Re: hum cancelling

[Dave Stagner <dstagner@icarus.net>]

Wow, it's hard to add anything to what Kim said!  He hit on just about
all the major points for beating hum.  I'll add one he overlooked, and
emphasize a few I think are particularly important...

First, you didn't say what sort of instrument/pickups you use.  A
guitar with single coil pickups?  Start right there, and go to stacked
humbuckers.  They don't sound as good as real single coils, but
they're quiet.  This was one of the first changes I made when I
started with looping.  I got a set of Carvin stacked humbuckers for my
Strat and they worked wonders.  While you're at it, make sure your
guitar is WELL shielded and uses high-quality shielded wire
internally.  Lots of guitars are noisy even with humbuckers.  

I'll repeat Kims admonition to use high-quality shielded cable and
plugs.  Use XLR balanced connectors whenever possible... their whole
purpose is hum rejection, and they do it very well.  And avoid
flourescent lights whenever possible.  And computer monitors.  Cross
audio cables perpendicular to power lines.  Make sure your rack stuff
isn't ground-looping through the rack or physical contact.  

This reminds me of a story... a few years ago, I saw Steve Tibbetts (a
very subtle looper in his own right) on tour.  Something in his
electric guitar system hummed severely, which pretty much confined him
to acoustic guitar (looping hum SUCKS).  At one point during the
concert, he made a comment about a "ghost in the machine".  Then,
about 30 seconds into the next song, one of the PA speakers tipped
forward and fell off the stage, with a resounding thud.  Luckily, no
one was hurt.  Much to Steve Tibbetts and Marc Andersen's credit, they
kept on playing without breaking stride.  :}  Ghost in the machine
indeed!

-dave

By "beauty," I mean that which seems complete.
Obversely, that the incomplete, or the mutilated, is the ugly. 
Venus De Milo.
To a child she is ugly.       
   -Charles Fort              dstagner@icarus.net