Hissing noise coming directly from computer.

[twistedbeats88]

Ill preface by giving a bit of information that Im sure I will be asked about if I don't include, although Im confident most of this unimportant to the issue.
I have an AKG P220 microphone, an alessis 4 channel mixer, sterling 3mk studio monitors. I use a dell inspiron 5676 as my computer. And generally use Mixcraft 8 and 9 as my daw.

So basically I keep getting a fairly high frequency hissing noise in the background of my vocals. Ive turned down gain on my mixer, unplugged everything and replugged, etc etc etc. I also have a laptop that I used to use to record with set up in the same vicinity as my dell. I just started recording again and I always notice the hiss in my vocals. I don't record anything else other than vocals over instrumentals. After troubleshooting everything today I finally unplugged the mic, and just recorded with the mixer plugged into my usb port, hiss was still there. Then I unplugged the mixer and used the built in soundcard to record, hiss was still there. Finally I plugged my mixer into my laptop with everything still stationed as it was when plugged into the dell. The high frequency hiss was not in vocals recorded on the laptop, just general white noise and room noise in those recordings. It's driving me insane as the dell is much newer than the laptop and is a gaming computer so it has decent specs. Im not an expert when it comes to recording, although Ive been doing it for about 12 years and have picked up tips here and there. So I'm just wondering if anyone could help me with this as I would much rather record on the faster better equipped pc than an outdated laptop. The only thing I've been able to find online is that it could possibly be a ground loop, but Im not sure how exactly to fix that if so. Pleaseeeeee help, its driving me insane.

edit: I just went back and checked some laptop recordings. There is a hiss there as well. Its just not as evident. Another thing I should mention is on my mixer I generally keep the gain around 10-11 o'clock. So my vocals aren't too loud in my daw. Originally I thought it was the mixer causing this because the hiss would be much more evident the higher the gain went. But since my vocals are usually recorded pretty quietly now to help with this, I have to do a decent amount of compression and other processing to fit it in the mix. I don't go crazy with it, but even a medium amount of compression brings the hissing out louder. Im just not sure what it could be so any help would be much appreciated.

 

[gecko zzed]

Is it possible that the hiss is on the output, rather than the input?

Have you taken something you've recorded and played it somewhere else?

When you play other media do you hear the hiss? Is the hiss present in the speakers when nothing else is happening?

 

[rob aylestone]

I'm thinking the same - if the hiss is there when you unplug the mixer, how are you hearing things through the speakers? If the speakers are active ones, are you monitoring via the 3.5mm socket on the two computers? Proper audio interfaces are two way - you replay via them.

Best guess is that your hiss is coming from the computer cheap and nasty audio system, and what you recorded was probably fine and hiss free!

 

[ecc83]

I'm thinking the same - if the hiss is there when you unplug the mixer, how are you hearing things through the speakers? If the speakers are active ones, are you monitoring via the 3.5mm socket on the two computers? Proper audio interfaces are two way - you replay via them.

Best guess is that your hiss is coming from the computer cheap and nasty audio system, and what you recorded was probably fine and hiss free!

Yup, my bet is the 'monitors' are the problem. High 'self noise' is a common issue with cheap (WTGR but they are!) active speakers.

But we shall only know for sure if or when OP posts a clip of a 'silent' recording. (320k MP3 attached suites me or if soundcloud PLEASE allow it to be saved!)

Dave.