URGENT help needed. Power buzz
Home > Home Recording Forum > Live Sound Reinforcement > URGENT help needed. Power buzz
Posted on Feb 27, 2009 04:33 pm
black2002ls
Member Since: Jan 29, 2009
I've been trying to get rid of the power buzz in my venue for some time now. The owner wont pony up the cash to get it fixed so I'm trying remedies as they come. We had a rather large act come through a couple of weeks ago, The Bleu Edmonson Band. In their bag of tricks, they had a little portable sub panel that they plugged into a breaker box near the stage. I built a similar set-up using an outdoor sub panel. I called Bleu's Tour Manager and have my set up wired in the exact same way he did. Here is my set up
GE outdoor 12slot 125 AMP sub panel
1 30A Breaker for house sound
3 20A Breakers for the Band
Wired in through 12/4 Marine wire. Red and Black are used for power being pulled off of a Double pole 30A breaker. Inside my sub panel neutral and ground are tied together because I don't have separate bars inside of it. When I wire it in to the main panel I break them up. This is a hotel bar so there isn't a TRUE earth ground to this box. The thing that has me baffled is that when they hooked in, the buzz was gone. When I hook mine it, it is still there.
The buzz is directional. If the guitarist stands at a certain angle compared to everything it goes away, if they move slightly it gets HORRIBLE. It is also pick-up dependent.
We have tried Ground lifts, power conditioners, everything, and can't seem to get rid of it. Does anyone have any ideas?
[ Back to Top ]
monmixrIf 50hz 60 will kill ya.Member
Since: Jan 08, 2009
Feb 28, 2009 02:18 pm yea, is this buzzzz pcked up just through guitars, or is it in the pa system also? what kind of lighting do you have, and does the sound of the buz change when scenes are changed? also you need to go to at least 8-4 or the fire marshalls going to hammer you with a fine. you can try this first assuming that its not a 3 phase panel. use 2 single 30s instead of the double, then put them in the box skipping a space so your pa and band are on the same leg (if you look at the box you will see that every other breaker is on the opposite leg, you want all sound and band on one leg and all lighting on the other.
Mar 01, 2009 03:12 pm Thanks for the help. The sub panel that I made isn't a permanent fixture. It is something that comes and goes so to avoid hard wiring anything.
