Audible Noise When Using USB Connection on Boutique Units

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cloudburst
Posts: 181
Joined: 20:00, 11 November 2015
Location: Northern Ireland
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Re: Audible Noise When Using USB Connection on Boutique Unit

Post by cloudburst »

Is it possible that the boutique unit isn’t able to draw enough current, swaps to battery power and that’s how the hum is being eliminated? Easy to check.

CB
papasan
Posts: 39
Joined: 16:29, 14 September 2017

Re: Audible Noise When Using USB Connection on Boutique Unit

Post by papasan »

I used a USB charging station and a power/data Y-cable to break the ground loop. There's a discussion in the Aria forum for connecting Boutiques to the MX-1 that has a link to the y-cable. Worked like a charm.
JonoF
Posts: 4
Joined: 02:10, 21 September 2017

Re: Audible Noise When Using USB Connection on Boutique Unit

Post by JonoF »

RickJP909 wrote:
JonoF wrote:Hey guys,
Hi Jono.

Thanks for posting this update. I've just had a look at the link & this actually looks a viable solution because it's isolating the earth rather than filtering the audio which does affect the overall sound such as bass frequencies but I noted one important issue with it. The Boutiques require up to 400mA & that isolator states that it can only work with devices which will run with a max current draw of 200mA which isn't enough for my JP-08 apparently.

Can you confirm what Boutiques you are running? Does it work for example if you load up a sequence & play it as that'll draw more current than when it's just sitting there idle.

Many thanks.
Hey Rick,

Ok so this was working but then I ran a bunch of system wide updates after this (software updates, plugin updates, soft synth updates etc etc) and the usb connectivity has since stopped working (so disappointing) while connected through the isolator. It still stops the noise out the audio outputs, but I can no longer get my daw to see them to send midi messages or use the inbuilt boutique sound card.

I'm not sure what I've done but first thing I'm going to try is updating all the Boutique drivers and anything else related I can think of and or see if I can't roll back to when it was working.

If this fails, I'm going to order one of the 'high speed' isolators from the same company next week to try that.
These are a little bit more expensive, but they say on their website that there is higher compatibility with a lot more audio devices than their standard one. The standard one seems to work fine with my Korg R3, Gets rid of the noise from the outputs and the DAW can still see it to send midi etc when connected through the isolator.

You are also correct about the power, I just tested this and when plugged straight into the isolator and then into the usb port of the computer, there is not enough power to switch on the Boutiques.

I have a powered 10 port usb 3.0 hub. Just a cheap one I got from eBay.
The way I had it connected was boutiques (JU-06 & JP-08) into the powered usb hub, then the usb hub into the isolator, then the isolator into the side of the computer. This way there is enough power for the Boutiques.

Fingers crossed I can get this working again, will keep you posted.
YoUHatejefF
Posts: 7
Joined: 08:21, 9 August 2017

Re: Audible Noise When Using USB Connection on Boutique Unit

Post by YoUHatejefF »

I can totally recommend this ground loop isolator I got from Amazon.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01LYYRT7M/ ... E_AMZLdp_1

It was less than a tenner and apart from a tiny volume drop, has no sound quality loss but completely removes all noise from the output.

I was using a different one that did have a small amount of top-end loss but this sounds really good. It might just be my hearing playing tricks on me but it seems to almost improve and focus the sound. It also completely removed hiss from my IK Multimedia Stealth Plug guitar interface output which I wasn't expecting!
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