it's not capable of.

 

[Mincer]

Re: AMP without a hiss

I'd first get used to playing without a compressor on all the time. It will rob you of touch-sensitivity if on all the time, not to mention, make any noise that is there much, much worse.

 

[devastone]

Re: AMP without a hiss

I'd first get used to playing without a compressor on all the time. It will rob you of touch-sensitivity if on all the time, not to mention, make any noise that is there much, much worse.

We already went down that road starting on page 2 of this thread - https://forum.seymourduncan.com/showthread.php?329952-Explain-compressors

 

[devastone]

Re: AMP without a hiss

So, in the picture you posted showing the foam earplugs jammed in your strings on the compressor thread, it looks like you are playing a Squire strat (? you may have mentioned it before, I didn't dig). You do know that single coil pickups "pick up" tons of noise and all that goes through the amp. If you are sitting in front of a computer the whole time you are playing it is picking up lots of noise, even humbuckers will pick up some noise if they are in front of a computer.

 

[ehdwuld]

Re: AMP without a hiss

Fluorescent lighting
CRT tube monitors
Refrigerator

They all induce 60 cycle hum

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: AMP without a hiss

Fluorescent lighting
CRT tube monitors
Refrigerator

They all induce 60 cycle hum

Also, lighting dimmers, even when used with regular incandescent bulbs. Maybe not pure 60 Hz, but noise that gets in a lot of our stuff.

 

[devastone]

Re: AMP without a hiss

I think he is in Russia(?) so it would be 50Hz, but the same idea.

 

[ehdwuld]

Re: AMP without a hiss

Well in Russia it could be microwave interference as well

 

[justFred]

Re: AMP without a hiss

or nuclear radiation.... Chernobyl....

 

[mupi]

Re: AMP without a hiss

So, in the picture you posted showing the foam earplugs jammed in your strings on the compressor thread, it looks like you are playing a Squire strat (? you may have mentioned it before, I didn't dig). You do know that single coil pickups "pick up" tons of noise and all that goes through the amp. If you are sitting in front of a computer the whole time you are playing it is picking up lots of noise, even humbuckers will pick up some noise if they are in front of a computer.

Yes it is a Squie Strat. But there is no hum from the pickups as I am using neck+middle i.e the hum gets cancelled. If I use just the neck for example yeah there is a hum.
Like I have said before the amp has a hiss even when nothing is connected to the amp.

 

[mupi]

Re: AMP without a hiss

The compressor is doing what it is supposed to, you apparently have other issues to deal with.

I would suggest maybe looking for a decent USB interface, although I'm not really sure what you are using to get the signal to the computer. Are you hooking the amp to the computer via USB, then listening on headphones from the amp or computer?

It sounds like there are other issues going on, or, you are just expecting something from your equipment that it's not capable of.

The guitar is connected to the amp. The headphone out from the amp goes to the HTPC through an isolation transformer and the headphone is hooked to the PC via headphone amp. It is the JDS lab O2, one of the quietest headphone amps in the market. There are only 2 things in the chain that are adding noise. The amp and the compressor.

I play a lot of music through my PC and headphone amp via the Jriver media server and the Audio Technica MS50 headphones. They do not generate any noise and I would know that as I am using headphones. Before I also had the Denon AVR 3310 hooked up to the PC as I had speakers. That AVR is also quiet and does not add any noise. I was also using the direct mode to eliminate any DTA, ATD conversions.

 

[mupi]

Re: AMP without a hiss

you first idea was to replace the amp...that was well thought out and supported by info from other users...stick on the path for a while at least...go check out the Katana and see what you think...talk to the music store guy and online techs at Sweetwater(for example)...Maybe a Yamaha amp will do what it wants...there are a lot of options at that price point...give em all a go...

I will check it out. Sweetwater Techs?? No thanks. The previous tech could not make me a recommendation for an amp with low noise floor. The new tech could not tell what they do if there are high frets on the guitar. Then I asked him if they just raise the action or file/level the frets. He said he will put me in touch with a guitar player in the store!

 

[mupi]

Re: AMP without a hiss

Seymour Duncan forum shows my title as Senior Member. LOL Nope I didnt change it myself. May be 50 posts=Senior Member