High-pitched noise when opening Reaper

[Grue]

Hey guys,

I switched from Cubase to Reaper about a week ago because I was frustrated with some of the limited features in the Artist Version. So far I'm absolutely happy with everything, Reaper seems a lot more intuitive to me and it seemed easier to work on most of my stuff right from the start. There's just one annyoing little problem I can't get solved:

Every time I start Reaper, my Computer (and it's definitely my computer, not my interface) starts to produce a high-pitched whining/whirring noise. It's visible on the Input VU-Meters on both inputs in Reaper, it's not audible on any recordings, though. As soon as I close Reaper, the sound stops and it also stops as long as the "Device"-options are opened in Reaper. Changing or reinstalling the driver doesn't work, already tried that. I never had this problem before but since it started it also happens when I open Cubase.

I run a Windows 10 PC with a Steinberg UR 22 MK2 Interface connected to two HS8 Monitors. Plugging any of the cables in and out doesn't change anything, although the noise starts to sound on the monitors, when the cables are only halfway plugged in, which is pretty weird.

By now I've completely run out of ideas so it would be great if anyone had any way to fix this

Greetings

Grue

[domzy]

are you using a laptop? if so does running on battery rather than mains make any difference?

[Credge]

Is your PC plugged in to the same outlet/strip as your PC?

[Grue]

Originally Posted by domzy

are you using a laptop? if so does running on battery rather than mains make any difference?

Nope, not on a laptop, so that can't be an issue :/

Originally Posted by Credge

Is your PC plugged in to the same outlet/strip as your PC?

I suppose you meant "interface"? If so, then no, it's powered via USB over the PC.

[Credge]

Originally Posted by Grue

Nope, not on a laptop, so that can't be an issue :/



I suppose you meant "interface"? If so, then no, it's powered via USB over the PC.

Yes, that's what I meant . Interesting! When you wear headphones and move the mouse can you hear the mouse movements ad digital noise?

[Credge]

Let me rephrase that a little. If your interface has a headphone out, can you hear the mouse through them? Another thing to test would be to see if you get that same noise through headphones plugged directly in to the PC. Of course, while Reaper is open.

Is it the same volume while Reaper is open regardless of what your volume levels are set at?

[Grue]

Originally Posted by Credge

Let me rephrase that a little. If your interface has a headphone out, can you hear the mouse through them? Another thing to test would be to see if you get that same noise through headphones plugged directly in to the PC. Of course, while Reaper is open.

Is it the same volume while Reaper is open regardless of what your volume levels are set at?

That's the weird thing, the sound is actually audible with headphones and speakers turned off, it's coming directly from the PC and you can hear it when you put your ear against it. But it's also visible on the VUs, so it seems to translate to the Interface Inputs. If I put the Track in Reaper on Monitor and pull the volume of the headphones up all the way I can also hear it on the headphones, but it doesn't change when I move the mouse. It's all quite strange...

[grinder]

Check the cables you are using are you able to use different ones

Grinder

[Grue]

Originally Posted by grinder

Check the cables you are using are you able to use different ones

Grinder

Just switched the standard USB cable of the interface with the one of my synth, nothing changed

[grinder]

The interface inputs and anything related to them might be the key

Grinder

[akademie]

I would say the problem is in power supply of the PC.

[Glennbo]

If Windows sound is also being run through the monitors, a motherboard mic input could inject noise into the signal.

I use mobo sound for the OS, and my external USB audio for REAPER, but both are routed to my studio monitors and I once started hearing stuff like the OP along with hearing my HD accesses. Took me a cool minute to find that some app had enabled the motherboard mic input with automatic gain engaged. Muting it and dropping it's fader back to zero and my system became silent again.

[Credge]

Originally Posted by Grue

That's the weird thing, the sound is actually audible with headphones and speakers turned off, it's coming directly from the PC and you can hear it when you put your ear against it. But it's also visible on the VUs, so it seems to translate to the Interface Inputs. If I put the Track in Reaper on Monitor and pull the volume of the headphones up all the way I can also hear it on the headphones, but it doesn't change when I move the mouse. It's all quite strange...

Yeah no kidding, that is pretty strange. The reason for asking about mouse movement is that sometimes that kind of noise can be amplified by mouse movements if there's like an odd ground issue happening. Is there any chance you could record the sound? It probably won't help in diagnosing the problem but I'm just kind of curious.

On my PC I have a similar issue where certain programs will cause this awful static/noise that I know is caused by a wiring issue at my house. It's most prevalent in video games where I can look around in different directions and get different frequencies. It's pretty intense stuff and makes for a very annoying time.

