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Digital noise from Rocksmith cable


Daikano

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I have been playing rocksmith without my guitar connected to the game lately because the audio processing lag has been inhibiting my performance.  I connect to rocksmith long enough to 'tune' for the game, then unplug and connect to my pedal rack & amp.  The down-side of this is that dynamic difficulty automatically down-grades sections so notes stop appearing, and of course every song is a 0% score.

 

Expecting to feel clever, I bought a simple Y connector for my guitar, which allows me to plug my guitar into my amp, as well as my PC.  Unfortunately, the design of such a signal splitter also allows the signal to come from my computer to my amp in the form of digital noise.  I've tried putting the splitter both before or after my compressor/gate pedal but this was no help.  As soon as the gate opens, the noise comes in with the guitar.  

 

I have considered buying an A/B and A+B footswitch that costs $70 but I suspect I will find the same result.

 

For those of you who have successfully configured a 'no lag' setup, could you please tell me how you eliminate the digital noise that comes out of the rocksmith cable?  Would an A+B switch put a filter between the two channels?

 

Thanks in advance.

Sometimes I use big words that I don't completely understand, just to make myself seem more photosynthesis.

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I have the feeling that this is a problem with your audio and or microphone driver.  I was having similar issues but it was quite awhile back.  Have you tried deleting the driver and then letting windows download its own driver.  I remember this solving a bunch of my problems which i mainly was having when i was trying to record with open broadcaster.  I'm running a sony vaio with a i7 in it i simply plug my guitar into the rocksmith cable which i plug into a usb slot.  Also i find that using a usb powered headset greatly helps with lag for me.  Adds alittle bit of wiring around my feet but no lag.

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I think the lag that I experience may be just a function of the games audio engine.  I have in fact managed to get many songs to virtually 0 delay but certain auto tones (like the lead tone in Losing my Religion) produces latency up to probably 300-400ms.  I'm running an i5 quad core overlocked to 4GHz.  I've calibrated til I was blue in the face, and the drivers for my sound card are up to date.

 

The issue I'm working on though, is digital noise coming from the PC when I use a Y splitter to connect my guitar to both the computer and my amp.  Rocksmith doesn't even have to be playing for this noise to occur.  I've consulted several forums and believe the issue is partially related to a ground loop.  I purchased a Hum-X (http://www.ebtechaudio.com/humxdes.html) but it was DOA and din't provide any power.  The music store did not have a 2nd one for me to try this solution again.

 

As I am typing this message, I have my amp turned on and all cables connected, and I can actually hear the digital ticking of me typing coming out of my amp.  When I move my mouse I hear a ~800Hz (guessing) digital squeal. 

 

I even went to the store today and bought a Boss noise suppressor (gate) which works perfectly for just the guitar, but as soon as I plug in the rocksmith cable, the noise comes right through, even if the gate is on mute (tuning) mode.  This suggests that it is indeed a ground loop.  I'm just not sure if the Hum-X (if I find another one locally) will solve the problem if I just connect it to my amp.  I don't feel comfortable connecting it to my computer.

Sometimes I use big words that I don't completely understand, just to make myself seem more photosynthesis.

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What sort of spec is your PC/laptop and what resolution are you running the game at?

I play on my laptop as well as desktop and (at first) had issues with audio lag on the laptop until I reduced the res and fancy unnecessary graphics in-game.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

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It is a custom PC I built myself.  asrock p67 extreme4 mainboard (http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/P67%20Extreme4/, overclocked to 4GHz with 8GB of dual channel DDR3 memory.  I'm using the integrated sound card, output to a Samsung Dolby 5.1 surround sound amplifier.

 

HDD is a 1TB 10,000RPM Velociraptor with about 600GB free.

 

Video card is a Gigiabyte (NVidia) GTX 770 and I'm running Geforce Experience with the most current driver update.

Sometimes I use big words that I don't completely understand, just to make myself seem more photosynthesis.

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I'm playing on a 2012 AMD laptop with an AMD Radeon HD 6520G chipset -- no issues with lag at all (although i turned off most of the video effects). Your systems far outclass mine -- so there's a different issue at play here.

