Hiss/White noise

[polarity]

If you are just in an open room and hit record, and then play it back does it sound like silence or does it have the "white noise" I guess you could call it? It's not like an audible hiss and it's not something I hear over a recording but if I just played back empty space I recorded I would hear it.

If everyone gets it how to you get rid of it? Just use a noise gate or something similar?

 

[Steenamaroo]

Pretty much any electronic equipment will have a level of noise. Where that level is is the important thing.

If it noticeable to the extent that you'd consider using a noise gate, then you probably have a problem, or lower quality gear.
I only ever really use gates for toms and electric guitar parts where there are extended gaps with amp hum.


I do remember bad hiss with some older preamps that I had. My mbox 2 was terrible for it.
It's not something that I really have to contend with now, thankfully.

edit.
+ What miro said.

 

[miroslav]

Well...almost all electronic devices have some self-noise, but that's not the important thing.
What you have to focus on is the Signal-to-Noise. If you have enough signal, the electronic noise becomes inaudible.

Also...if you are cranking your gear on "empty"...yeah, you will hear hiss, but imagine how it would sound if at that level you had some audio signal. It would probably knock you on your ass.
The only time to worry about noise gates and trying to cut out noise is when it starts to creep up closer to your signal levels.

 

[polarity]

Yeah it's nothing like that. Normally I hit record so I can hear the track in my headphones which is of course before the vocal starts.. I hit play after the take and I can just hear the empty space.. As soon as I start singing I dont hear it anymore but I was just curious if that was just normal. Makes sense though, jam the amp up to 11 and you hear it too without the guitar playing anything.

thanks

 

[CharlesMingMing]

Well...almost all electronic devices have some self-noise, but that's not the important thing.
What you have to focus on is the Signal-to-Noise. If you have enough signal, the electronic noise becomes inaudible.

Also...if you are cranking your gear on "empty"...yeah, you will hear hiss, but imagine how it would sound if at that level you had some audio signal. It would probably knock you on your ass.
The only time to worry about noise gates and trying to cut out noise is when it starts to creep up closer to your signal levels.

agree

 

[grimtraveller]

If you are just in an open room and hit record, and then play it back does it sound like silence or does it have the "white noise" I guess you could call it?

I hear birds tweeting, dogs barking, cranes whirring, busses zooming, kids playing, sirens wailing, planes or helicopters flying, wasps buzzing, wind blowing, rain falling, workmen drilling.............

 

[RAMI]

I hear birds tweeting, dogs barking, cranes whirring, busses zooming, kids playing, sirens wailing, planes or helicopters flying, wasps buzzing, wind blowing, rain falling, workmen drilling.............

I used to do a lot of acid. I stopped because the last few times I did it, I saw what looked like beams of light, and I heard sounds that sounded a lot like car horns......

 

[Tim Gillett]

Waiter, I'll have what he's having.

 

[Steenamaroo]

Waiter, I'll have what he's having.

Can I recommend halving the dosage???

 

[grimtraveller]

I used to do a lot of acid. I stopped because the last few times I did it, I saw what looked like beams of light, and I heard sounds that sounded a lot like car horns......

Waiter, I'll have what he's having.

Can I recommend halving the dosage???

I hear birds tweeting, dogs barking, cranes whirring, busses zooming, kids playing, sirens wailing, planes or helicopters flying, wasps buzzing, wind blowing, rain falling, workmen drilling.............

And owls hooting, foxes mating, neighbours arguing, dustmen emptying, cars parking, televisions blaring, druggies fighting.......







Seriously !

 

[guitaristic]

If you are just in an open room and hit record, and then play it back does it sound like silence or does it have the "white noise" I guess you could call it? It's not like an audible hiss and it's not something I hear over a recording but if I just played back empty space I recorded I would hear it.

If everyone gets it how to you get rid of it? Just use a noise gate or something similar?

Some mics are just noisy...maybe that's it. I don't really use it much anymore, but my CAD m179 has some hiss around 9K hz! Like Steen said, it could be anything though.

 

[Bobbsy]

Rainbow lorikeets squawking and kookaburras laughing here!

To the OP, how much are you cranking things up (either at recording or on playback) to hear the noise?

As has been said, all electronic equipment has self noise to a greater or lesser extent. However, in any decent gear this should be all but inaudible at levels in normal use. Similarly, any room (except for an anechoic chamber) will have a certain degree of room ambience--which, again, is normally well buried in the signals you're actually recording but which can be audible if you record silence and crank up the levels during recording any/or playback.

My suggestion to you would be to set your recording controls to the sort of level you'd typically use for recording.

Once you have a minute or so, use your DAW and zoom in on the vertical scale just to see what sort of level the noise is burbling along at. If the noise (combined room and equipment self noise) is lower than about -80dB, then you have nothing to worry about at all. If the noise is between -70 and -80dB it's beginning to become audible but is likely to be buried in the recording. More noise than that and, at normal recording levels in the -18 to -12dB range, it'll likely become audible as levels are brought up in the mix.

