The noise is recorded on tracks. The external instruments are coming 100% noise free into the sytem. It’s only the analog out signal of the soundcard which is having the noise. Is there a way routing the Stereo Out of Cubase directly to the Stereo In without going through the analog cables? Maybe through the device Port settings in Cubase? In this case I could use the external mixer for my external instruments only and route the VST sounds and audio internal. Is that possible, because both signals needs to be merged together again somewhere? Maybe that will lower the noises…
I have the RME HDSP 9632 - being PCI version of AIO.
Using a Focusrite TwinTrak Pro channelstrip some years back - and spdif out for monitorng - I got this 50 Hz hum.
I used a normal audio RCA cable for that spdif - changing it to proper 75 ohm digital cable fixed it.
Other things to suspect that introduce ground loops if cables are not shielded as they should, even usb cables.
So if running synths with usb midi, like many like to do - there is something to check - just disconnect and then back, kind of thing.
As I recall reading about it - shield should only be in one end of cable, or there may be ground loops through that way through chassis of various equipment.
Ground is one thing, shield another.
One test that if some ground loop may be if touching chassis of equipment changes sound.
Hi Stephen57,
Thank you for your response.
I should let you know that I don’t ground-lift unless necessary, which I find is frequently.
There is nothing wrong with doing so, if you do it properly.
If you re-read my post, you will see that if an electrical ground loop is NOT the cause, no ground-lifts will be required. I even made sure he was plugged into a single outlet to minimize that possibility.
As a professional ( licensed) field technician that covers Telecom, computers, home theater, studios, along with owning a studio and a sound re-enforcement company for many years, I can tell you I have solved many sound problems that many others have tried and failed.
I don’t say this to brag, I only want to help you to understand that’s it okay.
Also, what would you do if you were about to start a live stage performance and you suddenly realized there was a loud hum coming from somewhere? After trying the obvious ( bad cable, etc. ) do you tell the audience to wait while you try to decipher what is going on? Or do you go over to the amplifier that has the hum and pop a ground-lift on it? …Problem solved.
I have never had an issue with using ground-lifts where needed, as long as no one tries to defeat it’s polarity by reversing it in the outlet. NEVER, EVER do that, people!
Remember, it’s not the method… it’s the results. And, as long as safety is at the top of the list I’m okay with doing what it takes.
I hope my advise helps Ihtlueders, and others… it’s so nice having a dead-quiet system.
Rick
Are we sure there is a ground loop problem here ?
From what I can see from the png picture, that looks perfectly normal if external synths are connected and monitored.
I have a old cassette recorder that has an LED VU meter.
I connect it to the master out on the mixing board.
Then, I put it in record mode and turn the input up full.
With the faders up full, now, I get a real visual display of the noise coming from the system.
By process of elimination, I can get the LEDs to just flutter.
That’s when I know I have a truly quiet system.
Rick, no doubt, I’m sure we agree on this and the method you outlined is certainly fine and clearly based on your solid understanding of electronics, which is most likely superior to mine. Great to have you posting here, Rick. Thanks for participating and helping me and other users better understand and work out issues with our systems. My background is in broadcast production including remote and studio production sound. Conducting search and destroy missions of ground loops has been a long-term duty of mine. And, I worry when I see a potential for equipment-destorying accidents, injury or worse. You know, when a piece of equipment – particularly something with tubes – gives up the magic puff of smoke that hides inside. Take care for now.
Fortunately, I haven’t seen that puff of smoke in many years, and I hope I don’t for many years to come.
It’s been good communicating with you…
Best wishes in all you do…
Well I don’t know what synth it is, how the gain is set, but -64.4dB peak is not something I would worry too much about.
Depending on what kind of noise it is, would be nice having a few seconds sample of the noise.
If the noise changes when moving the mouse it is probably more likely that it is a shared IRQ, and/or a driver that needs updating.
My old PCI RME 9632, was doing the same. Very ground sensitive. I fixed it disabling from Bios EVERY:
-C1 Power State
-CPU Energy saving
and so on…
the goal is run the system at 100% always with the same power output.
No more hi pitch noise.
yes, the noise change according to the resources used, due the power requirement. A white page need power unlike a black.
I kind of get what you are saying there, I almost thought… “Oh well, I will put up with it.” But when you are choosing reverbs, delays and their tails/feedback etc. That -64dB on a 113dB SNR specced card starts being unacceptable, fast. I have heard quieter Audigy Soundblasters from 15 years ago ! When you pay RME $$$ you expect specified performance out of the box without fuss. I hasten to add that this is all related to a home music making system that I use for fun in spare time. I would have sent it back/thrown it out the window for anything critical.
I have the same with external synths. The noise floor of my interface in the digital domain is around -105db but I have several external synths hooked up and the noise they introduce varies from around -80 to-60db. But that’s the price you pay for using 30 year old analogue gear. 
The thing you want to do is not to constantly have them active when recording/exporting. Only on the segments where they actually need to make sound. I always automate this. You can optionally even use a gate plugin to take out the most of the noise but that depends on the used sound and can be a pain to get it right. A lot of times I just render the part(s) to audio and then edit them so you won’t even hear the noise is there.
