The Unbearable Hiss of Being

D

dishwasherrat

New member
Dear Reader:

I am new to recording. I recently purchased a Porta02 mkII 4-track recorder. I read the manual front to back.

So far, the recording process is great fun, but I was disappointed to hear extraordinary amounts of hiss through my headphones during monitoring, recording, playback and mixdown alike.

Is this normal? I did everything as instructed in the manual, but this is completely unexpected and certainly not addressed in the troubleshooting page of the manual.

The truth is, I actually enjoy a little hiss and white noise in my recordings, but this is beyond ridiculous. It doesn't seem right at all.

And, since the hiss occurs even when my mic is unplugged (unless this is how multitrack recorders are famed to sound; I wouldn't know as this is my first), could it be because I'm using an 1/8"-to-1/4" adapter for my headphones? Do I need to use a different kind of adapter so as to circumvent the hissing?

My current setup includes one Audio-Technica ATR55 condenser microphone. When using this microphone with my minidisc recorder, I have no clearly audible feedback, distortion or hiss. I have used it successfully for multiple purposes. For headphones, I use Sony's MDR-7506. (Please note, however, that I do not have the 1/4" adapter shown in the photo at this link.) I only use Type II Chrome tapes.

I'm stumped, and I certainly hadn't read any reviews or mention of this unit being disruptively hissy. I mean, really, it sounds like a damn waterfall. Click here for an MP3 sample of the hiss in question.

Thanks in advance for any and all constructive help.

Cheers,
dishwasherrat.
 
It's loud!

Eh,... I'll just go for the basics.

First of all, on some multitrackers there may be a bit more hiss in the phones than in the actual Line-Outs. This should be verified by hooking the Porta02's Line-Outs to your stereo or monitoring system.

I'd assume your mixdown configuration involves the Line-Outs, and that you're not recording your mixdowns off the headphone jack? I'd hate to ask you to verify that, but it's one of those no-brainers. To hook any sort of recorder or amplifier to the Headphone-Out jack is improper and electrically mismatched. It will not sound right, and will enhance any unusual anomaly in the sound. The 1/4"-1/8" adapter is fine for adapting your headphones, but not for taking your mixdowns off of. 'Nuff said?

In short, if the phones have the hiss and the line-outs don't have the hiss, then I'd say that's par for the course (in budget multitrackers), but functionally it's fine. If the actual Line-Out (L/R) signal has this hiss on mixdown, then you have a legitimate problem.

Let's assume again that you're using high quality, name brand Type II tapes.

I hate to assume. All the basics should be checked. :eek: ;)

Good luck.
 
Sadly, the standard narrow track cassette format without any noise reduction plus the slow 1-7/8 ips tape speed of the porta02 does not yield satisfactory results. This type of recorder would be better marketed as a voice dictation device and not something for a musician. Yes, the hiss you're hearing is normal for this type of unit. The TASCAM 414 MKII would be a much better investment if you wanna go cassette.
 
Please post a 10 sec recording of you saying "one, two, three, one, two, three...." and we'll gauge the hiss better as compared to your voice.
 
Hello!

(Just between you & me, I think he's hooked into the headphone amp, which would be hissy as a normal feature, but not a true problem).

I dunno. I've not heard that much hiss on any of my Porta's in a long time! With exception of the very first tapes I made back in '82-83 when I was learning the ropes, (which had hiss comparable to this), I generally don't have a big problem with hiss on a Portastudio.

I have the MF-P01 and Porta 02mkII, and although the headphone amps are a bit hissy, the Line Outs are not, and should not be hissy, given that you have the proper tape and good strong levels. Granted, the Porta 02mkII has no NR, which I forgot to mention, thank you, but it should sound relatively decent when the hookup and levels are set correctly.

The hiss our friend has is way over the top. That's my amatuer opinion.;)
 
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Dave, we don't have a true gauge on the hiss as it's isolated (in the mp3 clip) and.... perhaps amplified ? But you may be right ...... In any case, he should definitely mixdown from the Line Outs and do a 10 sec spoken recording for us to get a better picture of the hiss ;)
 
Ok,... for instance,...

on my recording of "Moonage Daydream", you'll have an audible hiss at the beginning of the track, and when it kicks in at 0VU, the hiss is negligible. Am I correct? That's roughly the same level of hiss I'd expect from a Porta 02, relative to 0VU level program material.

