Dealing with noise issues

It is common nowadays in modern music setups to have noise issues that require some thought and experience to sort out. Especially when you are using devices like computers these issues happen often since these devices are required in many countries by law to have grounded power supplies. As our devices are in practice small computers with CPU, RAM, etc. they are required to use grounded power supplies. As a consequence, some users may face common noise issues with this type of device.

In this tutorial we will check some common sources of noise on our devices and how should you approach to get it solved.

Gain staging

It's not uncommon to have noise being listenable due to poorly set gain staging settings between the devices connected to your setup.

As gain amplifies each element of an audio signal, a poorly set gain staging can be increasing the noise present in your gear to an unusable point.

How to tackle issues with gain staging on your MOD device

If the input gain on your MOD device feels a bit too quiet, try to increase the gain on the device on your signal chain before the MOD devices, while decreasing on the MOD device output. You can do that either by decreasing the Master Volume, a gain plugin by the end of your pedalboard.

If by another end you find the output signal on your MOD device too quite perform the opposite as before. So you should increase the output levels on your MOD device (again, either by using a plugin by the end of your pedalboard or the master volume), simultaneously you should decrease the gain in the device connected in your signal chain after your MOD device.

Note: all these adjustments should be done according to your setup and fine-tuning, so you can avoid noise issues.