cutting noise

  • Thread starter Thread starter dobro
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dobro

dobro

Well-known member
The longer I do this, the more I hear. I just listened to something I tracked last October/November, and it seems pretty noisy to me when I play it on my stereo. Okay, what are the things I should be looking at to cut noise?

I think my gain staging is slightly better nowadays than it was then, and I've got a quieter pre as well. My cable's okay.
 
Yo Dobro:

Something I tried to cut down on noise and it works!!

On your mic pre, LOWER THE INPUT knob;

RAISE the OUTPUT knob.

For my unit, this gave me less noise.

Excuse the caps; just used for emphasis.

Green Hornet
 
Hey dobro-ther, the best way to rid your self of noise
is to not play at all!!!:D
 
Just tell your wife/girlfriend/kids to shut the hell up.

If you have good levels and clean sounding equipment then that is about all you can do. If it is still noisy find out what is making the noise and destroy it.

Are you recording to casette?
 
"Something I tried to cut down on noise and it works!!

On your mic pre, LOWER THE INPUT knob;

RAISE the OUTPUT knob."

Okay, I'll try it, but that's exactly the opposite of the advice in the manual, which says to get the input as hot as possible without clipping.
 
Yo Dobro:

After you try adjusting the mic pre, you can push up the fader to get the signal which will be somewhat less noisy that before.

I've done this with my ART preamp and it did help out.

Now that I have the 2816 the ART is just decorating my studio.

Green Hornet
 
Yo Dobro:

After you try adjusting the mic pre, you can push up the fader to get the signal which will be somewhat less noisy that before.

I've done this with my ART preamp and it did help out.

Now that I have the 2816 the ART is just decorating my studio.

Green Hornet:D :p
 
i think green's technique WOULD work sometimes..if not most times...because i notice that too - however, you'll want to still change your output knobs according to the WHOLE mix...so it could really make things harder in the long run....but if it's worth it to you - then rock on.
 
I don't record through a mixer, I use channel strips, so there's no fader involved. There's just input gain and output gain on the box. The manufacturer recommends a hot input so that the rest of the box (compression, EQ, tube) has something to work with.
 
try sonic foundry's plugin Noise reduction 4.0 it works great and cleans up any recording without audibly reducing clarity and the quality of the track.
 
dobro- actually there are THREE controls that are relevant to your situation.

1) the pre-amp input gain
2) the pre-amp output gain
3) the soundcard input gain.

Personally, and this depends on the characteristics of your pre- I only have the dbx 386 as a reference- I would boost #1 so that your loudest hit will land just below 0dB, and adust the other two so that they don't clip each other. Then the only problem you'll face is picking up too much background detail in the first stage.
 
If it is obviously noisy during playback there is probably something more serious going on. What kind of noise are you talking about?

I have found with digital that even low level recordings are pretty clean when pumped up in the mix. Are you getting a lot of room noise, buzzes or hums?
 
dobro said:
"Something I tried to cut down on noise and it works!!

On your mic pre, LOWER THE INPUT knob;

RAISE the OUTPUT knob."

Okay, I'll try it, but that's exactly the opposite of the advice in the manual, which says to get the input as hot as possible without clipping.
Click to expand...

Most outputs on preamps are just audio tapers (no adding of gain). So if your preamp has an audio taper (output knob) this needs to be all the way up and then adjust your input knob accordingly to get best s/n ratio and the less distortion.
 
Tex - instead of just silence, I get audible background hiss on the CDs I'm burning - it isn't outrageous, but if I can hear, it's too much. It's nothing dysfunctional - it's either settings or gear. But my gear's good.
 
Do you have any examples? Are you using any cheap reverbs or do you have a noisy guitar amp or anything? Is it a little bit of hiss on every track or does it only appear in the final mix? Are you using any analog tape?

I personally have problems with ambient room noise but if I take a decent mic, a cheap pre and have a decent signal there is never any noticeable 'hiss' when recording to digital.

The only other thing I can think of is that you are 'Mastering' at too low of a level and have to crank up your stereo too high when listening to the burned CD's.
 
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