Can anyone help me eliminate PC noise?

[RedSky]

Hi,
I'm a noob to these forums but not a noob to the world of recording. I have a couple of Sound Recording qualifications but none were really linked to home PC sound recording, all were based in a Studio.

I have a simple a set up (really simple) of a PC, recording software and a keyboard connected to my Realtek soundcard input via a phono to 3.5m jack. Can't really afford anything better as I was made redundant last year and have had no luck trying to get another job . Enough of the sob story, on with the prob...

I am getting loads of PC noise on the sound I record. I've attached a sample to the thread.

Can anyone give me any pointers on how to get rid of this? I've tried noise supression, reduction and even gating the track in my software. This improves the quality slightly as it cuts out the noise during the silence but I can still hear noise over the notes that are being played.

I've also tried moving the sound-card to another PCI slot and tried "padding" the card to protect it from video-card interference but none of this has helped. I've also tried replacing the cable!

Any help would be greatly appreciated as it's driving me mad!!
Many thanks and kind regards,
Alex.

 

[arcadeko]

PC sound cards are huge pieces of sh*t, they are worthless for recording, I am afraid you are stuck with it. You might try different volume levels on the keyboard see if that improves anything. those keys sound pretty good. You might try a midi interface - the use a VST in Reaper. Or get a cheap interface. Consumer sound cards are garbage.