Air-like hiss in recording

[unlostsoul]

We've got a nice setup for home recording, but when we record, there's a slight air-like hiss in the background. we've went through all the tracks and deleted the parts where noone was playing/singing/etc to cut back on it, but it is still slightly there. We use Sonar3 and have tried it's compressor, but it's still there! Is there supposed to be just a slight hiss, or are we doing something wrong? Some people we talked to said even high-dollar recording has a slight hiss like ours, but we were just wondering. btw, we are using a samson condenser mic and a set of samson drum mics.

 

[React]

the individual mic might be turned up too loud from the software..

 

[scrubs]

Unless your studio space is completely soundproof (none are) you will get some noise picked up from the world around you. Air conditioning, refrigerators, birds, breathing, etc. all contribute. Condenser mics are very sensitive and will pick up all this room noise that you won't notice. Built up over several tracks of recording, it will becomre more noticeable. Compression will make it worse, because it decreases dynamic range and will make the noise relatively louder. Also, the samson's are cheap mics and may have some inherent (self) noise.

 

[bennychico11]

yep, like scrubs said...could be the mics and/or the preamp/soundcard you're using