Minilogue XD USB noise

jiggysaw · Post by **jiggysaw** » Mon Jul 27, 2020 3:14 pm

Hi all,

does anyone know why XD USB causes electrical hum when I connect it to my Mac? My noise floor is around -81dBu when powered off, but when I plug USB, it rises to -60dBu and causes audible humming. It goes immediately away when I disconnect the USB.

I have tried 3 different USB hubs (powered, unpowered), half a dozen of USB cables (with and without single or double ferrite chokes), connecting directly to mac. Result is always the same.

Is my unit faulty or is this a "feature"? I cannot use the XD with USB on at all.

nickle15 · Post by **nickle15** » Wed Jul 29, 2020 12:13 am

Well, I don't know if this makes any difference in your situation or not. In the global settings you can select whether the minilogue XD uses USB and MIDI for MIDI, or just USB. I'm wondering if this might be causing any conflicts. Try changing that parameter and see if it changes anything. Again - purely an uneducated stab in the dark here.

jiggysaw · Post by **jiggysaw** » Sat Aug 01, 2020 8:29 am

nickle15 wrote:Well, I don't know if this makes any difference in your situation or not. In the global settings you can select whether the minilogue XD uses USB and MIDI for MIDI, or just USB. I'm wondering if this might be causing any conflicts. Try changing that parameter and see if it changes anything. Again - purely an uneducated stab in the dark here.

I tried that too without any luck.

I think this USB noise is a "feature" and I got a USB Isolator (https://www.amazon.de/Nobsound-Eliminat ... 305&sr=8-4).

This successfully eliminated the hum. I put it between my USB hub and XD. It also works if I put it between my mac and USB hub but it then limits the speed of the data transmission of other devices (eg. my Push 2 won't work anymore).

nickle15 · Post by **nickle15** » Sat Aug 01, 2020 1:12 pm

jiggysaw wrote:
nickle15 wrote:Well, I don't know if this makes any difference in your situation or not. In the global settings you can select whether the minilogue XD uses USB and MIDI for MIDI, or just USB. I'm wondering if this might be causing any conflicts. Try changing that parameter and see if it changes anything. Again - purely an uneducated stab in the dark here.
I tried that too without any luck.

I think this USB noise is a "feature" and I got a USB Isolator (https://www.amazon.de/Nobsound-Eliminat ... 305&sr=8-4).

This successfully eliminated the hum. I put it between my USB hub and XD. It also works if I put it between my mac and USB hub but it then limits the speed of the data transmission of other devices (eg. my Push 2 won't work anymore).

Interesting. Glad you found something that helped. I've had my XD for about two months and have enjoyed learning my way around as it's my first analogue synth. Good luck!