Hahaha, Dave. Can we write that on your tombstone? Listen, it has nothing to do with whether I "like it" or not. You can paint your laptop pink and purple and cover it with Hannah Montana stickers for all that me "liking it" has to do with anything. Its not the Bryan Smart certification of approval you're dealing with here, but your life. Just because you *can* touch something at this moment, without your body completing an electrical circuit, or completing one that kills you, doesn't mean that something is safe with the safety features bypassed. Maybe all is fine until that day when you reach over to touch a guitar amp or powered mixer, and the electrons, being trapped in the chassy since there is no ground, discover in an instant that your body, via your arm and chest, is the shortest path to ground. I really do mean it when I say that you won't have enough time to know that you're dead. Most computer gear is low volts and high amps. Were I to come in direct contact with the electrical bus in my little netbook, for example, I'd find 30 times the electrical power in amps, at any given moment, required to kill me. Bryan -----Original Message----- From: ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Dave Carlson Sent: Tuesday, October 20, 2009 12:11 PM To: ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [ddots-l] Re: Recording with laptop Brian, Like it or not, it works. Dave ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bryan Smart" <bryansmart@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: <ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Monday, October 19, 2009 23:10 Subject: [ddots-l] Re: Recording with laptop Lifting the ground pin will only eliminate a 50hz or 60hz hum caused by equipment that is out of alternating phase with another piece of equipment that you're monitoring. Besides, its dangerous, and I can't believe how many people keep suggesting this to people on lists, as if grounding pins are silly unnecessary annoyances on high voltage equipment. When you hear hum, it means that you have an electrical problem. You can ignore the problem, and live with the hum, but defeating the safety features in order to remove the hum is foolish. Odds are that your electrical problem, now without the silly safeties to get in your way, could end up hurting or killing you if you accidentally touch the right combination of equipment and create a fatal circuit with your body. Those ground plug lifting adaptors are no problem on little devices that pull fractional amounts of power, but laptops, towers, audio gear, etc can pull between 100 to 1000 watts or more, and it is just not safe to do that! Having said that, you probably don't have a hum. You probably have a digital chirping sound. If you listen closely, you'll notice that the sound of the chirping changes when the computer is doing something like loading web pages and opening programs. A lot of laptops do this. It is a combination of poor electrical circuitry and a cheap USB sound card. The digital chirp that you're hearing is cross-talk from a poorly shielded electrical bus inside the laptop. Some USB sound devices have canceling circuitry that partially eliminates this chirp, but the only real way to get rid of it is to not run the sound card off of the laptop's power. That means buying a higher quality interface with better canceling circuitry, or, better still, buying an interface with its own power cord. An interface with its own power cord has its own internal transformer and power bus, and won't be as affected by the cross-talk from the laptop's leaky power bus. If it turns out that you do have a power problem, then get a power conditioner. If you can't afford a power conditioner, then get an uninterruptable power supply from an office supply place. UPSes are cheap, and do a fairly good job at cleaning up the alternating current's waveform for the price that you pay. Bryan -----Original Message----- From: ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Mark Dew Sent: Monday, October 19, 2009 8:11 PM To: ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [ddots-l] Re: Recording with laptop Steve, here's the deal. We figured out if she unplugs the wall power supply from the laptop, the static sound is gone. Clear as a bell. When she plugs the power supply back in, the sound returns. So maybe that ground loop you spoke of a few days ago might be the answer. Mark At 05:17 PM 10/19/2009 +0100, you wrote: >Hi Mark, > >Have you tried charging up the laptop and recording without the mains >adapter plugged in? > >I use a laptop for my Studio computer and it works better without the >mains adapter. >This maybe worth a try. > >Steve W >----- Original Message ----- >From: "Mark Dew" <jmkeybd1@xxxxxxxxxxx> >To: <ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> >Sent: Monday, October 19, 2009 12:45 AM >Subject: [ddots-l] Re: Recording with laptop > > >> >> Gord, I'll check with her and let you know. >> She just said it's a usb sound card. >> Steve, it's hard to tell, I think it's just a frying sound. >> I think maybe the sound card is just bad. >> What would you folks recamend for the laptop? >> She's using a Mackie mixer, with a sm-58 shure mic. >> She's just doing simple work, recording vocals along with an audio >> file. >> >> Mark >> >> >> At 04:28 PM 10/18/2009 -0400, you wrote: >>>The mic in may be only mono. Also, you really don't want to use the >>>laptop's onboard sound for recording audio. What usb interface does >>>she have? >>>Gord >>>----- Original Message ----- >>>From: "Mark Dew" <jmkeybd1@xxxxxxxxxxx> >>>To: <ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> >>>Sent: Saturday, October 17, 2009 12:55 PM >>>Subject: [ddots-l] Recording with laptop >>> >>> >>>> Hello folks. >>>> Here's the problem. >>>> I have a friend who has just a laptop and a mackie 8 channel mixer. >>>> She has only a mic input on the laptop. >>>> The audio siggnel is too hot. >>>> She did perchased a u s b sound card that has a line in jack. >>>> When she records using the line in there is a static sound she >>>> can't get rid of. >>>> I believe the sound card is bad. >>>> The mic input on the laptop itself is ok, except too hot. >>>> My question is, is there such a thing as an audio cable that would >>>> restrict the audio level? >>>> I had her to turn down the mic input on the laptop but with no results. >>>> Any ideas would be welcome. >>>> >>>> Cheers! >>>> >>>> Mark >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> PLEASE READ THIS FOOTER AT LEAST ONCE! >>>> To leave the list, click on the immediately following link: >>>> ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe >>>> If this link doesn't work then send a message to: >>>> ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx >>>> and in the Subject line type >>>> unsubscribe >>>> For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the >>>> immediately following link: >>>> ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq or send a message, to >>>> ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx and in the Subject line type faq >>>> >>>> >>> >>>PLEASE READ THIS FOOTER AT LEAST ONCE! >>>To leave the list, click on the immediately following link: >>>ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe >>>If this link doesn't work then send a message to: >>>ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx >>>and in the Subject line type >>>unsubscribe >>>For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the >>>immediately following link: >>>ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq or send a message, to >>>ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx and in the Subject line type faq >>> >>> >> PLEASE READ THIS FOOTER AT LEAST ONCE! >> To leave the list, click on the immediately following link: >> ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe >> If this link doesn't work then send a message to: >> ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx >> and in the Subject line type >> unsubscribe >> For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the >> immediately following link: >> ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq or send a message, to >> ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx and in the Subject line type faq >> >> > > >PLEASE READ THIS FOOTER AT LEAST ONCE! >To leave the list, click on the immediately following link: >ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe >If this link doesn't work then send a message to: >ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx >and in the Subject line type >unsubscribe >For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the immediately >following link: >ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq or send a message, to >ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx and in the Subject line type faq > > PLEASE READ THIS FOOTER AT LEAST ONCE! To leave the list, click on the immediately following link: ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe If this link doesn't work then send a message to: ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx and in the Subject line type unsubscribe For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the immediately following link: ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq or send a message, to ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx and in the Subject line type faq PLEASE READ THIS FOOTER AT LEAST ONCE! To leave the list, click on the immediately following link: ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=subscribe If this link doesn't work then send a message to: ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx and in the Subject line type unsubscribe For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the immediately following link: ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subjectzq or send a message, to ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx and in the Subject line type faq PLEASE READ THIS FOOTER AT LEAST ONCE! To leave the list, click on the immediately following link: ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe If this link doesn't work then send a message to: ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx and in the Subject line type unsubscribe For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the immediately following link: ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq or send a message, to ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx and in the Subject line type faq PLEASE READ THIS FOOTER AT LEAST ONCE! To leave the list, click on the immediately following link: ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe If this link doesn't work then send a message to: ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx and in the Subject line type unsubscribe For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the immediately following link: ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subjectúq or send a message, to ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx and in the Subject line type faq