[Grue]

Originally Posted by akademie

I would say the problem is in power supply of the PC.

Yeah, that would be my next move, buying a seperately powered USB-Hub, so that I can rule out any power problems with the PC. I will try it later today and report back what happens...

Originally Posted by Credge

Yeah no kidding, that is pretty strange. The reason for asking about mouse movement is that sometimes that kind of noise can be amplified by mouse movements if there's like an odd ground issue happening. Is there any chance you could record the sound? [...]

I added a recording to this post. It's barely audible because of the PC fan but its definitely there and you can hear it much better in person. The output on the VU-Meter is exactly synched with the irregular creaking you can (barely) hear on the recording.

[Credge]

Originally Posted by Grue

Yeah, that would be my next move, buying a seperately powered USB-Hub, so that I can rule out any power problems with the PC. I will try it later today and report back what happens...



I added a recording to this post. It's barely audible because of the PC fan but its definitely there and you can hear it much better in person. The output on the VU-Meter is exactly synched with the irregular creaking you can (barely) hear on the recording.

The click at 12 seconds in right before it turns to 13 - is that part of the noise? I'm at work and can only hear the low fan hum .

[cyrano]

There's some rumble in the jungle...

After 16 dB amplification, to make the waveform visible, 43 Hz is at -20 dB. That's pretty loud. But 120 Hz reaches 0 dB...

The highest audible peak, at 1 kHz, is at -32 dB.



If you want to kill a sub, this is your weapon.

[serr]

Chasing noise through ground loops and poorly designed power supplies!
That's the long and short of it.

The built-in audio interface and it's mic would only be in the equation if you made an aggregate device of it + your external and selected the aggregate in Reaper. (A number of steps that you can't just accidentally click on!)

Computer digital data stream noises?
Noise that found a shorter wire than it's ground wire. (Ground loop.)

You could upgrade everything. Get a Mac and firewire or thunderbolt interface(s) and it would all work without such hassles. Which is probably quite unreasonable and unhelpful! (Only point - if there was one - is that this isn't just SOP for everything made and there's gear with better designed power supplies.)

Here, you are going to have to roll up your sleeves and assist your devices with extra care in power connections and interconnections. Avoiding obvious ground loops and not using USB bus power might be all it takes! Perhaps you have a cable or two with kind of cheapo poor shielding? Simply going over the cabling might be a cure. Running unbalanced for anything that can be connected balanced? Go there first!

[cyrano]

I spose you're in the US, as this seems to be mains hum mostly.

USB noise?

Have you tried listening to the headphones while shutting down the computer? When does the noise disappear?

Early in the shutdown points to software. Late points to a dying power supply. Not disappearing at all...

[Credge]

What bothers me is that it's coming from the PC itself and that noise is also translating digitally. Can you download Audacity and see if it happens there?

[serr]

Noise finds a shorter wire than the intended ground wire and takes it. Doesn't matter if it bleeds into analog or digital audio signal paths. There's no mystery with the design or any crazy software related thing going on. It's simply that circuits that pass signals that are NOT audio and were never intended to be connected to audio signal paths ended up connected through what was supposed to be a ground wire.

So there may be some goofy stuff and only certain apps bring it out, etc etc. But the root cause is a ground problem somewhere. There's a "simplicity" to uncover with a ground connection vs some cryptic software crash scenario.

[karbomusic]

Originally Posted by serr

Noise finds a shorter wire than the intended ground wire and takes it.

FYI and without listening to the sample: Likely that oscillations from switching power supplies and/or other digital circuits that use a clock, or charge pumps etc. are infecting the analog ground plane or a ground loop of the same nature, if the ground wiggles up and down because of this, it's the same effect as the signal wiggling = audible oscillations.

[Credge]

I think I know what it is. The reason it is audible from your PC is because the speaker that sends the "oh bro I froze up stop hitting that" sound when your PC is borked is producing it. I wonder if there's a BIOS setting to disable that speaker. Or, maybe try unplugging the speaker from your MOBO? Surely it has one.

[Grue]

Okay, I bought an active USB-Hub and tried it with that. The noise is definitely weaker than before, and the peaks on the VU arent as high, but its still there and as soon as I turn on the phantom power it's getting louder. So yeah, it seems to be some problem with the power supply... and I still have no idea how to fix it, I guess it would make sense to invest in an high quality interface, don't see any other way around But thanks to everyone who answered, at least now I can make some sense of it!