Audacity Forum

goony,

Wireless stuff like that broadcasts at frequencies that are much too high to affect a guitar pickup. Anything that got picked up would be filtered out as soon as it hits the guitar cable.

That said, if you put your cell phone on top of your guitar pickup, you might hear something, but you'll have to get really close I think.

Florescent lights and dimmer switches are a different matter. I also find that my CPU case seems to put out something that my bass's pickups don't like either. I have to sit facing away from the case to get a silent recording. It just occurred to me that it may also be my stereo receiver. I'll have to test later at home.

My personal hate at the moment is a steady ticking noise on my amp/speakers (connected to the sound card, but there even if listening to something else) that goes with screen refreshes on my TFT monitor - I think it's some thing to do with grounding and my graphics card, so I'm going to try a bunch of ferrite cores on the audio cable to put some inductance in - I've already got a filter in the mains power to the amp.

<<<mobile phones>>>

Mobile phones have a hidden problem. If you have one on vibrate and it rings while it's sitting on top of a glass monitor, it can put a semi-permanent color blotch on the monitor. All those conditions have to line up. Vibrate mode on a mobile runs a small, unshielded electric motor and it can produce an enormous electromagnetic field for a short time.

You should find your interference by setting the computer so you can hear live what you're doing, turn it all the way up and wave the guitar around until you find the trash. we have a really tiny lamp dimmer next to one of the audio consoles and the console would fail only for those people who liked dim light.

I used to have an unshielded guitar pickup without the guitar. It was great for finding hum and buzz problems.

The problems can be seriously convoluted. My entertainment system would hum until I disconnected the roof antenna (different grounds). Get one of those three-light AC power testers (that I can't find a web site for) and plug it into all your wall outlets. Make sure the right two lights come on (they're marked). If only one light comes you you may be missing the safety ground inside the wall and that's a serious problem.

Koz