New to recording. Excessive Noise.

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arlouper

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I'm starting a podcast interview show. Right now my equipment is:

Behringer Xenyx 802 mixer
Behringer C-1 condenser mic
Garage Band on a Macbook Pro

I'm a complete newb so I expected some amount of learning curve and trial and error but I am not able to record at an acceptable volume without what seems like excessive background noise.

Then I realized I am hearing excessive noise, even when the only thing plugged into the mixer is headphones. no mics, no instruments, nothing. I switched headphones and same problem.

Does this mean my board is messed up? Does it mean there's some kind of crazy EMI in my neighborhood?

Thanks.
 
arlouper said:
Does this mean my board is messed up?
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You've got a Behringer Xenyx 802. That thing was born messed up! If it's new, take it back and buy an audio interface instead. If it's hold, smash it with a hammer or light it on fire and put it out of its misery!
 
so just run all the inputs through a, for example, usb audio interface and scrap the mixer all together? Can you buy an audio interface for say, 4 microphone inputs?
 
There is a lot of Behringer hate, but considering this unit only costs $50-60, I don't think it's a bad deal.

I've pissed away more on a bottle of tequila with nothing but a hangover to show for it.
 
Behringer gear is known to be noisy. Pretty much expect anything that's a third of the price of other like gear to be as such. You can buy interfaces with many more than 4. Quality is pretty much relative to price, as is pretty much everything gear wise. You get what you pay for. Want quiet, reliable gear, spend some money.

I will add that I am not a Behri hater myself, though I would probably not ever use their products in my recording signal chain because of their known noisiness. That being said, I do use an HA4700 for headphone mixes. Is it noisy? Hell yeah. Do I care? Not so much for tracking. I really only need the headphone amp when tracking drums. Volume is what is needed in my case. Not necessarily quality.
 
AddisonXI said:
It seems Behringer has a bad reputation??
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Not all Behringer stuff. Just some!

arlouper said:
so just run all the inputs through a, for example, usb audio interface and scrap the mixer all together? Can you buy an audio interface for say, 4 microphone inputs?
Click to expand...

Definitely! Mine has 8 ;)

jaygee said:
There is a lot of Behringer hate, but considering this unit only costs $50-60, I don't think it's a bad deal.

I've pissed away more on a bottle of tequila with nothing but a hangover to show for it.
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It's not a bad deal, but don't expect it to crank out quiet recordings.
 
The mixer is not that noisy and I am sick of the Behringer bashers that always say "OH IT"S A BEHRINGER IT MUST BE NOISY" I bet there is a digital earth loop between the mixer and the computer. I have used an 802 on location to record a spoken word lecture and it was very quite.

Also how is the mixer plugged into the computer? if it's through the standard computer jack there is another problem.

Alan.
 
witzendoz said:
The mixer is not that noisy and I am sick of the Behringer bashers that always say "OH IT"S A BEHRINGER IT MUST BE NOISY"
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I'm not a basher. They're just known for their noisy mixers. What do expect when you pay half the price??
 
To troubleshoot a noise problem, the first thing to do is not throw out the gear and buy new gear, Behringer or not, it's to search through the signal chain and see what you can do to isolate / reduce the problem....

Whilst the problem might ultimately be the mixer, as the OP is a noob, or, as he puts it, a compleat noob, there are probably steps he should try first, before going and buying new gear, as he may not have the gear he's currently using set up for optimum performance.

OP - what, exactly, are you trying to record, and how? What settings do you have on what devices, and what levels are you recording at in Garage Band?

With this info, perhaps we can be of more assistance....

FWIW, I had a little 4 chan Behri mixer used, in my poorer days, to record acoustic guitars... it wasn't particularly noisy.
 
guitaristic said:
I'm not a basher. They're just known for their noisy mixers. What do expect when you pay half the price??
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Well there are the 2 quotes,

Quote 1, Who knows them for their noisy mixers when I have had great results form a mixer that costs less than $100, if the signal chain is set up right, (gain structure is right), with a good quality microphone, mixer plugged into a good quality interface, without a digital ground loop problem (almost the most common noise problem with noise when using a computer), you can get very decent results. The Behringer mixers have a lot less noise than some of the old gear we used in the 80's and 90's.

Quote 2, The problem is that people do expect the noise because of the price before they even have a look at what is causing the noise. Even people that have not even used one will pipe up with "what do you expect for the price" this is no help to the person that has the gear and is asking if they have a problem.

While it is true that with Behringer you get what you pay for, a lot of their products do supply a great deal considering the price enabling more people to get into Home Recording. Oh thats right this is a home recording Forum.

alan
 
I have a few Behringer bits and they're cool. One of the items I have is a two channel pre~amp. I notice that if I connect the mic with an XLR to jack lead, I will have difficulty getting a good loud signal without some additional noise or hum. But if I use a male to female XLR cable, no noise at all and I can get a signal so hot, I've recorded vocals with the vocalist at the opposite end of the room from the mic and not at all sounding far away. So as our two Australian confederates have said, one has to do a little exploration to ascertain what the problem may be. Never assume it's the brand name that's causing the problem, same way that "Neumann" or whatever on the mic won't guarantee a great vocal.
 
witzendoz said:
While it is true that with Behringer you get what you pay for, a lot of their products do supply a great deal considering the price enabling more people to get into Home Recording. Oh thats right this is a home recording Forum.

alan
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Which is why I said:

guitaristic said:
Not all Behringer stuff. Just some!
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Don't go crazy on me. I didn't say it's not good for beginners or anything. I just said it's noisy.

You said it yourself: you get what ya pay for.
 
Armistice,

I am trying to record a spoken word, interview type program to be used as a podcast.

I ran the mic into the channel one 1/4" jack. I ran the board into my mac input jack with a dual 1/4" to single 1/8"(3.5mm?) cable. I did about 30 minutes of recording just constantly talking into my kit changing the levels one at a time, two at a time, etc. For the most part I kept the levels in garage band at 0 dB.

When I have the channel one level "centered" the main mix "centered" and the channel one gain "centered" there is no discernible noise, but the volume was too low. So by turning up the volume on the recording I start to get background noise.
 
Adding an external soundcard (interface) will definitely improve the quality of audio going into your computer. I have used the 1/8' inputs before and they just do not sound good.
 
guitaristic said:
I'm not a basher. They're just known for their noisy mixers. What do expect when you pay half the price??
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well ..... the main thing that you get less of because of cheapness is reliability.
Plenty of cheap stuff is decently quiet.
 
arlouper said:
When I have the channel one level "centered" the main mix "centered" and the channel one gain "centered" there is no discernible noise, but the volume was too low. So by turning up the volume on the recording I start to get background noise.
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well ..... just 'centering' controls isn't gonna get you there. First off .... you want the gain as high as it'll go without clipping. That's generally where you'll get the best signal/noise ratio and will also give you more volume going into the 'puter. Turn the gain up 'till the clip led lights up and then back it off slightly from there. It's ok to have the clip led light up or blink occassionally.
Then set the channel fader at whatever they have marked as unity. THEN set the output level to desired volume.
If you have that gain too low then that's where some noise is coming from.
 
i have a behringer b1 for almost 8 years. hasnt quit on me yet. but my truth 2031s did, and that is more of an important thing than a mic in my opinion. so down with behringer...
 
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