how do peoples record real quiet parts?

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mixaholic

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how do people record real quiet parts without getting noise in the vocs? cause i know when u have to turn the volume up on the preamp or just the volume when mixing it gets alot of noise so how do people get the noise to not raise when you raise the volume up?
 
I've never had a problem recording quiet parts. I just use proper gain staging, and make sure the ambient noise is controlled, and there's no problem. If you're used to only recording hard rock, or other such loud source material, I can see where your question comes from. If you've ever recorded anything else - didn't you do anything about sound isolation or room treatment?

Honestly, I can't imagine anyone who's been recording for more than 3 weeks that doesn't have a noise/isolation strategy figured out. This isn't even acoustics 101, this is pre-AE, common sense, basic home recording. Have you read ANYTHING on this site??

I'm not trying to be mean, I'm really flabbergasted that someone could have been reading these forums for even a few days, and have to ask such a general question.

You're either way out of your depth (i.e. you just decided last week you want to record music) or you have a serious learning deficiency (i.e. you rode to school on the short bus). If it's the former, TELL us you're a rank beginner, and we'll advise you as such. If it's the latter, we can help as well, but it may take a lot longer...
 
giraffe and digitmus got it right with those remarks about having a quiet environment with low ambient noise. A gate a problem solver, but a quiet room is better.
 
A gate on vocals in a quiet environment is going to sound like ass 99% of the time. Try listening to the room for any noises that might be causing problems - buzz coming from electronics, an open window, etc. Or, maybe your mic/pre aren't designed for the job. Cheap equipment is going to be noisy anywhere.

There are cheap mics and preamps ($100 each) that can do the job, no problem.
 
Here's my list to solving noisy tracks-

1. Room Noise

Make sure you don't have an air conditioner or heating vent right over where you have your sound source or mic setup. Street noise can also be an issue if your room is right by the street. Setup some simple sound diffusion/baffles around your setup. Even grandma's quilt can make a world of difference. Also check out your placement. Moving the sound source around the room a bit can make a big improvement.

2. Mic Placement

If the sound source is quiet, try getting the mic right up against it. 99% of tracking problems can be fixed or somewhat worked out by playing around with your mic placement. Placing mics isn't a 5 minute process, sit there and listen, and go and move it around inch by inch. A millimeter to the left can make the world of difference.

3. Cables

Check to make sure you don't have a bad cable somewhere in your chain. Pretty self explanitory.

4. Preamps

I would move the mic closer or turn the instrument up and lower the volume in the mix over cranking the shit out of the preamp. Especially on cheaper pre's, you have more of a chance of hearing the noise floor of it when you max out the gain. By trying to louden the source, you can mask most of this without having to crank on the gain.

5. Signal Chain

For me, taking the shortest route to tape is the best. If you can avoid going through unessisary gain stages, you get a cleaner signal. Some gear noise can be good, but remember that it builds up with the more shit you pass your signal through. When I track in the studio, I usually totally bypass the console if possible. I'll patch straight from the preamp (if using an external, if not I'll patch right out of the preamps into Pro Tools) into my MTR Ins, and ride the pre's gain as my level control to tape.


On a side note about gates, I would highly discourage using them to tape. Especially on something that is non percussive (unless you really enjoy the 80's gated reverb sound).
 
I get rid of ambiants in a room with concrete floor and walls by cranking up RPMs on a husky chainsaw. It seems to tone things down a bit.

I was in a band once and we giged at this indoor skate park. My guitar would feedback like a feirce beast. I had to turn it down so low< I sounded like richie sambora playing guitar with slayer.

Cheap sound absorbing material if found was at Lowes or home depot. I found 6'x8' outdoor rugs for 15 bucks. It works. Especially on the drum kit.
 
