It's summer in NY and with each degree increase of temperature the humidity also goes up a percentage point. I turn on the ceiling fan and sit down to practice. Fret a few notes and it sounds as if the reverb is on yet there is no reverb to be on.
Now I know that a fan must put out some kind of magnetic field, because when you put a desk top fan on top of or too close to a computer monitor you can see the effect.
Could the ceiling fan effect my guitar / cables / amp in the same way. Any one else experience this? Or is my hearing going along with everything else? :cry:
Michael
Playing an instrument is good for your soul
Ive never heard anything about a celing fan interrupting with anything, but if what you said about bringing the fan next to a computer is true,(what happens btw?) then I assume it would also affect your guitar. I sometimes play in my living room, and the celing fa about 7ft away from the amp, but I havent noticed anything
Don't expect any advice on this from British members....like we REALLY need air-conditioning!!!!
Less than a week to mid-summer's day, it's overcast, wet and windy...
What this country needs is a roof!
:) :) :)
Vic
"Sometimes the beauty of music can help us all find strength to deal with all the curves life can throw us." (D. Hodge.)
I've never heard that one before. I've heard tvs, radios and computers and so on causing interference, but never a ceiling fan. I have never encountered it, but maybe its the difference in fans, or guitars. Anyway I would suggest trying someone else equipment under the fan, and observe what happens.
Vacate is the word...Vengance has no place on me or her...Cannot find a comfort in this world.
Does it reverb at the same speed as the blades? :roll:
My ceiling fan does the same thing to my accoustic when I play in the kitchen with the fan on. Everyone remembers getting your face up close to a fan in the summer and talking into it to make your voice sound funny when you were a kid. The same thing happens with the ceiling fan, it's just with a guitar instead of your voice.
If you put it on a slower setting it should go away.
I think the scientific reason is that the blades swoop in front of the sound waves and reflect them off instead of hitting the ceiling like normal and bouncing around that way. You have these moving accoustically reflective surfaces sending the sound waves off in weird directions.
-Metaellihead
It's not the fan per se making amp noise, it's the electric motor. Of course it puts out an alternating electromagnetic field. Single coil pickups will respond to it. The "hotter" the pickup, the more noise you'll get. It'll be more noticeable as you use more amp gain. Use a switch setting with two pickups combined in a reverse wound, reverse polarity configuration to cancel the external field effect, use humbuckers, turn the fan off, or accept the hum. That's just part and parcel of using single coil pickups.
Fluorescent lights are another big hum producer.
You can get a tremolo effect from the sound reflecting off of the moving fan blades. That's been used to simulate the sound of Leslie rotating speaker horns.
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
Does the problem go away when you turn the fan off :?:
BS
Don't expect any advice on this from British members....like we REALLY need air-conditioning!!!!
Less than a week to mid-summer's day, it's overcast, wet and windy...
What this country needs is a roof!
:) :) :)
Vic
You will longing for that kind of weather after a few days in Texas Vic
Immature? Of course I'm immature Einstein, I'm 50 and in a Rock and ROll band.
New Band site http://www.myspace.com/guidedbymonkeys
Have you ever talked into/through a desk fan? You get all sorts of modulations - very weird/cool.
Anyway, when you play, you hear the natural reverb from the room, which your brain assimilates as "normal". If you have a fan going, you may change the reflections and modulate those reflections by the speed of the fan blades.
That would happen on both acoustic and electric.
-Laz
Have to agree with Laz and Metallihead, I think the fan is pushing the air around and the sound waves get distorted.
"It's all about stickin it to the man!"
It's a long way to the top if you want to rock n roll!
Any electric motor produces electromagnetic noise or what's commonly referred to as EMI (electromagnetic interference). The simple explanation would be that the noise generated by your fan destructively interferes with your electronic equipment causing the reverb sound.
Most electronic equipment require EMI protection (EMI filters) built into the circuit - but it doesn't always guarantee total protection from all levels of interference. I'm not sure how you can fix this, but check your local electronics store, they may have adapter sockets with EMI protection that you can plug into the wall, and then plug your equipment in. This will usually filter out EMI that is conducted down the power line.
In some cases, the EMI is radiated through the air waves - such as when you move your fan towards your computer monitor. The only remedy for this would probably be to move away from the source of the interference.
If you get the noise only when you're close to the fan, then you're getting radiated EMI and can just move away. If you get it anywhere in the house as long as the fan is on - then look into the wall filter.
I'm with m-head, Laz an cnev -- it's not EMI but, Doppler and/or simple acoustic "chopping effect". The principle behind a Leslie rotating speaker isn't really too much different.
-=tension & release=-
If it's not EMI, then you've gotta be pretty close to the ceiling fan or maybe it's a really small room for the vibrating airwaves caused by the speed of the fan to affect the sound of the guitar.... my thoughts anyhow... i would like to know what you find out though
Well, if it were EMI I would expect him to be complaining about hum or buzzing ect. Something that wouldn't be uncommon in a faulty cable or an unsheilded single coil guitar. But what he's talking about is a reverb sound that comes from the way the sound waves actually reflect in the room.
It's not that the fan is pushing the air and distorting the waves. Normally the sound would bounce off the ceiling. With a fan you have these blades moving around, they pass between the source of the sound and the ceiling. Some of the sound waves bounce off the blades, some pass by them and hit the ceiling and sound "normal". So some of the sound sounds "normal" and some of it bounces off the blades into other weird parts of the room.
That's how you've got that wavery/wobbly reverbish effect.
-Metaellihead
