New here, question about noise, static, and hollowness

[voicechick]

Hi there!

I hope someone can help, here.

My set up (should this be necessary):

Mic: Rode NT1
Pre Amp: ART Tube MP personal processor series

plugged into my computer with CEP 2.1 . Pre amp has phantom power, which is 'on', 'Input' setting knob is almost all the way to the left, near "+26/+6", the "+20 dB Gain" button is 'on', and the "Output" knob is almost all the way left. Now, in Cool Edit, I set up a noise reduction sample of the room noise, and my voice sounds hollow and there's a static hiss in the background.

My settings for the noise reduction are:

Snapshots in profile: 6000
Noise Reduction Level: 90
FFT Size: 16384
Reduce by: 40 dB
Precision Factor: 7
Smoothing Amount: 1
Transition Width: 0 dB
Spectral Decay Rate: 65%

I can post a sample if you can let me know where it's permitted.

Thank you for your help!

-Lori

Edited to add: The sole use is for voice recordings for IVR (voice mail), narrations, and commercials. No music.

 

[miglio]

It's extremely hard to remove noise without affecting the signal you want to keep. What I do to minimize it is to use the "Keep only noise" checkbox and then Preview. I'll tinker with the Noise Redution settings until I don't hear any trace of the signal I want to keep. Then switch back to "Remove noise" and click Ok.

 

[ozpeter]

Reduce by 10dB might be a better plan - 40dB is pretty ambitious. If you really need to do that, you should try first to nail the noise at source.

 

[voicechick]

Thanks. I'll give that a try. As for the -40dB, that was the setting, originally, so I just left it as is. I'll change that, and update.

Thanks again!