Gains and Condensor Hissing.

A

Acoustic_Daddy

New member
Heya guys,

I have a Samson C01 condensor mic, running into a Behringer tube ultra gain preamp, and then into my Edirol USB recorder.

When i record, I am using a pretty sound proofed room, and the computer outside in the other room, well away from the mic. When you stand in the room, with the mic, you can hardly hear any outside noises from anything.

I seem to not be able to run my gains very high at all.. I'm running like, 10% sensitivity on my Edirol unit, and 10% on both the gain and output of the behringer. I also run a -6.0db level on the track i'm recording in Cubase.

My problem is, that any more gain than this on any gain adjustment, and I get a bad background noise. Noticible in my recordings.

Is this meant to happen? How do you guys get a decent signal without getting the hiss/constant droning noise?

Any hints/tips appreciated,
Chris
 
Acoustic_Daddy said:
I have a Samson C01 condensor mic, running into a Behringer tube ultra gain preamp
Click to expand...

That looks like a perfect recipe for hiss to me. While condenser mics are generally very sensitive and will pick up a lot more ambient noise than most dynamic mics, if you're hearing hiss (not noises, like cars driving by), it is most likely an equipment issue. Samson mics and behringer pres are notoriously noisy. Does your Edirol have a mic preamp? If so, leave the behri out of the chain and just use the pre on the Edirol. That may decrease the hiss a bit. Eventually, you may want to look into a mic with lower self-noise.
 
Thanks for the reply.

The only thing is that the Behringer pre seems to warm up multiple tracks recorded together. That's the reason I got it in the first place.

Is there anything wrong with recording with lower gains, but then using different mic technique, such as standing close to the mic, to avoid the hiss? I could then just pump the volume of the track later?

The issue only really becomes apparent when i have 3 or 4 different vocal tracks with one backing, and you can kinda hear the vocal tracks cut in and out and each track, depending on gain level, will have a higher/lower background noise, which makes for a choppy recording.

I try and combat this by having a universal level to record the vocals at, and try and keep a solid vocal track, so that the cuttin in and out of the tracks isn't as apparent.

I'll get there one day :(
 
It's always a trade-off with sub-optimal equipment and a sub-optimal recording environment. The behringer may give you the elusive "warmth," but at the price of increased noise. Recording with a preamp at low volumes may give you less hiss, but the signal-to-noise ratio will be lower, meaning the hiss and any other background noise will be higher in relation to the music if you turn up the volume within the software. Using a dynamic mic (yes, you can definitely use the SM58 for vocals) will mean less pickup of room noise, but you'll have to turn up the preamp (because dynamic mics have lower output) resulting in more hiss, and the clarity may not be as good as with your condenser.

My advice to you would be to experiment. Try out different combinations of mics/preamps and read up on gain staging to learn more about how to set levels. A simpler signal chain will almost always be less noisy and, eventually, you may find that "warmth" doesn't sound as good as you once thought it did. Good luck.
 
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