Karaoke Forums

HO HUM, HO HUM. I did another family gathering, good thing it wasn't a paying gig. Terrible hum coming thru the PAs. Directly from the sound card channel. When I turned the mics down, it didn't go away. When I turned the channel slider down, it went away. This was with the Behringer. I took the Behringer out and used the 1/8 to dual 1/4 cable in so sound was coming directly from the laptop internal card. Hum still there. I tried switching channels. Same hum. What gives? As long as the music was going, tough to notice. But if the music was at a part of the song that was low, or between songs, very noticable and very annoying. I need to have this figured out before I contract out. Please help!

was everything plugged into the same outlet, or the same breaker in the house?

Many times with computeroke (LOL), either the TV has it's volume on, and you're picking up that, or you're getting dirty power (not properly grounded).

One option is to plug up to another outlet with your mixer...

Many people love the radioshack ground loop isolators.

and going USB out for sound - I have a Soundblaster mp3+ device that converts usb to RCA, and from that I hook up straight to the mixer.

Was there a satellite or cable system connected to the TV hooked to your laptop? Dollars to doughnuts that was the source. If you had disconnected the coax hooking that in, I am betting it would have disappeared.

_________________
[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Probably a ground loop. Try running the laptop of the battery, and if the hum goes away, it is a ground loop. To fix, lift the ground plug off the laptop power supply, or get a ground loop isolator.

Thanks for the help everyone, I will check that out when I get back home. I'm in Toronto for the rest of the year plus 4 more days.