Understanding grounding in the organelle (S2) noise / electrical safety

Organelle
1

Hello!
In my journey to understand audio noise and electrical safety while playing with audio gear, I came to the following understanding/assumptions regarding the organelle (S2 here but I suppose it does not matter), which I’d love to confirm :

  • All the audio outputs and inputs on the organelle share a common ground, which is also shared with the usb ports, the midi input and output, and the headphone output?
  • This common ground is neither connected to the - or + poles of the DC power supply of the organelle?
  • This common ground is not intentionally connected to the metal chassis of the organelle. Actually this metal chassis is not intentionally connected to any electrical point of the internals of the organelle?
  • In terms of electrical safety, this makes the organelle a “floating device”, which is fine because organelle is running on low voltage. I’d also say that in terms of appliance class (Appliance classes - Wikipedia) organelle is a class 0 appliance, which is fine again since it is not connected to mains, but powered by 9V DC?
  • In order to minimize noise in a setup involving the organelle and other audio equipment (in my case, organelle is connected to an audio interface through usb, and this audio interface is taking inputs from the mono pickups on my bass, but also six other inputs from an hexaphonic pickup), I should connect the ground of my audio setup to organelle only through one connection, to avoid ground loops. Ground loops inside the Organelle are minimised by its metal casing.

In case the tone is not clear, my impression is that the organelle is a well designed and made device in terms of safety and noise handling, but I’m rather new to all this so I’m trying to check on the ideas I’m making along the way in order to have the lowest noise in my playing and stay safe if I one day play with an old amp that happens to fail me in terms of safety.

Thank you for reading :slight_smile:

2

You’re generally thinking about this the right way.

The Organelle is a low-voltage device powered from an external DC supply and does not connect directly to mains power. Internally, the audio I/O, USB, MIDI, and headphone connections reference a common system ground, and the metal enclosure is tied to that ground primarily for shielding and noise reduction.

From a safety perspective, this is typical for modern low-voltage electronic instruments. As with any setup, it’s important that any other gear you connect (amps, interfaces, computers, etc.) is functioning correctly and not presenting a fault on its ground or signal connections.

Noise issues can definitely appear when combining computers, USB audio, guitars, and other equipment. The best approach is usually to simplify the setup and add components one at a time to identify where the noise is being introduced. .

5

Thank you again for the clear and fast answer :slight_smile: