Hissing sound on Logic recordings

P

paintedtape

New member
Hello there,

I have found myself with the duty of digitizing hundreds of cassette tapes for a library. I am using the equipment available there: a Yamaha MW10 mixer/converter and a shiny mac with Logic. The process is going fine except for one horrible thing: the recordings I have been making seem to be covered in a horrible 'hissing' sound that wasn't present in the original tape playback. This sound seems to come from the high end and doesn't occur when there is silence in the recordings. I'd call it 'digital shit' and it's most noticeable in recordings of people speaking. IT'S FREAKING ME OUT.

Could it be some misconfiguration I have made with the Logic settings? Could it be mixer/converter itself? I have looked it up and the internet tells me it is only capable of 16-bit recordings (while the standard for audio archiving is generally 24-bit). I keep the gain nobs on the mixer right at their peaks to get the most of the signal ... but I don't think it's a mixing issue, as I have tried many many combination of mixes with the same result.

I'm hoping there is some setting I can simply change in Logic. Fingers crossed LET ME KNOW YA'LL.
 
Hi.
Im having similar issues not with archiving but recording. Im using the audiobox usb. Piece of shit! Hissing is louder than the recorded signal! Its not the comp. Tried it on msny comps and same result. Based on my issues im almost positive its not your mixer as yamaha makes good stuff. Im pretty sure its your converter. If theyre bad (as in the converter for my audiobox) they can make all kinds of noises. Mostly hissing. I would buy a better converter. Hope this helped :)
 
How do you have your recording chain configured ?
Are you running line level outputs from a cassette deck into line level inputs on the Yamaha ?
You might also try and adjust the gain stages on the converter and within logic to see if you can minimize
the hiss.
 
1) The output of the cassette will be -10dB, is there a setting in the internal software to switch between +4dB and -10dB? it could be that the setting is on +4 an you have to turn up the input pot to get enough volume.

2) There may be a digital/mains ground loop between the cassette deck and the audiobox. If you are running a laptop you can check this by running it on batteries, if the noise goes away that was the problem, then you need one of these.

Cheers
Alan.
 
It's probably a poorly designed mixer that doesn't adequately isolate the digital ground from the analog ground. Try grounding the heck out of the analog side in some way, e.g. a heavy gauge grounding wire to the mains ground, and if you're at all uncomfortable about such wiring jobs, find somebody to talk you through it.... Emphasis is on mains ground. Not hot, not neutral. Mains voltage is dangerous if not handled properly. Just saying. :D
 
Actually I just realised I got the answer a bit mixed up, I read Schecterplayer post about the audiobox and was talking about the internal mixer settings for that :o, the digital earth thing still applies however.

Are you sure it's not just a noise problem form the mixer gain being too high? Are you using the RCA -10dB inputs? that is where you should be connected. Also when recording turn every other fader not in use off.

I did some tape transfers using a Behringer UCA202 to my laptop so I cound use the studio for other work and not tie up my main sound cards and they come out fine no extra noise, even though it is only 16 bit it does not really matter as it is coming off cassette tapes and ends up on CD at 16 bit anyway.

Alan.
 
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