I see there are some older posts on here regarding what peeps are doing to power their pedals, and some interesting info. I see that @tony you were looking at this in '24 and @roger_holland you were using a daisy chain.
So, I am running into noise problems and have tried all sorts but hereās what I am trying to do.
I have 4 x pedals. Digitech Trio + 800mA, Boss RC1 95mA, TC Electronic Impulse 100mA, TC Helicon Harmony Singer 2 300mA. Total Current = ~1.295A
I have 2 x plug pack style PS. 1 has o/p of 500mA the other o/p of 1.8A. The latter seems noisier in general.
I have read that mixing Analogue and Digital pedals can be problematic when powering however Iām not sure which of mine are A or D?
Keeping it simple I am currently only using the HS2 and the TC Impulse (combined draw of ~400mA) that then feed into an Amp. For some reason the 500mA pack doesnāt seem to want to power these in daisy chain? Going forward I will likely make a pedal board with all 4 pedals on although that is yet to be determined, I may omit the Trio + and for now settle for the HS2, TC Impulse and RC1.
The majority of noise seems to be when the HS2 is connected.
So Iām interested to hear what you are using and for what pedals? How did you go @tony with your setup and @roger_holland are you still using a daisy chain and if so what pedals are you powering? and from what PSU.
Anyone else with hands on experience Iād love to hear what youāve done. Iād be happy to go rechargeable battery power but not against just good old plug it in. Oh, and I am trying not to spend a fortune on it but of course I do want it to work well.
There is so much available nowadays in PSUs and Battery Packs and a huge range from outright terrible to really good so I am keen not to throw money at rubbish products wrapped up as the answer to everything
Anyways, look forward to your feedback guys/ladies/non specific
Iām using a simple setup, a looper (rc500) and an acoustic DI (fishman ToneDEQ), using a cheap 9v power supply with daisy chain extensions. Not noticing any hum or noise.
My take on this was to spend the money once and be done with the problem. I bought a Fender Engine Room 8 port isolated power brick - it wasnāt cheap and itās more than I really need but the problem is now solved and Iām unlikely to need to spend money on other solutions for a long time.
You certainly donāt have to buy a Fender brick but consider buying something with isolated ports. My brick is hidden under my pedal board and itās a neat solution
Hi Craig,
A tech question for meā¦well well I donāt expect to be able to contribute much
I still use this one in this topic what you have seenā¦ very happy and not one problem ever.
And these are the pedalsā¦the 5 of them go together on a daisy chain (had to look up what that meant again ) and the 3 on the floor and the Relay G10 all go on a separate thomann adaptersā¦this everything goes completely wrong if I donāt plug it into a grounded socket like the first timesā¦but fortunately that is easily solved here.
And everything comes here via 2 grounded extension cords, I hope this helps you or come close to what you asked as I can`t wake up clear this morning
A good way to determine whether power is causing noise is to use a battery (if your pedals take them). If the noise goes away when on battery, then your power supply / earthing is the problem.
Personally I use a Voodoo Pedal Power supply on one of my boards, and a Cioks supply on the board with my Quad Cortex (which has a large power requirement). Both great solutions, neither cheap. The Cioks is expandable with additional modules which is handy if things grow.
Thanks all for the great feedback and links, much appreciated.
Nice setup Adrian and couple of good products, thanks.
Yes Rogier, I was most intrigued by your original post. Thanks for sharing the pics, I canāt believe you have managed to run 5 pedals via daisy chain and from the plug pack and no noise, well done good work.
Iāll have to try a few things out, Thanks Paul, @mathsjunky, yes, thatās an idea although I canāt do that with the Impulse unit as they are plug in only. Iām 98% sure the noise is due to earth loop or whatever it is they call it
Thanks again all Itās always good to see what others do as there is no point in re-inventing the wheel.
This is the first thing that sprang to my mind as well. Isolated ports is the key ingredient here.
Daisy chaining is for when price is the highest priority because the stars need to align just right to remain noise freein such a setup.
It is a very āunsexyā purchase, I know.
It doesnāt improve your tonal options, character or even playing ability.
ā¦But it reduced the risks of annoyance.
I used several products over the year and you usually get what you pay for.
