Focusrite Scarlet Solo 2nd Gen stuck at -57 DB. Why?

rSigmund

New member
I've been learning about Audacity and the importance of a -60 DB noise floor when it comes to recording voice over.

Problem is, recently, my noise floor likes to hover over -57 DB when I have my Focusrite plugged in.

I thought it was the microphone, but the problem persists when the mic is disconnected.

Whether or not the Focusrite box is on, despite turning the gain down as low as humanly possible, my noise floor is stuck at -57 DB.

So, do I have to change the mic, the box, and/or the cables? I really hope this is a minor problem, because I don't have a warranty and I'd hate to have to spend $300 to fix this.
 
Like most any other level, the absolute number is meaningless. Everything is relative. 60db less than what?!? Do you mean -60dbFS? Even then it's meaningless. If your signal level is only -50dbFS, then you've got like 10db S/N which suuuuuucks. If your signal is at +50dbFS, then you've got 110db S/N which is huuuuuge. It's also not likely since it would clip off at 0dbFS, but you get the point.
 
I've been learning about Audacity and the importance of a -60 DB noise floor when it comes to recording voice over.

Problem is, recently, my noise floor likes to hover over -57 DB when I have my Focusrite plugged in.

I thought it was the microphone, but the problem persists when the mic is disconnected.

Whether or not the Focusrite box is on, despite turning the gain down as low as humanly possible, my noise floor is stuck at -57 DB.

So, do I have to change the mic, the box, and/or the cables? I really hope this is a minor problem, because I don't have a warranty and I'd hate to have to spend $300 to fix this.



Forget what you think you learned.
What and how are you measuring the noise?

looks like the focusrite pres could have noise.
What happens if you unplug the focusrite?

How are you going into your pc?
Could your pc be noisy?

Do you hear noise when you play back?


You got bigger problems doing a good VO recording than raw noise floor.


 
Had similar questions a few times before, can be various things.

First off, have you found the setup screen attached? I have set mine, today to the 16 bit dynamic range and a quick test recording gave a noise floor of -64dBfs (some setting of the internal Ltop soundcard. Can do a more precise test if required) so clearly Audacity CAN get better than neg 57!

Audacity cannot run ASIO drivers so it is likely that Windows is setting the noise floor by setting far too high a gain in the recording path. Go into Win Sounds & Devices, find the Solo and set the gain (aka "level") to around 5%.

The basic test is to have nothing plugged in and the gains at minimum. Now record a 20 second clip at 24 bits/44.1kHz. If all is as is as it should be the noise floor will be close to -100dBfs.
Also try Reaper, that runs ASIO drivers.

Dave.
 

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