Noisy Computer

[Mary Smith]

I have been recording with cool edit 2000 - just guitar and vocals. I've gotten the sound okay except for one thing. You can hear the computer in the background - I mean clicks and grinds from the hard drive working while recording. Is there a way to minimize this? It's ruining everything! Thanks!

 

[faithmonster]

Try this... it worked for me.

Hello Mary.


I have a small room for recording and my computer sits
on a foldup table. In desperation I covered the computer
with a box slightly larger than the tower itself during
a vocal recording. It worked! But there was the risk of
the unit overheating, so I had a friend of mine design
a box with a plexiglas window and a venting system that
works nicely. Another possibility is to use a cabinet or
armoire to locate the unit, or if your room has a closet;
even better- just locate the unit inside the closet with
extended cables for your peripherals, ie keyboard, monitor, etc. It really doesn't take much. Good luck with it.

Faithmonster

 

[Mike]

Hey faithmonster, would you mind describing your computer case in a little more detail. How does the venting work. Any special lining within the interior of the cabinet?

 

[trucker dave]

what kinda hard drive you got? Must be a noisy one. I record steel guitar from about 4 feet away with mic gain turned up and it still doesn't pick up mine and it's almost facing the mic. If it's fans making noise, most computers got 3. CPU, power supply and chassis fan. a company called pcpower and cooling makes replacements for all three with very low decibel levels, almost whisper quiet. I just had to replace one of mine(CPU, sounded like a 747 on the runway) I lay one of those foil covered automotive windshield sunshields in front of the computer sometimes just to make sure no little hard drive clicks get picked up.

 

[bvaleria]

In addition to the good suggestions already posted, make sure you're using a cardioid or hyper-cardioid mic combined with close-micing to help restrict the "sound capture area".

Bruce Valeriani
Blue Bear Sound

 

[iHateRegisteringAtSites]

And/or buy the Nosie Reduction add on for cool edit 2000, i have Cool edit pro, it does a good job, u just have to sample the noise for a few seconds then tell cool edit to "carve out" that frequency.

 

[bvaleria]

And/or buy the Nosie Reduction add on for cool edit 2000, i have Cool edit pro, it does a good job, u just have to sample the noise for a few seconds then tell cool edit to "carve out" that frequency.

Hmmm.... that would be a last resort technique I should think - yes, it may carve out that frequency (or range of), but the chances are very good that the track itself also has content at that frequency range too which would get chopped, potentially affecting the sound. Much better to get the sound right going "to tape" than "patching it" after the fact.

Bruce

 

[iHateRegisteringAtSites]

right, i was just telling her that as a last resort, seeing as how she had the software and all i was just wondering if she had ever tried that. it worked ok for me, i was recording in my dorm room and had no other choice, couldnt get far enuff away from the cpu since the room is so small.

 

[Mary Smith]

Thanks for the help

Thanks for all the suggestions. Could you elaborate on the type of mic I might need? I'm now planning to buy a Shure SM58. Would this work. I think my hard drive may be too noisy - the computer is new (Gateway)so I don't know what the problem might be. I tried the noise reduction program but unfortunately it did cause a significant reduction in the overall quality of the recording - there was a big difference and I decided that wasn't a viable solution. The way my setup is I can't put the hard drive in a closet but I may be able to record in a closet or possibly another room if the cords are long enough. I'm going to try that.