So This is Weird

Didn't come here with the intention of posting, just wanted to see what was up.

Anyway, while surfing through threads, with my guitar in hand, something odd happened.


See, I don't have any sound on my desktop because nothing is plugged in, no speakers, no external speaker, nada.

In fact none of the jacks even have anything in them...


So while I was browsing, I had my guitar palm muted, with the amp still on and fairly loud (you could hear feedback due to the gain and loudness). Then something strange happened.

When I minimized my browser for a second, it made a very distinct noise, playing through the amplifier.

I tested it and sure enough, every time I minimize or un-minimize a noise played through the amp.


Weird. I wonder how my guitar/amp is literally "Reading" my computer's mind.


Heh...

a reply to: 1Providence1

pick ups are sensitive transducers. They can pick up EM waves and your computer and monitor are putting off a lot of them.

I heard voices coming from my rig once. Faulty cable was picking up talk radio on AM.

Are you using single-coils or humbuckers? I had a guitar with p-90's that picked up my neighbor's drill, a Mexican radio station, and the hum of fluorescent lights.
This is weird...I once had the sound of a multitude of voices...like the sound of a crowd at a party, come through speakers that were not even hooked up to a power source.
I also get a sound through an amp, similar to the sound of a fax machine or an old modem, just before my cell phone rings.

originally posted by: InverseLookingGlass
a reply to: 1Providence1

pick ups are sensitive transducers. They can pick up EM waves and your computer and monitor are putting off a lot of them.

I heard voices coming from my rig once. Faulty cable was picking up talk radio on AM.

Bingo

originally posted by: skunkape23
Are you using single-coils or humbuckers? I had a guitar with p-90's that picked up my neighbor's drill, a Mexican radio station, and the hum of fluorescent lights.
This is weird...I once had the sound of a multitude of voices...like the sound of a crowd at a party, come through speakers that were not even hooked up to a power source.
I also get a sound through an amp, similar to the sound of a fax machine or an old modem, just before my cell phone rings.

Yup, I know exactly what ya mean!

Whispers. ......I see dead people.

This is fairly common and generally is pickup getting amplified. For computers it can actually be a software thing doing something weird with the sound. Sometimes it can be as simple as leakage of EMF from the monitor screen.

Probably notice that for old CRTs there would be a hum on the audio... and if you turned the brightness down or changed the screen from white to black... the tone would change.



Sometimes it is going through the grounding, people will often buy lots of fancy audio equipment and then plug it into a wall socket that is on the same circuit as a computer. Switch mode power supplies in PCs are filthy in terms of what they do to the grounding. Pretty easy to fix it, just need a ground filter to smooth out the waves.

You can actually hack a computer by listening to it.

www.cs.tau.ac.il...

a reply to: 1Providence1

If you hold up a remote control for a TV up to the pick ups and hold down a button, it will make a noise also. They can detect all kinds of noises in different frequencies. Pretty interesting!

originally posted by: ErosA433
This is fairly common and generally is pickup getting amplified. For computers it can actually be a software thing doing something weird with the sound. Sometimes it can be as simple as leakage of EMF from the monitor screen.

Yep. Spies can use that leakage to read CRT monitors in the next room, but I don't think it works as well with flat-panel displays, maybe a little.

a reply to: Arbitrageur

I have definitely noticed something like that, but if anything it is never as pronounced an effect, and is likely other things going on within the computer/screen/whatever.

Only place i could imagine it happening in flat panels are LED displays, and the sound would reflect the power impact of different images on the screen.

a reply to: ErosA433
Yes.
Another type of cross device interference of the EM to audio type I've noticed that some of you may have also noticed, is if you have your computer speaker volume turned up, and have your cell phone nearby, and turned on. Every so often (maybe once an hour, I haven't timed it), I can hear some kind of communication of the cell phone with the cell tower (maybe registering location/checking for text messages or something?) that lasts about 3-4 seconds, somewhat reminiscent of the old modem type sound, but not exactly the same.

Obviously the cell phone is transmitting EM radiation, not sound waves, but something somewhere in the computer electronics is picking up this EM radiation and converting it to sound that plays through the computer speakers. Here's an interesting article talking about that (which is not all that different from what the OP is experiencing):

Why Is My Cell Phone Causing Noise In My Speakers?

The article mentions it won't happen for everybody because it depends on the cell phone type, computer type, cabling type, etc.

originally posted by: skunkape23
Are you using single-coils or humbuckers? I had a guitar with p-90's that picked up my neighbor's drill, a Mexican radio station, and the hum of fluorescent lights.

Did you get those all at once? You should have recorded it. You could be a big star by now - it would probably be more marketable than the crap kids listen to now.