 

From what I've read elsewhere, Rocksmith does not play nicely with other USB devices, especially USB headsets. Probably a power thing.

 

I can't help with the audio splitter problem. I have read about other people doing this, so it should be possible. Maybe the same issue that's giving you the lag is also giving you the digital chatter? I know that Rocksmith DOES NOT like external/added soundcards, but will only work with onboard soundchips.

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Your computer is way over spec'ed, so it has nothing to do with that. If you haven't looked at it already, there is a PDF file in the rocksmith2014 folder that explains all of the settings in your RS ini file. It could be a buffer problem.

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You won't want to use a "Y" splitter to send your signal to different destinations.  There are several reasons for this but two major reasons are that you will change the impedance of your signal and it is easy to make a ground loop.  You should go pick up a direct box with ground lift.  You can find them for as cheap as $20.

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That's exactly the type of information I was looking for, Andrake.  I'll run over to Buddy Rogers' music tomorrow and look at direct boxes. :)

Sometimes I use big words that I don't completely understand, just to make myself seem more photosynthesis.

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Sadly, I bought a direct box with ground lift and the digital noise still comes through.  I have 0 hum but the amplified squealing (probably coming straight out of the USB controller on the PC) is maddening.  When I move my mouse, there's a much higher pitched tone, but If you queue up to 0:30-0:34 on this video, you'll hear roughly what I'm hearing constantly...

Sometimes I use big words that I don't completely understand, just to make myself seem more photosynthesis.

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Sounds terrible.. How does it sound through headphones (from your PC)?

Have you set your soundcard to stereo output (and disabled all other output and input devices - apart from speakers and RS Cable)?

 

My Rocksmith.ini file.. I've got a decent rig, so these should suit yours..  How does it compare?

 

###########################

[Audio]EnableMicrophone=1ExclusiveMode=1LatencyBuffer=4ForceDefaultPlaybackDevice=ForceWDM=0ForceDirectXSink=0Win32UltraLowLatencyMode=1DumpAudioLog=0MaxOutputBufferSize=0[Renderer.Win32]ShowGamepadUI=0ScreenWidth=1920ScreenHeight=1080Fullscreen=2VisualQuality=2RenderingWidth=0RenderingHeight=0EnablePostEffects=1EnableShadows=1EnableHighResScope=1EnableDepthOfField=1EnablePerPixelLighting=1MsaaSamples=4DisableBrowser=0[Net]UseProxy=1########################

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I solved it. I had to use the direct box's XLR output to my amp/pedals, and use the ground lift.  The 1/4" output on the direct box goes to rocksmith.  0 noise!  

 

/happydance

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Sometimes I use big words that I don't completely understand, just to make myself seem more photosynthesis.

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Here's what my ini file looks like, without having fiddled with it in about 2 months:

 

[Audio]
EnableMicrophone=1
ExclusiveMode=1
LatencyBuffer=2
ForceDefaultPlaybackDevice=
ForceWDM=0
ForceDirectXSink=0
Win32UltraLowLatencyMode=1
DumpAudioLog=0
MaxOutputBufferSize=0
[Renderer.Win32]
ShowGamepadUI=0
ScreenWidth=1280
ScreenHeight=720
Fullscreen=2
VisualQuality=2
RenderingWidth=0
RenderingHeight=0
EnablePostEffects=0
EnableShadows=1
EnableHighResScope=1
EnableDepthOfField=0
EnablePerPixelLighting=1
MsaaSamples=4
DisableBrowser=0
[Net]
UseProxy=1

Sometimes I use big words that I don't completely understand, just to make myself seem more photosynthesis.

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I solved it. I had to use the direct box's XLR output to my amp/pedals, and use the ground lift.  The 1/4" output on the direct box goes to rocksmith.  0 noise!  

 

/happydance

Sorry, I gave you the equipment to purchase, but not the setup.  I've been off the site for a bit or I would have responded sooner.  Man, that is one awful noise.  That is likely from your hard drive.  I have a program somewhere on a floppy that will put that will spit out that type of noise through the sound card by accessing the hard drive.  I'm not sure if the modern setups are still susceptible to that kind of interference.  I may look for that disk for next april fools day.

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