Question

I hear noises, but must important (and annoying) is a periodic clicking of a frequency close to 374BPM on my AUDIOBOX USB 96 (BLACK) when there are no inputs connected, the mixer is completely to the left (inputs), the channel gain is at three o'clock and the headphones knob is at 11 (max). I only have my headphones and the USB connected.
I've tried to use my laptop off of the battery to verify if it was grounding issues, but had no luck there. Same clicking.

I noticed that if i touch my headphones jack (specially if I also touch the audiobox metal case) the clicking seems to vanish, or at least attenuate to a point that it is almost imperceptible. This makes me think that my setup might be subjected to electromagnetic interference (EMI). Which raises my first question, what do you suggest to mitigate this problem?

The noise/clicking scenario gets much worse when I plug in my bass guitar. When I do it, even if I touch both the headphone jack and the input jack the clicking won't go away. In fact, when I touch both, the white noise or humming reduces considerably, but the clicking won't vanish. Which brings me to my other questions: Is the diagnosis of EMI correct? Am I missing something here? How to proceed?

I'm using Windows 10 on a laptop that only has USB 3.0.

Answer 1

I have the exact same problem and it attenuates by touching the interface itself as well. Contacted support ages ago about it and they ranted about XLR cables and bad monitors. I now have dual Rokit 7 G4 with XLR cables, with the interface connected to a powered USB hub, away from the computer, and the problem still persists. It's a constant rolled RRRRRRR at low volume that's driving me crazy. Nobody on the internet knows how to solve, not even Presonus, so I guess is a design flaw we have to live with, or purchase something more professional.

Answer 2

I wish I could answer to the other answers here, to make this a bit more conversational. I couldn't find the option to do so, if it exists I don't know how to use it.

Anyways, since this question has now being commented, I figured I'd update it with the latest developments on my issue.

After asking the question, I tried other things such as:

• Moving myself away or facing different orientations. No proper fix to the issue, but it did prove to affect the intensity of the noise. When I faced my window, the noise seemed to be in its loudest (hold on to this last information for a while);
• Changing cables. While changing one AUX cable with poor EMI insulation used in my setup to a better one helped mitigating the problem, it didn't properly solve it;
• Enveloping the Audiobox with in foil. I don't mean to wrap it with tin foil, but to create a housing or a cage to it. This was by far the best option I took, but never fully solved the problem, again. Maybe with a bit more patience to apply the foil to a shoe box and then place the Audiobox inside it, the results could be better, but who wants to have to do this anyways?

It just so happened that I moved during this period and now, in my new place, that also happens to be a new construction, the Audiobox works as smooth as possible. NOT A SINGLE NOISE! Well, there is noise, there always is, but now it's within the boundaries of accepted white noise. You can't even hear it when listening to the recording.

So what changed? Why did I have noise on my old place, but the same Audiobox performs very well on my new place? 

I can't really point to the exact culprit, but I have my guesses. Earlier I referred to a window, well that window faced a school and an electric train track. It could've been that some equipment in either of these places was generating EMI signals, which were being captured by my bass guitar and my setup cables. In the end, the bass guitar and the cables do behave as antennas. 

The other option is that a device in my own old building, from my apartment or not, was injecting noise in the circuit, and this noise made it's way to the Audiobox. Potentially could've been solved by trying to use another electric circuit in the house or be checking/fixing the circuit grounding. Well, I'll never know, since I didn't try it.

What was interesting is that in the meantime I did find a video from Samurai Guitarist where he faced similar noise issues, when he moved to a new place. In his case, the noise could be heard from the guitar speaker itself. He later found out that one of the power transformers from his utility on the neighborhood was faulty. Most likely it was due to a faulty shielding/grounding of the transformer. He was lucky enough that the utility fixed the transformer and his issue.

Check his video here: or search for "Solving Another Mysterious House Noise" by samuraiguitarist.

Unfortunately there is no easy or direct solution to the problem, but at least this gives us some ideas on what could be the problem and what we can do about it.

Answer 3

To the answers that will probably appear above mine: grounding. The hum is probably 50hz/60hz from your home power lines. (Google "60hz hum" if you're in the USA, and "50hz hum" if you're elsewhere - it'll probably be the "growl" you're hearing.) This is probably the reason the hum went away when @muriloalmeida moved.

Try using different outlets, maybe? Almost sounds like there's no ground at all, but that could be wrong. As I write this, I realize you tried with your laptop on battery power, so it's probably not grounding.

How new is your Audiobox USB? Is this a new issue? Do you have anything plugged into the MIDI ports on the Audiobox?

Answer 4

@goaway2 you are completely right in regards to the grid frequency hum, although I don't think that was my main issue. It felt less like a hum, and more like a clicking or snapping. I tried tapping my metronome on the rhythm of the snapping and that's how I got to that BPM I reported. The measurement was very imprecise though.
The Audiobox was brand-new, I only had the USB and the instrument cable connected.

Answer 5

I have found the solution for this...

I bought one of these units too, as their equipment is generally considered decent, it looked good and had good reviews. But immediately I was getting cracking and popping all the time, even when audio was not clipping. I tried all kinds of different things for a few weeks and then finally came up with a solution...

Put it back in the box, give it to a friend and tell them if they keep the master output in their audio application about 80% it works most of the time. Then buy a ********* UMC 202HD. It's the same price, supports 192 kHz and has absolutely no faults. You can even play audio at a couple DB above clipping and it's completely content. For all the belittling that ********* equipment gets, I've owned multiple pieces of their gear through the years and every one of them has performed as good or better than other pieces of similar gear at a lot less money.

Alternate solution: you can just throw the Presonus in the trash, as that's about what it's worth.

EDIT:  That's hilarious, they won't let me use the name of a competing company, they put little stars. What a sad company. Won't ever buy or use any equipment or software from them again.