Quality Problems

[mcfarlane1000]

Hey I am new to home recording and I would like to record covers for YouTube and I have a Samson C01U Condenser Microphone. It is a good mic I think but I really do not get good quality. I have tried everything and I also use a pop filter. That's all I use. The main problem is background noise. There seems to be a lot of hissing so I can't record properly. I also use Reaper as my software. If anyone can help me thank you.

 

[JimmyS1969]

Well, first off you are using a mic that is under $100 that has a built in preamp, phantom power and A/D converter at that price. A low level recording interface that does a decent job of that conversion is well over $100 by itself.

It is very common to hear of USB mics being noisy. A condenser mic will always pick up background noise.

I would suggest looking into an audio interface and a better mic. If you can't lower the background noise or treat your room, I would look into using a dynamic mic as opposed to the condenser. Just my opinion tho.

 

[Massive Master]

Just my opinion tho.

Mine too. But even with that, a 58 is $100, a decent converter with a decent preamp will be well over that --

That said, he now knows what a $100 USB mic sounds like.

 

[Pinky]

The hiss and background noise were mentioned in this review:

https://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jun06/articles/samsonc01u.htm

Like the original C01, this mic does produce a low background hiss from its integral circuitry, although not enough to worry about when close-miking loud instruments or strong vocals. The noise is more evident on quieter instruments or voiceover work, but for typical studio applications the C01U can give good, clean results. Far more worrying, however, was a significant level of digital background clutter riding above the hiss when I tested the mic on a dual-processor Mac G5. I asked Samson's UK distributors, Sound Technology, about this and they found they could replicate the problem on some (but not all) tower G5s, whereas all other Macs seemed quite happy. Switching to my G4 iBook confirmed that the digital noise was gone.

Sounds like a mic unfit for its chosen duty. Time to scrap it and move on to a better solution.

 

[Pinky]

Quoted from the link in the previous post.....
"Like the original C01, this mic does produce a low background hiss from its integral circuitry, although not enough to worry about when close-miking loud instruments or strong vocals. The noise is more evident on quieter instruments or voiceover work, but for typical studio applications the C01U can give good, clean results."

mcfarlane1000....How close are you to the mic and do you consider yourself loud when you record the covers? Possibly by moving closer to the mic the gain can be turned down to lessen the hiss.

I did a search on C01U hiss and found this video. I hope you're not using the mic as shown at 0:05 . The mic is a "side address" mic, not an "end fire" as the guy in the video appears to be using it. How could anyone take advice from this guy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_EcPSg7AI4

I understood the hiss issue to be evident on some computers, and not others. Possibly a chipset / usb / system noise issue. The OP might have lucked out in that his computer is (electronically) noisy/dirty. I know certain functions performed on mine end up in the output signal (thankfully not on my input signal), and not at high dbs.

Yeah, the guy in the video is using the mic wrong. lol