Mike, exactly! It's a stand alone unit; a quick fix that stayed quite long. Lots of noise coming into the live stream input and that would clean it up. Next step is finding a good USB interface for sure.
Is the device actually a
noise gate or is it a
noise filter?
The difference:
A
noise gate operates in a manner inverse to a compressor, by attenuating (muting) the signal when the signal drops below a threshold. It doesn't actually remove the noise; it simply quiets the noise during pauses in speech. When the signal -- either speech or music -- rises above a certain level, the gate unmutes to allow the signal (and the noise) to pass. It creates the
illusion of eliminating noise, only because noise is less noticeable when there is desired sound than when there is a pause in the desired sound.
An analog noise filter is simply a band-pass filter or equalizer that attenuates frequencies present in the noise.
A digital noise filter analyzes the signal and digitally removes what it perceives as "noise" in the signal.
A brand and model of the device would help us understand.
As Mike Caldwell suggests, an isolation transformer will usually overcome most noise issues on interconnects. Passive DI boxes contain transformers.
Here's a low-impedance balanced XLR to low-impedance balanced XLR isolation transformer:
http://whirlwindusa.com/catalog/black-boxes-effects-and-dis/transformers-isolation-devices/isoxl -- there are also impedance matching transformers in different form factors for going from low-impedance balanced to high-impedance unbalanced. A passive DI box is basically the same thing, with the addition of a ground lift switch and optionally attenuation switch or knob.
