I'm getting a nasty background hiss!

T

TheloniusMonk

New member
Hey,

I wanted to record a professional sounding piano album, using my Yamaha P-80 digital piano, my HP Computer SoundCard (RealTek AC97 Audio), and Sony SoundForge Audio Studio 9.0.

So here is what I did:

1. Recorded the tracks into my digital's piano memory bank.

2. Used a cable to go from the OUTPUT jack of my keyboard into the AUX/LINE2 jack of my computer.

3. Went into VOLUME CONTROL-->PROPERTIES and set the recording level fairly low, to try and control loudness level and reduce hiss.

4. Recorded the tracks with Soundforge and saved as MP3.

I burned these tracks onto a CD, played it on a few different CD players and I noticed that the sound quality of the piano was okay, but there is a constant hiss and some sort of low level background feedback.

Simply plugging into the LINE IN of my computer causes Soundforge to have low level spikes of sound, before the music is even playing.

How can I eliminate this? Do I need a different cable, or recording method? Can I take these tracks to a studio and have them eliminate the hiss for a small fee? Is there anyway to salvage the tracks I have already recorded, since the memory bank is now empty and I lost them...

I dont need the most incredible sound quality, I just dont want any background feedback at all...

Thanks in advance..

TMonk
 
How did it sound on the way out?
You may have had a ground issue in the keyboard when you sent it out.
Did the line match?
Are your computer, keys and monitor all going to the same power supply?
they should be.


Line out on my gear is trs. If you are using standard soundcard line it it's most likely unbalanced.
If you have optical capacity on your sound board and digital piano by all means go that way.


If you don't have optical consider investing in a better soundcard.
Not all of us have tons of money and are ready to rip apart the destop.
If I were that type of guy I'd get a serious pci express sound card as it is the fastest and most reliable method.

If you are not about to monkey with your desktop your options are firewire and usb. Firewire soundcards are available but rare. Firewire transmits small bits of data faster ergo more transparent then usb.
If you are using usb try not to use your computer to monitor your performance.

Depending on systems you could be looking at a 4ms to more delay. Which is why If you are doing soloist material you shouldn't monitor via the computer if you are recording. It's a slight delay but it does affect playing style.
If you are doing overdubs then it's something you'll have to adapt to.
 
It sounded fine on the way out, there is no distortion or anything...

I think the hiss may be related to something else, because I'm having certain issues before I've even plugged in any devices...

For instance, Before I've even plugged the cable into the computer, the channels seems messed up right from the start...

When I press RECORD and then have the options to set the two channels to either Microsoft Sound Mapper, Microsoft Sound Mapper-Left, Microsoft Sound Mapper-Right. Here is what happens:

1. If I select MS Sound Mapper, channel 1 is -36 decibel, and channel 2 is -48 and channel 2 is jumping up and down slightly as if there were already an input device plugged in making some noise.

2. If I select MS Sound-Mapper-Left, it forces both channels to be left, and vice-versa with the MS Sound-Mapper Right.

I recorded using the MS-Sound Mapper Left option, to avoid the noisy channel, but I think I might have lost the stereo effect doing it this way, am I right? And I still got some background hiss, once the cable was plugged into the Yamaha digital piano...
 
Further experimentation led me discover that if I try to use MS Sound Mapper-Right, nothing records at all... the right channel appears to be completely non-functional, even though it shows some noise activity on the input monitor..

So recording with the MS Sound Mapper option leads to a full left channel, and a non-existant right channel..
 
Ok, I got a stereo cable and that fixed the MS Sound Mapper issue, I now get sound out of box channels...

However, the right channel is still at a different DB peak level then the left channel, before anything has been plugged in, as before... I got rid of the hiss on the left channel, now its just coming out of the right channel...
 
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