Does weather affect the ultimate sound of recordiungs?

[Nazzo1]

I have a very basic home studio set up in the following:Sterling ST51 cond. mic into Berhinger Eurorack pro 1202fx mixer(aux ins and outs plugged into the ins and outs of something called a "U-control UCA200" which connects via USB into my comp to record using ACIDPRO 4. My problem is this... I hit the record button but there is crazy amounts of white noise and whistling chirpy sound that sounds a little bit like and old school radio tuner. Im using the exact identical setup I used 4 months ago, but 4 months ago there wasn't any white noise on my tracks.
Could it be the cables have been degraded somehow? Could it be that the mixer is a low-quality mixer and a problem like this was bound to happen? Or could it be the rain?(its been raining nonstop for the past 3 days. Raining right now as I'm posting this)
I ask if it might be the rain because a long time ago I was messing with the distortion on my Fender Frontman 25 gtr amp on a rainy day(similar to this one) and it was somehow picking up radio signals and playing them through the spkr.

 

[ido1957]

No weather does not affect recording unless you put your equipment outside in the rain. If you are using a laptop disconnect the pwoer cord and use battery power only.

 

[Armistice]

Sounds like you've got a grounding / interference issue somewhere. Is the mixer itself making the noise (ie. listen to it on its own, not plugged into you 'puter..)? Or is it only when you're recording?

 

[Shadow_7]

Weather does affect gear and sound. If you store your gear in an NON-climate controlled environment, that DEW which would normally be on the grass is on the metal of your gear. It's why all those old tools in the shed are rusty, even though you never took them out of the box.

Humidity can affect mic elements, but not really any more than the moisture from breathing / singing.

Temperature, Humidity, Air pressure, and other things affect the speed of sound, which could make optimum speaker and mic placements change (slightly).

As far as your issue. Sounds like a hardware issue. The most common noise maker is the electrical grid. Going DC / battery powered generally solves that issue. Plus various power conditioners and other things. It could also be the cables. Remember that it's just metal in wire form. And like any coat hanger, if you bend it enough it will break. And other oxidation issues if exposed. But normally it's the connectors that go bad.

 

[Nazzo1]

Is there a way to restore the connectors by cleaning them somehow? or is it a total replacement of the cable and/or connector?

 

[Nazzo1]

I listened to it by itself via the headphones out. It sounds good. I also tried a sample recording of nothing(absolute silence within my room) with without the power cord both. The noise still hangs around. Ive also tried using different mic/cable combinations. I used old cables(years old) and new ones (less than one year old) and still get the unwanted noise when I record

 

[Shadow_7]

Any sound samples of the noise? Some mics are padded internally with foam or other things that degrades over time. Which could lead to issues like this if things are touching that shouldn't be touching. But it'd have to be a pretty old mic.

Troubleshooting can be a pain if you don't have other trusted gear. It could be the USB cable. It could be the interface connected to the usb cable. It could be the cables from the interface to your mixer. It could be the mixer, the cable from the mixer to the mic, or the mic. Until you swap any and all parts with trusted (or more trusted) parts, and one of them fixes the issue, you can't really know for sure what's wrong. Or where to start looking. If you have other mics, and they don't have issues in the same chain, there's your problem.

Without a sample, it's kind of hard to say, I know that sound, I get it all the time, it's .....

 

[Shadow_7]

Just a thought, have you tried different headphones. I've had annoying issues of sorts, that turned out to be nothing wrong with the recording side of things. Just a pair of headphones that had been dropped one too many times, or otherwise didn't age well.

 

[buzzard bass]

If you get gyp from your guitar amp in wet weather I'd agree with the guys saying it's a ground issue, not of your gear, the entire house or building. Water is a conductor, if the ground on the building is poor the wet could short the ground. Listen to a poorly grounded electric guitar, it'll buzz like a mofo. If your power supply aint grounded properly then neither is anything plugged into it. As mentioned above if you can run your rig on batteries that would be a great test.

 

[Supercreep]

Try and isolate each piece of gear in the chain to rule it out. Also, can you set up at a different location like a freind's house? Then you can possibly rule out home wiring/interference issues.

 

[dastrick]

Does weather affect the ultimate sound of recordiungs?

I've often wondered this because our band plays in the same church with the same setup every Sunday and when it's rainy, cloudy, & damp the sound seems to change. It sounds "darker", like there's a high shelf cut. I'm sure that it affects it, but I don't know the scientifics of it. My guess would be that the humidity weakens the strength of the high frequencies and because the low frequencies are stronger, they're not affected as much. But that's purely a guess.

This really has very little to do with your situation, but.........anyhooo.............

 

[itaughttremonti]

I've often wondered this because our band plays in the same church with the same setup every Sunday and when it's rainy, cloudy, & damp the sound seems to change. It sounds "darker", like there's a high shelf cut. I'm sure that it affects it, but I don't know the scientifics of it. My guess would be that the humidity weakens the strength of the high frequencies and because the low frequencies are stronger, they're not affected as much. But that's purely a guess.

This really has very little to do with your situation, but.........anyhooo.............

Nah, that's just cause we're all cranking out low Em chords in every song.

 

[dastrick]

I do love me a good Em.

 

[mr manchester]

Of course, if you're from Manchester, they say the rain helps (creativity, at least).