Options like the Voodoo, Cioks etc are excellent options. I also have a custom N-audio one (a one-man company in Bulgaria). They key in these things is:
isolated ports
some ports with higher output, for the more demanding pedal with heavy digital duties
some simpler ports for basic drive like pedals
modular power cables and switchable outputs and reversed polarity cables
next to in-ear monitors and a wireless signal, they are unsexy and expensive purchases but once you have it, youāre not going back
Spot on although I fear itās the guitar worldās equivalent of telling someone they should eat broccoli rather than McNuggets! Theyāll spend thousands on guitars, amps, pedals and then somehow a janky $10 daisy chain cable that might not burn your house down is what connects it all together. As the saying goes, we can lead a horse to waterā¦
Also to your point, I have a fuzz pedal with reverse polarity and sure enough the correct cable was supplied by Fender along with the brick - good luck powering it with a daisy chain
Hi @lieven thanks for the input (oops pardon the pun ). Appreciate you your info and @mattswain thanks Matt.
I guess its not really about cheap skating its more about cost effective solutions, which for me are better sourced starting at the easier and cheaper end of the scale. Yes, for sure I could just go and buy a fancy power supply from the music shop but as a newcomer to this how do I know that my $$$ power unit will not suffer the same noise? My journey itnto some pedals and how they mix and work is only just starting really so thereās no point in forking out to find Iām still in the same leaky boat
Additionally, others have no problem with a simple daisy chain or cheaper power supply. So this exercise is really about fact finding around what works well with what.
Hereās a strange thing I found yesterday out of interest. when I plug the "Line Outā of the amp into the Audio Interface, the noise completely disappeared So certainly, the earthing issue.
Thanks again you guys for all the feedback. Good to hear what others are doing.
Hi. I have a very basic board and I am using Harley Benton PowerPlant ISO-5 Pro:
It doesnāt have enough power output for Trio+, but I donāt have that on my board at all times. Donāt really use Trio that much TBH.
I also read somewhere that you have to be careful when using daisy chains. Even when you have enough power you should be careful which pedals you link together. As far as I remember, I was advised against connecting my TC Hall of Fame reverb pedal together with my OD pedal. But I could connect Hall of Fame with Tunerā¦ Donāt remember the details but something to do with electronics of complex pedals that could produce unwanted noise or performance issues - even when there is enough power.
Thanks for that Bostjan, great info. Yes, I have seen advice that mixing Analogue and Digital pedals can be problematic so Iām getting my head around that currently .
Looks like everyone is pointing ya in the right direction to me Craig.
imho, just get yourself a power supply. Itās a C note well spent. Itāll keep the blues away.
I got me a mxr dc brick, 8 ports power supply. I get no issues from powering my pedals at all. Iāve had up to 7 of the ports filled in the past too. So reaching itās limits. All w/o issues.
It sure felt like a lotta bread to spend on something so simple as powering up the pedals. But for the lack of problems Iāve had, it was worth the money.
When it comes to the noise, something like this is an option, I think. Maybe not all the time, but it seems to be meant for daisy chain type power setups.
Gordon it it lies there most of the time and it is for looking closer to where the heck my fans areā¦
Oo you almost made me say that I look daily to certain birds ā¦but that doesnāt sound good when typing in this context ā¦ ( in dutch it is 100% oke )
No, no, bad jokes , this is of course for better resonance with the amplifier through the double-looped vacuum space, guided through the protocols and conductive scales
Or maybe
It is there safe from spilling my tea because of your and others jokes (and my own clumsiness ) and āget readyā if there are indeed birds Nate @Mustela nearby that I need to identify or just look at it for its beauty and also use or in the garden insects on the ground or in plants that I cannot reach and that I want to take a closer lookā¦
I donāt expect to be able to contribute much 
) and the 3 on the floor and the Relay G10 all go on a separate thomann adaptersā¦this everything goes completely wrong if I donāt plug it into a grounded socket like the first timesā¦but fortunately that is easily solved here.
Yes Rogier, I was most intrigued by your original post. Thanks for sharing the pics, I canāt believe you have managed to run 5 pedals via daisy chain and from the plug pack and no noise, 
well done 
So certainly, the earthing issue.
)
) and āget readyā if there are indeed birds Nate 