Eliminate My Noise!!!!......please :)

  • Thread starter Thread starter Raydio
  • Start date Start date
Raydio said:
http://www.freewebs.com/raydiog/RayRoomNoise.wav
The above link is the noise my mic picks up. Where is that annoying sound coming from? How can I eliminate it out of my vocal recordings once and for all?
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Well, without knowing what equipment you have it's really kinda hard to know. It could be a furnace, an air conditioning unit, the next door neighbor's dryer, your equipment, or perhaps what this guy is recording

https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=143333.

My room has a million sounds. The light, the computer, my router, my cable modem, the refrigerator in the kitchen, the furnace, any outside noise, me farting, and God knows what else.

Here is a quick test (assuming you had your microphone plugged in).
1. Unplug everything and record silence (from your soundcard). Do you hear it? If no go to #2
2. Plug your mixer, pre-amp whatever but do not plug your microphone just yet. Turn the output to 10 or whatever the highest is if you have a mixer and record. Do you hear it? If not got to #3
3. Plug in your microphone and record. Do you hear it? Probably yes!

This little short test will tell you that every component in the chain will add a small amount of background noise. However, your room noise is the biggest noise. If it's your room then you have to play with your gain, Mic fader, and the master fader to try to minimize your S/N ratio. That's signal to Noise ratio, in case you didn't know what S/N meant.

If you hear the noise way before then it's probably your audio card. However, I don't know if you have an integrated soundcard or if you own a MOTU audio device, or perhaps you are using a firewire or usb device.

Happy hunting.
 
Hey Dude:

I just noticed you have been a member since 2002. You should already know by now, everything I told you. So, ignore it 'cause you probably are not using an integrated sound card.
 
Dracon said:
Hey Dude:

I just noticed you have been a member since 2002. You should already know by now, everything I told you. So, ignore it 'cause you probably are not using an integrated sound card.
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Indeed Dracon... indeed :) Im currently recording using a AKG Solid Tube mic going into a Joe Meek VC6Q preamp. My soundcard is a Delta 44 with the little breakout box. I just discovered something about an hour ago. I was experimenting with various "audio-correction" plugins and decided to finally use my Waves X-Hum plugin. I used one of the presets called "60hz rumble blah blah" and it took the hum COMPLETLY OUT! The only noise left was little wind from the room, which I took care of using the GoldenGate plugin.

I also found that Cool Edit's noise reduction plugin only effectively masked the noise during silent parts while downgraded the quality of my vocals.
 
60hz is the frequency (among other harmonics) that is created with bad grounding. It is usually bad audio grounding, probably not electrical.
 
notbradsohner said:
60hz is the frequency (among other harmonics) that is created with bad grounding. It is usually bad audio grounding, probably not electrical.
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Bad audio grounding? How does that differ from electrical grounding? Fill a dummy in ;)
 
Raydio said:
I also found that Cool Edit's noise reduction plugin only effectively masked the noise during silent parts while downgraded the quality of my vocals.
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I think every software does that. I've tried in Audacity and my vocals started sounding electronic in nature. I apologize about my earlier diabtribe on how to test for noise. You still haven't gotten rid of the noise, you just managed it with a software plugin. I don't know about the grounding, but one stupid question. Is all of your equipment going through a good surge protector or are you using a power strip?
 
Dracon said:
I think every software does that. I've tried in Audacity and my vocals started sounding electronic in nature. I apologize about my earlier diabtribe on how to test for noise. You still haven't gotten rid of the noise, you just managed it with a software plugin. I don't know about the grounding, but one stupid question. Is all of your equipment going through a good surge protector or are you using a power strip?
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True the noise is not gone, but I am indeed managing it better than with the Noise Reduction plugs in Cool Edit, thats for sure :D All of my equipment is going through a cheap power strip, are you implying that may be the reason for the hum?
 
Raydio said:
True the noise is not gone, but I am indeed managing it better than with the Noise Reduction plugs in Cool Edit, thats for sure :D All of my equipment is going through a cheap power strip, are you implying that may be the reason for the hum?
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Well, I'm not telling you is your powerstrip. However, it can be your powerstrip (or actually your power). All the power that comes into your home (especially in an apartment building) will have noise, dips, and peaks. A good surge protector (not those cheap white power strips) will clean some of the power problems. If you want to see, it's easy. Go to Bestbuy, Large Chain, whatever and buy a Belkin power strips (yeah they are like $30).
You may say. What $30 bucks for a power strip? No, $30 bucks to protect your computer and whatever else you got plugged in.

If you want to get fancy, there are some power conditioners and some power regeneration devices. The conditioners actually clean the noise out of your power, while the regeneration takes your A/C turns it into D/C and Back into some clean A/C (very very expensive stuff).

If you don't believe me check this website out
http://www.psaudio.com/articles/power_conditioners.asp

High end consumer Audio geeks use these to clean their sound.
 
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