HELP! Cannot get rid of high pitched background noise

[Ncsastudent]

Hi, my name is David. I was wondering if any of you could help me with a particular recording problem that I've had.

I have been recording at home for a while on my computer. Things were great. I got several good takes of several songs. Then my computer got a virus and we had to have it reformated. When it came back from the computer people I tried to record again. However, everytime I try and record anything there is a high pitched whining sound in the background. I tried different mics, different audio editing programs, redownloading the media mixer, recording on the mic by stretching the cord to the next room (to make sure it wasn't background noise from something in the room), I've messed with every audio setting imaginable.

The one thing I noticed different when I got the computer back was that it had a c-media mixer on it. something that it hadn't had before. Before it had just had the volume control with the spearker icon in the bottom corner. I tried removing this and still had no luck. Suppossedly it has the same soundcard as before.

I don't really know what to do. Please help me. Recording these songs are an important part of my life, and now I can't do it because of this high pitched whining sound. I've spent weeks and weeks and countless hours trying to fix this problem.

gratefully hoping for a response,

David

 

[notbradsohner]

ummmmm, is it like a balanced/unbalanced kind of hum. Or too much high frequences on a track or the mixer? Or mabye like a power cable too close to an audio cable?

 

[manning1]

NC. pure conjecture on my part , but it sounds like your using an on board sound chip - the cmedia. if you want good quality recordings ,
these types of chips are not suitable. they are basically for playing windows sounds when using office applications etc. you will need a decent recording sound card. zzounds.com and many other on line retailers have lists of recording sound cards. if you want some free tutorials on digital recording many folks find these usefull. (or get a book). look in the support section at pgmusic.com. lots of things are covered from basic techniques to advanced including midi etc. peace.

 

[Ncsastudent]

thanx

I will look into getting a different soundcard. And yes I do believe it is an onboard soundcard, but it was the same one that I was using before the computer was reformated and it worked fine. I just wish It could work right again.

I play the old songs I've recorded and the new songs I've recorded and the background noise is so different.

I'm not sure what you mean by an unbalance/balance thing because I'm not familiar enough with the computer.

Is there anything that would make a soundcard suddenly not good enough for what I was doing, by reformatting the computer?

 

[Bulls Hit]

Does the cmedia mixer let you adjust the quality of the recordings?

Like can you choose between 22Khz, 44KHz etc? Or Low, medium, High?

 

[Massive Master]

Video noise? Try sweeping a VERY tight parametric across a problem track between 12 & 17kHz. If you find a tight spike, that might be the answer - at least to the source of the niose.

Obviously it's not a "nice" fix, but at least you'll know what the noise is...

 

[XXXDiablo]

Tell your woman to pipe down when your recording.

 

[Robertt8]

Hard Drive?

This sounds like a hard drive issue...then again, maybe not...did you try and record with the computer in a different room with long cables? Or even throwing a Towel over your computer while you record. That would at least rule out the fact that your hard drive isn't squealing like a bitch. I've noticed that a lot of the computers I've got tend to get louder and louder as they get older. I think that drive gets some friction after a while. If that's not the problem then you're back to square one again.

Oh, at my old apartment, i do vaguely remember getting a sound similar to what you were talking about when an upstairs neighbor ran a vacuum cleaner. The mics weren't really picking up the vacuum sound, it was like it was doing something weird to the electricity or current or something. Then when they'd stop i was free to record again...if that's the case, I have no idea what the hell causes that...but try going around your room or house (or where ever the hell you live) and unplug a bunch of non-needed items. I've also heard that some monitors may cause interference somehow.

Although it is purplexing that you haven't run into this problem before... Your house and everything is the same as when there were no problems? That's weird man.

...anyhoo...a few random ideas...GOOD LUCK!