I glanced through the replies pretty quickly, so if someone mentioned this already, sorry to repeat...... Do everything you can to create a quiet recording environment, but if you can't get it quiet enough, use a dynamic mic instead of a condensor. Dynamic mics are generally less sensitive, and will pickup much less ambient noise than a typical condenser mic. Also, use mute automation or waveform editing to get rid of the noise before, between, and after the vocal parts.
 
i'm not really talkin about noise from the environment i'm talkin about noise from the signal such as noise from the mixer and noise from the soundcard.
 
Well that's when you start to eliminate things in your signal path that give you undesirable noise. If that isn't possible, it might be time to upgrade your equipment a bit.
 
i have a yamaha mg10/2 mixer 100$, a shure ksm27 mic 300$, and a sound blaster audigy sound card 75$. do you think this equipment is good enough or do i need an upgrade lol. any recommendations?
 
mixaholic said:
i have a yamaha mg10/2 mixer 100$, a shure ksm27 mic 300$, and a sound blaster audigy sound card 75$. do you think this equipment is good enough or do i need an upgrade lol. any recommendations?
Click to expand...


Yeah, TuoKaerf's advice and start to eliminate pieces of the chain. This will tell you what your noisy component is. If I had to guess, you either have your gain staging backwards/sideways, the mixer hooked up to the wrong input on the SBlaster, or have a noisey preamp. BUT, those are all guess until you do some work and determine where the noise really is coming from.
 
Given the gear you listed, I'd guess you just need to get a grasp on gain staging. Somewhere in your signal chain, one gainstage is doing way too much work, and introducing noise in the process. None of your gear is too noisy to get a decent recording out of, but it's noisy enough to need to be setup properly to avoid too much noise.
The concept behind gain staging is that every part of the signal chain does it's share of the lifting, and no more. Any stage that works too hard will introduce noise and/or distortion. Any stage that does too little will make the following stage have too work too hard, introducing noise and/or distortion. Noise and distortion are passed on from whatever stage they start in, through the rest of the signal chain. So to troubleshoot the noise source, you start at the signal source (microphone in this case) and move through the preamp, any summing amps, out of the mixer and into the soundcard, through the soundcard software mixer, into the recording software, back out through the soundcard and through it's software mixer again, back into the Yamaha mixer and through whatever gain stages you're using there in monitoring, and finally through headphone amp or power amp. Work through that whole chain from the beginning, and figure out where in that process the noise is getting introduced.
Are you using insert outs from the channel pre on the MG?
 
thanks for the info guys. no i really jus use my mixer as a mic preamp. that is the only thing i have connected to my mixer(my mic). on my soundcard volume control, i have the volume set to 0db which is the normal volume (no higher no lower and i have the mixer connected to the line in on my soundcard. i only use 1 channel on my mixer which is the one that my mic is connected to the mic preamp and i turned the other ones down to avoid more noise (which was stated in the manual). i followed the directions from the manual on setting the main gain which they said "set it to where the peak light flashes only on the loudest parts sometimes but not all the time. i still don't understand how to set the summing amp and the output and maybe i'm even setting the main gain wrong. someone in another thread i posted said that after i record, my vocals should be about -18 db and maybe -12 at peaks and when i get them like that, it's REAL REAL low that i have to raise the volume during mixing and that brings out alot of the signal noise also. when i get the sound around -18 db (im using soundforge to view this) they only reach to about -10 vu on the vu scale also. my mixer also has a digital peak detector scale and i don't let it pass 0db (which someone told me not to let it pass that) and the volume of my recorded vocals are low and i have to loud them. they said i should use too much headroom during recording.
 
Mix - Might be worth a try to take the signal right after the preamp by way of the insert.
 
Robert D said:
Mix - Might be worth a try to take the signal right after the preamp by way of the insert.
Click to expand...
Yup. As we both said, you probably have gain weridness. Using the insert will eliminate any downstream effects of other faders, the 2 bus, EQs, etc.
 
what do you guys mean by using the insert? i'm using the preamp that is on my mixer.
 
they mean using the insert point as the output from your mixer. The preamp would be the input.
 
i'm confused lol. i connect my mixer to the computer with rca cables. you guys lost me :D
 
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