PLEASE help with PC noise

[Malice_227]

Well, last night was the first time I tried recording on my new PC, it wasnt meant to be serious as I still only have the onboard audio, but I wanted to test out this new effect trick I came across.

Anyways, I record into soundforge 7 and mix with cubase. When you bring up the recording menue in soundforge it shows your signal level, and even while idle it was -24 DB, very very noisy to say the least, it sounded like feedback, you can even hear it in the guitar after recording, and the guitar was recorded as loud as possibal without clipping, and it was direct (I still get the same signal level without the pedal hooked up, so its all internal).

So I thought, if I get a card that's sheilded I may not have a problem. As I mentioned in previous posts, I was looking at getting an EMU 1820. Info on that card is scarce but I did come across a post on some other forums that said the card dosnt seem to be sheilded, it also dosnt state that its sheilded on EMU's site, so to any of you that have used the card, is it sheilded? Theres no way Im going to get it if PC noise is going to be a problem, infact thats one of the main things I want to get away from. Now, theres a possability that most of my noise is coming from the fact that Im using crappy onboard audio thats intregated into the motherboard, but I dont want to have any PC noise when I get a new card (ordering one monday), and just thinking realisticly, I dont understand how Im going to get away from it if the card isnt sheilded.

Onto another note, my PC fan seems really loud, possably the power supply as well. I phoned the store where I baught the PC and hes checking into a quite power supply and heat sink, but due to the fact that its in a small room and I'll be recording vocals with a condensor mic, it may not be enough. So how would I go about isolating the sound of the PC in a "home made" way?

Lastly, if the EMU 1820 is going to be very suceptable to PC noise, can anyone suggest to me the best card I can get in that price range? I only plan on recording 1 track at a time (possably a few stereo tracks), I want to beable to hook my BOSS GT 6 into the card with a S/PIDF cable, and it would be great to have at least 1 clean preamp for vocals. I want at least 24/96, and not that I would record at 192Khz oftan, but it would be nice to have the option. The software I'll be using mostly is cubase VST 5.1, and sound forge 7, so I need a card that will work with those programs. I want a very very quite card, NO PC noise.

Thanks to anyone that can help.

 

[Ibrow]

No comments but this. If the noise floor is at -24 in SF, something is MESSED UP! It's most likely a setting in the Microsoft Mixer or whatever. Bring that up, mute EVERYTHING, then start unmuting until you find the culprit. ELSE, disconnect everything going into the soundcard, THEN try to record in SF and see if the noise floor is still there. If it is, it has to be in your settings.

That's where I'd start.

 

[Malice_227]

Brow I just tried what you said, when I go to the recording control, this is what I get for the following when selected: (Also, eveything in the playback control is muted except volume control)

CD PLayer: -21 DB

Microphone: -27 DB

AUX: -67 DB

Line In: -21 DB

WAV out: (and this is a little odd) : -52 DB on the left, and - 37 on the right :S


This is actually starting to worry me now, a little help?

 

[blah]

1820 noise

One of the reasons shielding is probably not necessary - at least for the 1820/1820M is that (according to the manual) the AD/DA conversion takes place in the external AudioDock - away from the computer. As long as you have a decent power supply in your PC, computer noise shouldn't be a problem.
I'm due to get delivery of the EmulatorX this week...

 

[Sangram]

It's an OK figure.

My older Via chipset onboard soundcard had a figure of -30 dB or so. My new nForce onboard audiocard has about -50dB.

I didn't know better in the old days. I analysed the nForce 'noise' with a spectrum analyser.

Turns out the noise is below 10 Hz. Most of it is about 5 Hz at -50 db. It slopes steeply. At 10 Hz it is -70 dB. In the audio band the noisefloor is a little belwo 100 dB, which is pretty good - if it wasn't for the fact that IMD is a big problem on the card. Most casual users wouldn't know, but you can hear it.