Getting rid of hiss / noise

[giraffe]

with things like bass and kick you can just low-pass the bastards.
not to much useful going on above 3k in a bass (imo) and things above 6k in a kick can be dumped with little or no repercussions.
(can help a lot in some circumstances too)
depending on the style of music you may be able to go lower on both instruments.

it needs to be addressed at the source like every one else has said,
but this may help.

 

[Flux]

Even though we are recording digital, when I amplify our tracks, there is hiss / noise with it.

Well this may be a dumb suggestion but... you say you're recording at -30dB and that "when I amplify our tracks, there is hiss / noise with it" Have you given thought to the problem simply being system noise? To put it another way, when you record at low levels your signal is closer to your noise floor (as in: signal-to-noise ratio*) - could be that when you turn up your gain and/or monitors to compensate for your weak track levels you increase the inherent system noise. Just a thought.

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal-to-noise_ratio

 

[danny.guitar]

Record at an average level of -18 to -12 db. -30 just seems way too low to me.

Also make sure there are no sources of noise in your tracking room...computer, air conditioning, etc.

And as Glen said, make sure you're not using a cheapo sound card because they will add a lot of noise.

 

[HangDawg]

Also, try not adding 7db @ 31Hz to ANYTHING!

 

[cusebassman]

Man, Southside Glen confuses me - my name is Glen too! I realise people refer back to him a Hell of a lot more than me, but it still gets me every time... *ooooh dear*

Since he is using a standalone workstation, he won't have to worry about a soundcard at the very least... however, I do agree that if you record at -30dB and then try to amplify the track, you very well could be simply amplifying the noise floor (and are! but it might be noise from somewhere else as well)

 

[NTK88]

Man, Southside Glen confuses me - my name is Glen too! I realise people refer back to him a Hell of a lot more than me, but it still gets me every time... *ooooh dear*

Since he is using a standalone workstation, he won't have to worry about a soundcard at the very least... however, I do agree that if you record at -30dB and then try to amplify the track, you very well could be simply amplifying the noise floor (and are! but it might be noise from somewhere else as well)

Yea I will take a look today and post my results.
I only started noticing it recently, and we only started recording that low recently

 

[noisewreck]

Our gain level is only at 3/10 on our mixer.

bit of a signal to noise problem, eh?

Hmmm...

NTK88 I think you really need to take a step back and rething your gain staging. This means you need to work out the sweet spot of all the equipment in the signal chain. If you're using a mic pre going into the mixer, going into DAW for example, you'll need to find where you'd need to set the gain on the mic pre where you get the hottest signal w/o distorting, then move on to the gain (input) stage on the mixer, then to the output stage on the mixer, then to the input stage on your DAW. You want to record hot enough signals where you get good S/N ratio but you're not distorting or clipping things.

Or... you can just put flanger on all the tracks... Flangers thrive on noise!

 

[NTK88]

We dont have pre amps for the mics.

We go mic, to mixer to recorder.

So you are saying get as hot of a signal as possible with out ruining the integrity of the audio, and basically going with a low input into the recorder at around -13 to -18 db?

This may help you guys out.

We send the mics to here

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Peavey-PV6-Mixer?sku=631366

and send the main outs to here
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Tascam-DP01FX-Digital-8Track-Portastudio-?sku=241107

ps the effects on here suck big time! Also our wiring was messed up out of the box, and effects only send to B and not A.

 

[TelePaul]

We go mic, to mixer to recorder.

You have pre amps in your mixer. Or else you'd hear pretty much nothing.

 

[NTK88]

You have pre amps in your mixer. Or else you'd hear pretty much nothing.

Aye I didnt know that

Looking at my recorders manual, it says the signal to noise ratio is

> 85 db(A-weighting, 22khz LPF)

 

[NTK88]

b-u-m-p

I just need clarification on my last 2 posts

 

[amra]

I agree with some of the other guys here, I think you are tracking at too low of a level. Averaging at -18db means it is still ok to peak around -6 or so.

When you track too low, then by the time you get the music to a decent level, all the background noise is just a little below it and sounds really loud.

Get your gain setup so that it peaks right at or below, but does not go above -6 and you will be fine.