Beep sound starts coming out of my monitors when I hit play or open a project window

What changed?

It almost seems like you are describing noise that is getting onto the sound cards circuit.

Have you perhaps just rebuilt the computer in a new config? Or maybe placed another card in an adjacent slot?

How about other device drivers? For example; Is Wi-Fi enabled rather than disabled?

Good Luck,
mike

Thank you guys.
Well, I havent changed anything but monitors. Maybe there were some Win updates installed but I did not changed VGA or Edirol drivers.

The M16-DX manual says, monitor OUTs are 1,4'' phone jacks. I am using Planet Waves "jack-to-jack" cables to connect monitors with the soundcard / mixer. Although the distance between the soundcard and monitors is something about 1 meter, the length of cables is over 3 meters. Can be the hum and noise that I hear somehow related to this? I tried another cable, a cheap one and the beeping hum was still there.

I just made sure all PC, soundcard and monitors are plugged in the same electricity plug. No change.

It weird because it is somehow connected to what am I doing on PC. When I open for example Windows Media player and hit Play, the beeping hum appears. When I hit Stop, the hum goes away. The same happens when I load up any Sonar project. When the project is fully loaded, I can see all the tracks etc., the beeping-hum appears. When I close the project, it goes away.

Maybe reinstalling Edirol drivers would be worth to try. But I have a double-boot system, one Windows for my personal work and one is Sonar dedicated. And I have the problem on both. 

Just unplugged the USB cable from the mixer and hit Play in WM. The beeping hum was not there. Obviously :). But this says to me it is a soundcard-driver-USB cable problem.

Will let you know if driver reinstall worked. 

Tried my headphones, phones OUT from the mixer and the beep is there as well. It is very subtle, high frequency beep, like the hearing test tones... It starts when the audio starts.

Now  am not sure :) whether there had been the beep before I bought new monitors.

Even though it is subtle, I can hear it even during playback and it is really annoying. I wish I could get rid of it....

Any further help is appreciated.
Thanks  

not the case.

I hear the beep when I play any mp3 in WMP. It is not like the copy-protection beep in plugins. 

I am at a loss to offer a suggestion... which really frustrates me because I like to help fix problems like this.

After reading the further details... I sorry to say that I still don't have anything good to suggest.

Some last questions:

1) Are the monitors immediately adjacent to your DAW? Can you move them further away? It could be shielding issues... to or from the computer/monitors.

2) Did you leave them plugged in when you tried the headphones? What happens when the cables to the monitor are not hooked up to the sound card so that only the headphones are hooked up?

best regards,
mike

The only problem I can imagine from using different power supply connections is that you may be losing your grounding with one of the adapters... but I doubt it because I assume the adapters are fairly standard for adapters.

"Another detail is that the subtle beep is not connected to the playback volume but goes up when I turn the volume up on the monitors..."

This tells us that the noise is getting on the circuit after the D/A output conversion so that does narrow down the issue a bit. If it responded to your playback volume there would be a lot more things to consider.

It's impractical for me to download the 2MB file at the moment... but I suspect the noise wouldn't tell me anything that would lead to a better suggestion on my part.

The fact that it appears on your headphones as well as the new monitors AND seems to be the result of something AFTER the D to A output conversion suggests that this is not caused by the monitors and so I suspect that you may just now be noticing something that has been there all along.

It is somewhat possible that noise is getting into the monitors and traveling down the double duty shield/ground connection of the unbalanced connections and the noise somehow gets into your headphones... but it seems like you eliminated that possibility when you unplugged the monitors and checked the headphones. It would also point to bad engineering on the sound card... and your gear list suggests that you gear is good stuff.

With regards to the attenuation on your monitors... have you calibrated your playback system? You may simply be driving the monitors with a wicked hot signal that reveals all the noise. Usually a hot pre and an attenuated post will result in a low noise floor... but sometimes one stage in the chain will exasperate the issue.

I suggest running a test tone down your system and setting the levels at each stage so that they are clean... then use the monitor level controls to set your test tone to a SPL (sound pressure level) that you wish to routinely work at. Lots of people use a SPL meter to set it in the region of 80-85dBSPL at the listening position. If you don't have a meter just use your good sense and instinct to get to a useful level.

I hesitate to recommend the Bob Katz method by name because I feel that he has been credited with inventing a system that existed long before he came along... but Mr. Katz's digidoo website has some good explanations about setting up levels for playback. I think the info and protocol he spells out may be helpful for you... so go to that site and get the pink noise test tone and run thru the setup.

I hope that will help you and get you back to a comfortable situation.

very best regards,
mike

Sadly new VGA drivers did not help. :( I am lost.

I just noticed that the hum is perfectly related to the HDD activity. It is a sound description of the HDD activity LED light on the PC case. You can say when the LED light blinks by just listening to the hum. Very strange.

Win7 32bit PRO is up-to-date, every update installed, VGA drivers are up-to-date, Edirol drivers too.

Heeelp :(

Yop, Edirol M16-DX is the sound card. Power savings is off and always was.

While I had the volume on monitors turned up and heard the hum and hiss, I went to Dveice Manager and disabled the onboard sound. No change. Then I disabled M-16DX audio, no change.

Maybe this is crucial. I hear the same hiss and noise when in BIOS!!. As soon as I turn on the PC, the hiss and hum appear.

I tried it with LAN disabled, no change. No wi-fi or modem.

I suspect it is a HW issue... :/

Before all PC, monitors and Roland were in different power outlets. And the hum was there. Now, all PC, monitors and Roland are in one power extension and the hum is there as well. So I think this is not the cause.

I am not so technically skilled to swap the wiring in the cables. :) and those cables were pretty expensive too :). wish McGyver was my friend :).  

I think we have narrowed down the possible causes to some kind of interference inside the PC case. Why? because when I plug Roland to a notebook, it works OK. When I unplug the USB from PC, the hiss is gone. 

So I ordered a PCI USB 2.0. controller for 13 EUR and will see if this solves this issue. I googled "USB hiss" and in some threads they suggest to use PCI USB card. Well I hope it will fix it.

There is a ground screw (?) on the Roland mixer where I the grounding cable can be attached. I tried it - one end of the cable was attached to the mixer and the other was attached to the PC case, under one of those case crews. I mus say, the hiss was reduced by maybe 30%, but the annoying beeping was still there. So it is definitely some kind of interference. 

I have some spare, not in use power cables inside the PC box coming from the PSU. Maybe it would be worth isolating them somehow. 

Nonetheless, the PCI USB card will arrive not later than on Thursday, so I will let you know if it helped.

Thanks Mike ;)

The reason I asked about interconnects to the monitors is that I think one of the chassis shields is not doing it's job... this can happen if a connection that expects to be hooked to dual purpose chassis and circuit ground is not hooked up properly.

When prosumer appliances share the chassis shield and the circuit ground it can introduce problems. One way problems can be introduced is when unbalanced connections are hooked up the opposite of that which provide chassis and circuit grounds.

So, if your connections to your monitors are reversed you may be negating the benefit of the shielding and actually turning your connections into an antenna.

I assume that the power connections are all either properly wired with grounds or at least polarized and hooked up correctly... it seems like you said they were. So, that leaves me to suspect that the interconnects between your Edirol and Monitors may be part of an issue.

It's a wild guess... but it seems like it's time to consider it.

best,
mike