How to get rid of that hiss and hum noise in your home studio (especially if you think it’s being caused by your audio interface)

I write songs and multi-track record them in my home studio using Apple Logic. Recently, I introduced a new audio interface into my equipment set-up. (An audio interface is a box of technology that converts sound input (e.g. from a microphone) into a digital form that a computer can handle.)

*I’ll add a pic here of my audio interface in situ.*

My new audio interface is a Roland UA-1G. Setting it up was easy and it was working fine… except that now there was a weird humming noise from my monitors (speakers), a bit like the “white noise” of a TV. This had never happened before, and seemed to be a disaster. The noise rendered my whole system unusable. The hiss was always present, but got louder every time I touched the mouse or keyboard. Pretty infuriating.

It took a couple of hours of Googling to narrow down the likely problem. It seemed I had unwittingly introduced an electrical issue into my system – something called a “ground loop”. I still don’t understand exactly what that means, but I don’t need to.

I then spent more time hunting for a product that would solve my problem without costing too much. I read loads of reviews of various products, and finally chose the Behringer Micro HD 400 Hum Destroyer. All you need to know is – it works. I cabled the Behringer into my system (it basically goes between your computer and your monitors) and the hum disappeared. Phew.

I hope this post helps you to diagnose your hum problem and fix it swiftly.