Can anyone help me "diagnose" my USB mic's background noise/hissing? PLEASE HELP!!

How much did you pay for your present set-up and how much do you think you could re-sell for? Because it's certainly not compatible for an upgrade is it?

The mic I've been using for the past 8 years was an AT2020USB and it worked perfectly for what I needed to do, but for some reason the new AT's I just bought haven't been the same. I'm almost sure it's a laptop thing, but I am strongly considering going the XLR-interface route anyways.

I really do appreciate all the replies and advice on this thread, although I'm not a professional (just like to record vocals/piano/guitar for fun) so most of what is said here goes over my head... but I do agree with the point that was made that if you want to produce a quality recording you need quality equipment.

I honestly have no idea what the best brands are for XLR mics or interfaces but like I said, I'm not using it for professional purposes, so I don't need top of the line. But I also don't want bottom of the line either. I'm not wanting to spend too much $ right now, but I obviously do want a good system setup. So I'll look into the recommendations that were made, and if you have any other suggestions please pass them on! Especially with Black Friday right around the corner ... ;)
 
The mic I've been using for the past 8 years was an AT2020USB and it worked perfectly for what I needed to do...

... I honestly have no idea what the best brands are for XLR mics or interfaces but like I said, I'm not using it for professional purposes, so I don't need top of the line. But I also don't want bottom of the line either. I'm not wanting to spend too much $ right now, but I obviously do want a good system setup... ... ;)

Don't overlook the AT2020XLR model @ $99.
 
I honestly have no idea what the best brands are for XLR mics or interfaces but like I said, I'm not using it for professional purposes, so I don't need top of the line. But I also don't want bottom of the line either.

To give you some idea of that minefield. Top of the line costs thousands. You could easily spend a thousand dollars on a small interface and multiple thousands on a professional microphone. The gear suggested is really the lower priced equipment. Not the lowest but towards that way.
 
You stated that you are using a laptop. In the past there have been a number of posts where people have experienced noise/hum problems when using a laptop, with some finding that the problem disappeared if they used battery only --- something to do with the filtering in the power pack.

If you can, to completely bypass the laptop, you could possibly connect the mic to a desk-top computer and see what happens.

David
 
To judge from your first sample of a piano piece the unwanted noise is not the 'self noise' I'd expect from any microphone, which would approximate to 'white noise', and is the wideband natural background electromagnetic radiation of our environment (think the rushing sound of a waterfall). The USB circuitry itself could be noisy. I've looked at your Audio-Technica spec and it's not clear whether the mic internally itself (rather than the USB interface) is 'balanced' or 'unbalanced', and the latter are generally pretty noisy and much less well screened from electromagnetic interference. Your noise sounds to me like a lowish frequency 'buzz' from an AC electricity main to me, or at any rate a harmonic of same, and could even be getting in from anything nearby connected to mains electricity, not just your recording equipment. Fluorescent lighting can be noisy inside the human hearing range, and some cheaper LED lamps can be really awful, and even interfered with my kitchen radio on FM, although better brands today are much less susceptible. Anything with a motor can also generate mains noise, such as a refrigerator, although this will generally cycle between 'on' and 'off'. A 'stud wall' (lightweight wood and plasterboard) between rooms won't efficiently block electromagnetic 'leakage' from a device close by in the next room, a brick / block construction provides much better better electromagnetic isolation. As others have said, you're faced with a process of elimination. I would even start by turning all the lights off! Tip: to really get a fairly accurate idea of a mic's self noise, bury it in lots of the heaviest, deepest upholstery you can possibly lay your hands on (I use a tight roll of offcuts from a high quality deep pile carpet, and then some, use the quietest possible space you can find in your home (if not your studio, maybe an airing cupboard??) trip lightly away on slippered feet and hit 'record' in Audacity. Don't move and stop breathing (only joking). You'll soon see the level of noise when you review your recording and up the magnification on the resulting waveform, and if you amplify it you can then easily distinguish between mains hum / buzz, the lived in environment around the mic, or the generalised 'rushing sound' of natural background radiation, which even a passive balanced mic will exhibit to some degree, along with all the 'active' electronics it feeds into. Finally, the rough 'n ready but effective way to 'bury' unwanted noise is to get as close as you can to the desired sound source WITHOUT actually overloading the mic beyond its designed maximum spl, i.e. the 'hottest' possible signal, rather than applying lots of gain to bring a weaker signal up to level, then record. Electromagnetically induced background noise is often a constant; it won't get louder unless you amplify it with unnecessary gain, so a 'hot' signal will basically 'swamp it', as well as assisting the biological property of 'noise masking' which is a poorly understood natural artefact of the way in which human hearing evolved (put crudely, the brain - within reason - stops paying attention to a soft noise when a much louder one is present, and this effect is very obvious in your sample as the piano gets louder, it's next to impossible to honestly say that you can still discern the unwanted hum as a discrete and irritating noise in its own right). It is all too easy for the audiophile to get distracted by the Holy Grail of technical perfections, rather than what one is really seeking: the artistic effect of the performance
 