 

[Ncsastudent]

hmm

I am still very perplexed. Yes I have tried recording in another room from my computer by using a long cabled mic, and throwing a towel over it. I took my equiptment to my dad's office and recorded a song there and it sounded fine. However, I can't go to my dad's office everytime I want to record. So I am at a loss as to what to do. I've tried everything. I've adjusted sound quality controls as well. This is really weird. I'll try unplugging stuff. But our house hsan't changed much from two months ago really. We DO have a new monitor. I'll try changing that. But I don't think that is what is causing it. Thank you guys so much for the help so far. If you think of anything else then please let me know.

 

[Massive Master]

Try recording a track of just room noise - Turn the monitor on and off every 15 seconds or so and see if it shows up.

 

[Robertt8]

cool...well i think that you've figured out it has something to do with your house if it records fine when you are not there. now you've just got to figure out what is doing it. Sounds like it's probably the new monitor, but who knows. try what massive master said, if that doesn't work, try plugging in on the opposite side of the house and see if you're still getting those issues. at least you've figured out a bit of the puzzle.

 

[dgatwood]

If it works with the same hardware in a different location (and I can't tell from the comments whether that's the case), it could just be a cheap power supply with poor filtering.

You might try taking a cheap, short 3-prong extension cord, cut off the socket end, cut the live and neutral wires off and cap them, then electric tape the cap in place just to be safe. Then solder the ground wire to the shield of some connector that you can attach to something in your signal chain (a spare audio jack, a spare serial port, etc.). If that doesn't cure the problem, and the same equipment works in another location, walk around your house and start unplugging things and see if you can make the problem go away... or maybe do that first....

 

[DJ Ack]

Try open that C media mixer and mute any sources u see. Sometimes when reinstall onboard soundcard, the driver unchecks those little boxes and it can make noise. Uncheck one by one and see if that helps.

 

[Dracon]

I will look into getting a different soundcard. And yes I do believe it is an onboard soundcard, but it was the same one that I was using before the computer was reformated and it worked fine. I just wish It could work right again.

I had the same issue with my on board soundcard. Try truning the Line-input volume (level) down almost to nothing (1st or 2nd line from the bottom).

You do this by going into the Control Panel Select the Sounds and Devices and select the Audio Tab. In the audio tab you are going to have a Sound Recording section and a button that says Volume....

Click the button a window will appear int he Line-In turn the Volume all the way to the 1st or 2nd line. Make sure you have the little box that says Select checked. See if that helps.

If you do that you will have to turn up the fader in your mixer output all the way up, and probably your line faders up as well. Unless you are using a keyboard for MIDI, but I thought I read you had a mic.

 

[Dracon]

I took my equiptment to my dad's office and recorded a song there and it sounded fine. However, I can't go to my dad's office everytime I want to record. .

If you took your computer with you to your dads office as part of your equipment, then my suggestion will not work. Do you have computer speakers plugged into your soundcard or anything else?

Try this! Disconnect your input source from your sound card, and hit record (on whatever software you have). If you still get the sound, then it's something in your computer or soundcard, if you don't get the sound then it obviously something other than your computer or soundcard.

Good Luck!

 

[rgonzale]

I had a similar problem (but not neccessarily due to the same thing obviously) which might interest you. I have an outboard Edirol UA-20 USB audio interface. I use a little switchbox to choose between it's output and the output of the computer's built-in sound card. I was getting a buzz in my recordings. It turned out that even though the switchbox was set to the external audio interface, it was providing a ground path from the sound card's ground to the external audio interface's ground, and this was causing the buzz as well as some RF contamination. Once I physically disconnected the sound card cables the problem went away.

Anyway, you should invest in a decent sound card. The benefits (other than possibly ridding you of this problem) include greatly reduced hiss and hum, better A/D converters, hardware monitoring options, and ASIO for lower latency for software monitoring. Check out the PCI and mobile alternatives at
http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=products.family&ID=proproducts

For example the Fast Track USB costs about $99 street price and has balanced mic and guitar inputs, a headphone jack, and USB connectivity...