First Gig... Couple Bumps...

[cheft]

what can you use to ground it?

If the building you are in is grounded properly, connect a wire to the screw on the back of your mixer and plug the other end into the ground in a wall socket. It's the round third hole.

Alternatively, you can use a power supply that has a ground, just hook the wire to the power supply ground or even the surge protector's ground.

If you continue to have problems, you can also use a small UPS unit. This will maintain a constant power supply to all of your devices, independent of the house.
ex: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16842101344

[Monika.mhz]

Not the grounding issue the power drop out issue for when other sources of power are turned on.

which sounds like a USB grounding issue to me. lol *fixes laptop motherboards for a living*

[cheft]

I'd also try a different USB cable to see if that stops the dropouts.

[ACE]

Forgot to add the link to wisegeek.com

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-power-conditioner.htm

Great advice! The problem I see is that I'm unsure of what or how large of a power conditioner I need. I use a 3000W amp made for iMax theaters. I obviously don't use that in the same plug as my computer... would I only use a power conditioner for my computer?

[Nate1379]

I'm sure you would be fine with a rack mount Power Conditioner with 8 outlets. It just depends how much equipment you are using.

For example. I use two Power Conditioners. One with my Lighting Rig (5 Martin Intelligent Lights and Controler), and one for my gear (Laptop, Dual CD Player, Mixer, Crossover, and two amps. I'm probably forgeting something too. Anyways, I would recomend a Furman Power Conditioner. They start around $150 and go up from there.

http://www.furmansound.com/

We sold these all the time back in the day's of Mars Music... Good times.

[ACE]

Thanks for the insight! This helps loads!