Happy Monday everyone. Here we go with the third Tech Tips Blog. As I have said before, Tech Tips strives to empower weekend soundpeople with everyday tips and knowledge to help them achieve good sound in environments with less than optimum acoustics. Another facet of this endeavour is to pass along as many tips as possible that require no money to be spent. "Keepin it Green" is the idea here. So, here we go with..........
MYSTERIOUS NOISES
Anyone of us who works with a sound system or likes to listen to live music can tell you that you are more likely to hear a sound system buzz and hum and make other various assorted mysterious noises than to hear a sound system that is pristine, clean and a true pleasure to listen to (As they should be). But there is good news. There are steps that can be taken to remedy the situation. Lets just look at it logically and see what we come up with. Your audio connectors are plated metal and rely on a metal to metal contact for good signal conductivity. An intermittent connection describes a condition where a connection is cutting in and out with no apparent reason. You look at the connector and it seems to look okay. You just bought the cable a few weeks ago so you know it’s new and you scratch your head in wonder. Well, look a little closer. That cheeseburger and fries you quickly grabbed for lunch while setting up was greasy and you have left a greasy fingerprint on your connector. (guitar type instrument cables are likely suspects because they are exposed) The main shaft of the connector is ground and vitally important to the connection. A micro film of grease can get between your connector and the input jack it plugs into. This is the ground part of your connector and nothing happens without a good ground. Take your connector and a clean cotton cloth. (your tee shirt) breathe on it the way you would to clean your glasses and give it a good wipe. Think of it as polishing the silverware. Now try it again and see if the situation improves. Every couple of weeks I do this to all my connectors and usually never fail to find one or two that have yucky sticky stuff on them. A soft clean cotton cloth is all that is needed for this highly effective maintenance project. This by the way happens to DVD movies quite often. My kids will yell to me that the movie is “not working” I quite often would flip the DVD over to discover a very small thumbprint and then my eye waders to the bowl of potatoe chips on the coffee table and I need not say more. Hey, I guess this is two tech tips in one. Audio and Video.
Take care
TT