To judge from your first sample of a piano piece the unwanted noise is not the 'self noise' I'd expect from any microphone, which would approximate to 'white noise', and is the wideband natural background electromagnetic radiation of our environment (think the rushing sound of a waterfall). The USB circuitry itself could be noisy. I've looked at your Audio-Technica spec and it's not clear whether the mic internally itself (rather than the USB interface) is 'balanced' or 'unbalanced', and the latter are generally pretty noisy and much less well screened from electromagnetic interference. Your noise sounds to me like a lowish frequency 'buzz' from an AC electricity main to me, or at any rate a harmonic of same, and could even be getting in from anything nearby connected to mains electricity, not just your recording equipment. Fluorescent lighting can be noisy inside the human hearing range, and some cheaper LED lamps can be really awful, and even interfered with my kitchen radio on FM, although better brands today are much less susceptible. Anything with a motor can also generate mains noise, such as a refrigerator, although this will generally cycle between 'on' and 'off'. A 'stud wall' (lightweight wood and plasterboard) between rooms won't efficiently block electromagnetic 'leakage' from a device close by in the next room, a brick / block construction provides much better better electromagnetic isolation. As others have said, you're faced with a process of elimination. I would even start by turning all the lights off! Tip: to really get a fairly accurate idea of a mic's self noise, bury it in lots of the heaviest, deepest upholstery you can possibly lay your hands on (I use a tight roll of offcuts from a high quality deep pile carpet, and then some, use the quietest possible space you can find in your home (if not your studio, maybe an airing cupboard??) trip lightly away on slippered feet and hit 'record' in Audacity. Don't move and stop breathing (only joking). You'll soon see the level of noise when you review your recording and up the magnification on the resulting waveform, and if you amplify it you can then easily distinguish between mains hum / buzz, the lived in environment around the mic, or the generalised 'rushing sound' of natural background radiation, which even a passive balanced mic will exhibit to some degree, along with all the 'active' electronics it feeds into. Finally, the rough 'n ready but effective way to 'bury' unwanted noise is to get as close as you can to the desired sound source WITHOUT actually overloading the mic beyond its designed maximum spl, i.e. the 'hottest' possible signal, rather than applying lots of gain to bring a weaker signal up to level, then record. Electromagnetically induced background noise is often a constant; it won't get louder unless you amplify it with unnecessary gain, so a 'hot' signal will basically 'swamp it', as well as assisting the biological property of 'noise masking' which is a poorly understood natural artefact of the way in which human hearing evolved (put crudely, the brain - within reason - stops paying attention to a soft noise when a much louder one is present, and this effect is very obvious in your sample as the piano gets louder, it's next to impossible to honestly say that you can still discern the unwanted hum as a discrete and irritating noise in its own right). It is all too easy for the audiophile to get distracted by the Holy Grail of technical perfections, rather than what one is really seeking: the artistic effect of the performance

What!? You have blinded me.

Dave.
 
It could be a mechanical noise, picked up by the body of the microphone. Try a soft pad or a cushion under the microphone stand, or try simply laying the microphone on a cushion.
 
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