Fixing it? Well, the only true way to fix it would be better sound proofing and acoustic treatment and better gear (with less self noise). A gate can turn off the sound whenever to source material falls below a certain level but the noise will still be there whenever the gate is open. Personally, rather than an automatic gate, I prefer to use fader automation or envelopes to take down the level of every track during periods of silence. Yeah, it's work but the results can sound better than a gate (at least to my ears).

Or, if you DAW has noise reduction, grab a sample of pure noise and run the reduction algorithm. Don't try to eliminate all noise; just reduce the level so it's not objectionable and you should avoid too many artefacts on your music. Also, doing 2 or 3 light passes can often sound better than trying one big reduction.

 

[dainbramage]

I used to do a lot of acid. I stopped because the last few times I did it, I saw what looked like beams of light, and I heard sounds that sounded a lot like car horns......

Aww man, you were so close!

 

[grimtraveller]

Rainbow lorikeets squawking and kookaburras laughing here!

The kookaburra sits in the old gum tree
Very merry king of the bushes, he
Laugh kookaburra, laugh kookaburra
Gay, your life must be.

I learned that in school when I was 6 when gay meant happy.

any room (except for an anechoic chamber) will have a certain degree of room ambience--which, again, is normally well buried in the signals you're actually recording but which can be audible if you record silence and crank up the levels during recording any/or playback.

That was what I was alluding to, really. I never record "silence" but if I did, I'd faintly pick up all those things in the distance but they'd never be audible above voices and instruments.

Originally Posted by RAMI;
I used to do a lot of acid. I stopped because the last few times I did it, I saw what looked like beams of light, and I heard sounds that sounded a lot like car horns......

Aww man, you were so close!

He was close enough for Moroccan roll.

 

[polarity]

Recorded it and I don't hear the sound unless I crank the speakers up (if I crank them with no audio playing I get no sound). I don't see in mixcraft how to check the dB that it's at but I may be able to do it on Logic, so I'll move it over there and give it a shot.

Rainbow lorikeets squawking and kookaburras laughing here!

To the OP, how much are you cranking things up (either at recording or on playback) to hear the noise?

As has been said, all electronic equipment has self noise to a greater or lesser extent. However, in any decent gear this should be all but inaudible at levels in normal use. Similarly, any room (except for an anechoic chamber) will have a certain degree of room ambience--which, again, is normally well buried in the signals you're actually recording but which can be audible if you record silence and crank up the levels during recording any/or playback.

My suggestion to you would be to set your recording controls to the sort of level you'd typically use for recording.

Once you have a minute or so, use your DAW and zoom in on the vertical scale just to see what sort of level the noise is burbling along at. If the noise (combined room and equipment self noise) is lower than about -80dB, then you have nothing to worry about at all. If the noise is between -70 and -80dB it's beginning to become audible but is likely to be buried in the recording. More noise than that and, at normal recording levels in the -18 to -12dB range, it'll likely become audible as levels are brought up in the mix.

Fixing it? Well, the only true way to fix it would be better sound proofing and acoustic treatment and better gear (with less self noise). A gate can turn off the sound whenever to source material falls below a certain level but the noise will still be there whenever the gate is open. Personally, rather than an automatic gate, I prefer to use fader automation or envelopes to take down the level of every track during periods of silence. Yeah, it's work but the results can sound better than a gate (at least to my ears).

Or, if you DAW has noise reduction, grab a sample of pure noise and run the reduction algorithm. Don't try to eliminate all noise; just reduce the level so it's not objectionable and you should avoid too many artefacts on your music. Also, doing 2 or 3 light passes can often sound better than trying one big reduction.

 

[Bobbsy]

The kookaburra sits in the old gum tree
Very merry king of the bushes, he
Laugh kookaburra, laugh kookaburra
Gay, your life must be.

I learned that in school when I was 6 when gay meant happy.

Just for Grimtraveller, here's what you were singing about:

QUEENSLAND KOOKABURRA

(Recorded this morning by shoving a mic--an AKG C451 since this is a recording forum--out on my patio. Apologies for the near clipping--I only got one take before my movement scared them off.)

 

[miroslav]

I used to do a lot of acid.

Was it brown...?

 

[RAMI]

Was it brown...?

Worse. it was Altamont acid.

 

[grimtraveller]

Just for Grimtraveller, here's what you were singing about:

QUEENSLAND KOOKABURRA

(Recorded this morning by shoving a mic--an AKG C451 since this is a recording forum--out on my patio. Apologies for the near clipping--I only got one take before my movement scared them off.)

That's fantastic !
Do they ever get in the way of recording at home ?

 

[Bobbsy]

That's fantastic !
Do they ever get in the way of recording at home ?

Occasionally--but they tend to be at their loudest early morning and around sunset, neither of which are prime times for me--and they prefer trees which (by luck rather than design) are the other side of the house from the room I use for studio work.

By the way, they look as crazy as they sound. Here's a pic I got a while back (not in our garden but in a playground down the road):