It’s most likely a cheap sound card / computer hardware that’s creating this issues.
Let’s not get lost in the noise, if you can pardon the pun. Noise is inherent in all audio gear. Historically with old analogue synths, think SH-101’s TB-303’s, Pro-1’s, Moogs, Wasps etc. etc…there was a permanent hiss on the outputs (old IC and transistor technology) which may or may not have become problematic. That is understood. You programmed MIDI mutes (if your mixer had that facility, an old analogue desk I used to use did) or automated cuts on a desk (SSL/NEVE etc). To gate the noise in sections where the synths were not playing to avoid a build up of noise floor from multiple analogue synths fed into a mixer.
We are talking about some kind of issue with a sound card that is there behind every single sound source in your music. When it gets quiet enough there it is… a computery warbling noise and constant pitches with harmonics that change depending on what the PC is doing, computation wise/system wise/hardware wise/ PSU wise etc. This audible interference, be it grounding or internal RFI should not be there and seemingly correlates with computational activity. Historically there was good reason to house AD-DA outside the computer chassis in a seperate external box. Some internal PCI cards used to have metal shielding over the AD-DA.
Soundcard outputs that are integrated into the signal path and working correctly, free of earthing issues/RFI should be near deathly silent. They have long since, never been the noise floor weak point in a studio signal path. Even my 12 year old ECHO Layla 3G was silent, total silence. It is just a shame ECHO did not provide a driver designed for Windows 10 64 bit drivers, otherwise I would be using it today. (It worked but occasionally threw a wobbly either through the VST connections in Cubase or its own Applet) For PCI/PCI-E slot these days the choices are fewer.
RME, Marian or ESI seem like the only commonly available options.
Best I can say is that there seems to be a lot of discussion and perhaps some solutions offered in the Gearslutz article mentioned above.
It seems there’s a noise issue with the product line. I’d look there for detailed possible fixes for this or contact the OEM for more information about it. It isn’t a Cubase issue per se. Cubase is just recording what is sent to it, noise and all 
Perhaps a notch EQ filter on the channel input might tamp it down? Good luck, I hope you’re able to solve it.
Good post. It seems some of the RME cards have self-noise issues and the noise is being recorded onto audio tracks in Cubase. The Gearslutz posts have information about this.
I agree with a lot of what you’ve said. To digress a bit, I’d go so far as to suggestion recording “room tone” so that you have it to place between segments in tracks. I just ran into this need the other day I’m still not clear how to approach it. Take a phrase, cut it into three segments, arrange the segments on the time on the time line, but now you need “room tone” so the track does not sound like cuts with odd silence between the segments. Anyway, what’s good is that you know where you are in terms of noise floor.
I look forward to reading your posts and hope you find the forums interesting and useful.
Hi Stephen, I think there are crossed wires, unless you response is mainly to Peakae. Constant electrical noise only on monitoring the outputs (which is my situation) from the RME 9632 outputs has little to do with room tone. It is just high noise floor caused by a ground loop (doubt that as it comes out of the HP socket as well) or RFI bridging the audio circuits on the unshielded PCI/-E cards internal audio components/earthing arrangement.
As you rightly suggest room tone (air con noise/rumble/low level ambient noise etc.) can be used to smooth over otherwise abrupt speech edits. (I used to use it in radio production all the time) as you suggest to maintain some continuity and on fade ins and outs so the speech edits do not sound abrupt to the ear. This and high sound card noise floor seem unrelated to me.
Unless RFI noise is being recorded in (appearing on inputs) and you need some of that nasty stuff the inputs are picking up to get in and out of
“naked” vocals etc. Personally, if I had this noise on the record (inputs) side it would be totally unacceptable. Fortunately for me
the input side is workable as it is much lower than the constant output warbling/tones interference I can hear. (Albeit resolved with external DAC)
Hi, I found out that the noise is only appearing at the ANALOG IN of my soundcard. I’ve now routed the Card internal via RME’S TotalMIX and while nothing is connected to the ANALOG IN the Card is 100% silent showing a zero Peak on DIGICheck. As soon as I connect the mixer, a synth or any other external Instrument directly (I use a RCA Cable) to the ANALOG IN the noise is there. So it seems that it’s the Input itself what’s causing the noise.
In the Manual I read: “The HDSPe AIO has an unbalanced stereo Line input via RCA connectors. The optional analog XLR breakout cable turns the inputs into fully balanced ones. (…) When using unbalanced cables with the XLR breakout cable: be sure to connect the ‘ring’ contact of a stereo TRS jack, and pin 3 of a XLR jack, to ground. Otherwise noise may occur, caused by the unconnected negative input of the balanced input.”
What is an unbalanced cable? What Kind of Connection cable should I use? How does it look like? Maybe that’s the solution…
That’s CPU whine, that’s something complety different, flakey capacitators on mainboards. Has nothing to do with ground or RME