[muso] Monitor Help!

[defmem]

Hello, thought some of the knowledgable music folk round here might be able to help me...

I just got a pair of Alesis M1 520 USB monitors for some recordings I'm working on after reading generally good reviews. Basic set up is A Shure SM57 going into an M Audio Fast Track 2, and recording in Reaper. So nowt special, but hopefully good enough that I can record some half decent, acousticy guitar stuff for my lady for X-mas.

Anyway, I excitedly hooked them up this morning, only to find that whenever I open Reaper up, the monitors start giving off a high pitched, constant squealy tone. And after three hours of messing about with audio settings and google, I'm beginning to find myself in such a thorough state of frustration and despair that I'm quite prepared to drag my PC and all the musical equipment I own into the garden and bury it in the garden, before running away to start a new life in Finland or somewhere.

Another thought is that maybe the monitors are too close to the PC/electrical sources, but the strange thing is, if i come out of Reaper, the sound squeal disappears.

So, any advice would be welcome. Have I just bought shite speakers? Should I fuck it all off and plan to hijack the first available ferry?

[The Masked Unit]

How do they sound playing mp3s etc through them?

[defmem]

I just set the Fast Track as the default device for playback, and sound came through the monitors fine. Very strange, seems to only happen when I open recording software...

[NoSleep]

Is this a whiny buzz in the background, or something a little more dominant? I get a background whiny buzz from my cheapy usb audio interface, a Lexicon Alpha. It also arises when I use my slightly superior usb interface Tascam US-122, but only if I try using a long USB cable (5m; the maximum allowed for USB).

I also noticed that it would only happen when I launched either REAPER or Logic; as if they "grab" the connection to the interface that little more tenaciously.

It's something to do with USB and would disappear if you had a firewire audio interface. Try using better/shorter USB cables and see if that makes a difference.

The speakers are probably doing their job (too) well, and revealing what you had previously failed to notice.Fuck, the speakers are USB, too.

I've generally concluded that USB is shit for music.

It's unusual for the audio interface (the M-Audio) to not be supplying both the inputs and outputs for your needs (and connecting the outputs to your hifi or using headphones direct from the interface).

[defmem]

It's quite dominant, a high pitch constant tone. How to describe it... not entirely dissimilar from about 1:19 in this video: http://youtu.be/T07ABb0n2rg.

It doesn't completely overwhelm the sound, but it's not far off and is really fucking annoying! And the tone isn't appearing on any of the actual recordings.

Yeh, they're USB monitors, but I'm using them w/ RCA lead going from Fast Track into monitors (w/TRS adaptors). so really, there's only one USB connection being used.

[NoSleep]

There's an AC input on the rear of the speakers; power them with that and see if the whine disappears. MAKE SURE YOU'VE SELECTED THE CORRECT VOLTAGE FOR YOUR REGION (probably UK=220-240v) or you'll truly fuck them (hopefully they're set correctly for the region in which they're purchased).

[NoSleep]

You could also try seeing if turning up the gain on the rear of the speakers raises the level of the whine.

[defmem]

Yeh, they've been running on (the correct) AC from the off, but now the bastard things won't even power on!

Guess I'll be returning 'em. What a lot of fun today has been!

Appreciate the help though NoSleep

[NoSleep]

Ah... I assumed by your "only really one USB connection" that you were powering them via USB.

[NoSleep]

Get yourself a nice set of headphones instead.

[defmem]

I think that's quite possibly the way forward! I'm usually good with computers, and good with playing instruments, but sweet Jesus am I incredibly shite at combining those two things!

[NoSleep]

One further question. So, you didn't connect the speakers via USB as well as powering them via AC? I ask because of that "only really" of yours from earlier on, whereas it should have said actually only one USB connection.

[defmem]

The only USB connection was from the fast track interface, then the line outputs from the interface into the speakers. So no USB connection between speakers and PC

[NoSleep]

The speakers were clearly dying already, by the sounds of it.

[El Unicornio, mang]

I had an annoying buzzing sound from monitors and fixed it by something odd like changing the plug socket they were plugged into. I got rid of them anyway and just use headphones now.

[defmem]

Yeh, I'm thinking of going for a refund and ploughing a few quid into some decent headphones.

I think the only reasonable position to take from this experience is the same one I took after failing my first driving test and discovering my cat allergy: all cars/speakers/cats clearly hate me, and from this day forward I will treat them with nought but contempt.