Our friend's clip has a huge amount of hiss, and nothing to judge it's relative level against.

;)
 
My exact thoughts too, Dave .. :) We def need an instrument to judge the hiss against ... ;)
 
Dishwasherrat:
I have a 414 portastudio. I've never had hiss problems, but that's due to the Dolby NR the unit has built in. If I'm not mistaken the porta02mkII don't have any noise reduction circuitry built in, so in part, that's the reason you hear hissing. Other reason, as very well stated before is the tape speed. Lower tape transport speed = lower fidelity.
Very good advice given before; and as they wrote, mix down using your line out's.
However, since you record on tape, and there's no NR in your unit, the hiss will not completely dissapear, but it will become less annoying. As you move up in the tascam chain, the units will produce a cleaner sound. All digital portastudios, for example, don't have this problem at all.
Cheers!
 
Thanks to everyone for their input!

To clarify, this test was recorded via the RCA Line Out to my minidisc at its most uncompressed, hi-fi setting. The microphone is set to Normal (as opposed to Tele).

And now I'm having irrelevant trouble with the BBS not letting me post another MP3. I tried attaching it as a ZIP file, but the system rejected it, saying it was too large. Compressed it down to 16 kbps, rendering the original, already pissy quality now exponentially useless, but the system still wouldn't take it.

So ... I guess I'll post this on YouSendIt.com. Please download/listen here.

Thanks again.
 
I am half deaf and that just doesnt sound like tape hiss to me. sounds more like the electronics somewhere in the chain then tape.
Sounds more like mic gain turned up to much or something like that.
 
Thanx for the clarification and update!

I don't consider this level of hiss to be normal. The Porta 02mkII will have more hiss than Portastudios with dbx noise reduction, but it's not supposed to be like The Unbearable Lightness of Hissing. :eek:

I'll try to do a Porta 02mkII test this weekend, although I don't recall having quite this much background noise on my last test runs of the 02mkII. Huh,... what'd'ya say? I cant' hear you,... it's the hiss!:eek:
 
dishwasherrat said:
Thanks to everyone for their input!

To clarify, this test was recorded via the RCA Line Out to my minidisc at its most uncompressed, hi-fi setting. The microphone is set to Normal (as opposed to Tele).

And now I'm having irrelevant trouble with the BBS not letting me post another MP3. I tried attaching it as a ZIP file, but the system rejected it, saying it was too large. Compressed it down to 16 kbps, rendering the original, already pissy quality now exponentially useless, but the system still wouldn't take it.

So ... I guess I'll post this on YouSendIt.com. Please download/listen here.

Thanks again.
Click to expand...


I listened to the mp3 several times and it does sound like tape hiss. What was the level at which you recorded ? -10, -5, 0, +6 ?? The more you move away from 0db, the more or less hiss will be heard.
 
It was below 0. Around -5. Again, though, the hiss occurs even when I'm not recording (i.e., no tape in the unit). I'm pretty sure this isn't normal. I've heard album samples as recorded from this unit that had, in comparison, virtually no hiss.

Seriously, I get better recording quality from my $5 Radio Shack mic hooked up to a 30-year-old Playskool cassette tape recorder. I was actually hoping to upgrade from that, but instead it seems I've reverted to something much, much worse.

I want to give TASCAM more credit than this.

Anybody else willing to make an analysis?
 
dishwasherrat said:
It was below 0. Around -5. Again, though, the hiss occurs even when I'm not recording (i.e., no tape in the unit). I'm pretty sure this isn't normal. I've heard album samples as recorded from this unit that had, in comparison, virtually no hiss.

Seriously, I get better recording quality from my $5 Radio Shack mic hooked up to a 30-year-old Playskool cassette tape recorder. I was actually hoping to upgrade from that, but instead it seems I've reverted to something much, much worse.

I want to give TASCAM more credit than this.

Anybody else willing to make an analysis?
Click to expand...

Try this test: Set the output and input levels to zero on the porta, hook up the rca line out (of the porta) to the line in of your stereo receiver or something that you can monitor the sound level coming from the line outs of your porta. Is there any hiss/noise ? Repeat by bringing the output levels of the porta higher and make notes ... Are you hearing anything ? Try to gradually set everything as you'd normally record and note any changes. If the hiss progressively gets worse as all parameters get cranked up then it may very well be the amplification stage which is the issue of concern. If you get the same amount of hiss no matter where the parameters are set then I think your recorder is faulty.
 
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