SOLVED Low Tide Noise Issues

[Davemulls]

Hey guys, I built a Low Tide pedal last year and have been loving the effect, but I've been plagued with noise issues that make it tough to use this in recordings. So what I have is:

-An inconsistent, high pitched whine at all times when the pedal is engaged
-When the gate opens up, there is a white noise sound that comes through. I understand this is a characteristic of the pedal, but it is REALLY audible even when playing chords. picking etc.
-I have tested the pedal using a Joyo PS 2 (not isolated), a 1Spot Pro CS7 (isolated) and a few wallwarts. All the same, maybe a bit quieter on the 1Spot

I have attached a photo of my build as well as a recording of the whining noise I'm getting. Any help would be greatly appreciated! A few notes on the photo:

-The 9v jack is hot glued temporarily because I lost the washer for it while fiddling around
-the ribbon cable obscures the footswitch but I've checked the joints there and they seem all good
-I've spent a lot of time dialing in the trims and testing different configs but nothing has helped. At the moment they are set fairly randomly as I have been moving them a lot lately.

 

[andrewsrea]

Hard to tell without a schematic.

I noticed your pedal is well painted. Make sure you have good ground connection to the enclosure backplate, otherwise they can act like an antenna for RFI. Paint can sometimes impede a good ground.

 

[Davemulls]

Here's the schematic: https://docs.pedalpcb.com/project/LowTide-Schematic-PedalPCB.pdf

How would I ground the backplate? Scratch the paint out of the screwholes?

 

[eh là bas ma]

Here's the schematic: https://docs.pedalpcb.com/project/LowTide-Schematic-PedalPCB.pdf

How would I ground the backplate? Scratch the paint out of the screwholes?

remove the paint inside the jacks holes. The circuit is grounded to the enclosure through the metalic rings of your jacks.

I can't hear much in your recording, there is some high pitch noise but it sounds kind of quiet. Could be the electrical environment. Does it do the same noise in other places than your home ?

Using power strip can also generate some noise sometimes. Try to connect the power supply directly to a wall outlet.

Maybe there's a mistake with some transistor, did you try to replace them and checked their pinout ?

In this similar thread the issue was the power supply after all : https://forum.pedalpcb.com/threads/low-tide-help-to-solve-power-supply-noise.24201/

 

[Davemulls]

Well I gave the case a good scratching and lo and behold the noise is waaay quieter. Thanks for help guys!