Tinfoil question

[OccinticLady]

Hi all,
So...I sink ever deeper into sound (dont throw me a lifeline, I'm fine ) and am now getting concerned about an aspect I overlooked: sound quality.
I get hum over the "line".
Of course, I use a laptop for the work...and two things strike, of course.
The sound hardware of a/the laptop is ... just what it is...and it does have the limits I now bump in to. And the fact that the laptop sits right on top of the electrical action...hence the rattle n hum it seems to pick up...
A G4 Mac is in the pipeline (second hand) and Linux is destined to upgrade it.
So, here comes the question: would wrapping the leads in earthed tinfoil help a bit?
Thanks...
Melissa

[sunrat]

While hum and noise can be induced proximally, most audio leads are shielded so that is not common. What is more likely is hum from ground loops caused by sharing audio grounds with power grounds. Another issue which can create noise is mismatched impedances and/or gain structures eg. if your instrument has such low output level that you have to really increase the input gain, or vice versa.
Ideally all audio leads should be balanced but most instruments do not have balanced outputs. There is an excellent article on Rane's website covering the issues and solutions - https://www.ranecommercial.com/legacy/note151.html

I wouldn't recommend running metres of tinfoil around your studio, could be extremely hazardous!

[OccinticLady]

While hum and noise can be induced proximally, most audio leads are shielded so that is not common. What is more likely is hum from ground loops caused by sharing audio grounds with power grounds. Another issue which can create noise is mismatched impedances and/or gain structures eg. if your instrument has such low output level that you have to really increase the input gain, or vice versa.
Ideally all audio leads should be balanced but most instruments do not have balanced outputs. There is an excellent article on Rane's website covering the issues and solutions - https://www.ranecommercial.com/legacy/note151.html

I wouldn't recommend running metres of tinfoil around your studio, could be extremely hazardous!

Thanks!
Well, tinfoil would be a bizarre option, anyway.
I may indeed have to rethink the setup as it has grown "organically" over time
Thanks again
Melissa