Samson G-Track Static Noise

Good afternoon everyone.

Received my Samson G-Track USB Microphone the other day, and I have a problem.

Please listen to the attachment.

I’m on a PC, both Laptop and Desktop, so the following apply to both.

I have tested everything :

• ASIO Vs. MME
• Increase/decrease recording level on computer
• Increase/decrease recording level on the G-Track
• Change USB Cable
• Change USB input
• Try on another computer
• Turn off all softwares
• Unplugged everything else
• Audacity/Soundbooth/Sonar/etc.

I still get static noise, no mather what. So when I listen to examples like the AT2020 (http://www.voiceemporium.com/archives/06/sound-sample-at2020/), I wonder if I did the right choice!

Any help would be appreciated.

The noise level does seem rather high. Are you sure that you’re not picking up noise from the computers built in sound card? Go into the Windows Control Panel and check that the computer sound card is disabled for recording.

BTW, what operating system are you using?

Hello Steve.

I’m using Windows 7 on both machines.

And yes, all other devices are disabled (input/output).

The high noise level may just be because you have the recording volume quite high.
Listening to the AT2020 sample it is evident that he is close to the microphone and speaking quite loudly, which means that his recording volume will be low, and so the noise level will also be low.

He says that he did not do any noise reduction, but it seems a bit odd that the noise level on his recording is extremely low in the high frequency range, but quite a high level in the low frequencies - that is unusual for pre-amp noise, so I’m wondering whether he has used Eq and that has helped to drop the hiss level, or if that is just a characteristic of that particular microphone.

Good evening.

I honnestly have tested the recording level to different settings, with the same result. Off course if I put the Mic’s Level higher, it grabs more noise. But no mather what combination I use, I grab the same static noise…

Is there any setting where the noise goes off or declines?

I would have liked a voice sample along with the noise. I can get many microphones to exhibit noise, but most of them are much quieter when you start speaking and have to turn them down. If you speak at a normal level and then stop and the hiss floor is right there, then yes, that’s a problem.

We used to tell people that USB microphones had to be designed that way because of overload, etc., etc., but I’m beginning to wonder about that. I own enough “cheap” audio equipment to know that they all top out at 60dB of microphone gain (multiply times a thousand), that being the highest stable gain you can do cheaply with a simple amplifier.

https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/firebox-or-inspire/174/1

The instant you throw money and do better with amplifiers that have multiple stages and knobs, the “quiet performance” problem vanishes.

I wouldn’t be shocked to find that one company, two, tops, is making the little electronic chip that amplifies a condenser capsule high enough to drive a USB converter – itself also a one chip affair. That explains the rash of affordable condenser microphones all with the same shortcoming.

Professional “Condenser Microphones,” said with reverence and hushed voices cost multiple hundreds of dollars US, not $150. That and they have to be followed by a mixing desk which pushes the cost up to $800-$900 or more with no trouble.

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/TLM102/
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/C414XLII/
http://kozco.com/tech/audacity/wynonna2.jpg

I’m not entirely sure what she’s singing into. Still looking, but I think it’s an early Sennheiser.

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/U87Ai/

Few of those have volume problems.

I wonder if anybody at work has an Affordable Condenser I can mess with…

Koz

Ok, did some more tests and researches. Thing is Windows 7 Audio drivers are known to be problematic with the G-Track. Every single posts I read about the G-Track on Windows 7 said the same thing: Static Noise higher than normal.

So I tested it on both XP and Windows 7

XP : Noise level around -48DB, with proper voice level, no clip
7 : Noise level around -36DB, with similar voice level, no clip

So, after reading all these posts, G-Track seems to be basically noisy, especially on WIndows 7.

I’ve read good reviews of the AT2020 on Windows 7, I might return the G-Track for a AT2020…

If you do that it would be really nice if you would post short reviews about both microphones in this “Recording Equipment” section. People often come here looking for advice/suggestions about what equipment to buy.

Hi
I’m the guy who’s sample of the AT2020 you posted about.

I am a a voiceover artist who uses that microphone almost exclusively for my vo work.

I did not run the audio through any effects… no compression, equalization or noise reduction. I wasn’t using audacity though I was using adobe audition cs3.

I believe at the time my laptop was running vista… I’ve since upgraded to Win 7. and the results are similar.

At the time I recorded that sample I lived in Cairo … close to downtown which is why you can probably hear cars honking in the background. You’ll need to crank the audio right up to hear them clearly. Now I live in a suburb outside of Cairo… allot quieter so easier to record.

I generally record using the AT2020 plugged right into the laptop not going through any signal processing unit. Just a straight through and through digital feed. I turn the gain down until the gain (which does exist but not as much as any of the samson products) is low enough for me to remove (during my usual course of work).

Also I’ve noticed that depending on whether my laptop is plugged in and charging or running off its battery the gain varies. This is because egypt’s electrical system doesn’t include a ground wire for some reason… add to that fact that the building I lived in when I recorded the audio sample was ancient and the electricity was questionable… the new place I live in gives me better results.

I would return the samson and get an AudioTechnica… Recently I bought a Centrance MicPortPro and waiting to buy an xlr mic to test it with… probably a rode… the results of that should be (or are supposed to be) even better…

I hope this information helped.
Taji
http://www.voiceemporium.com

Thanks a lot Taji, that sounds convincing enough.

And yes, I will do some specific recordings with the G-Track that I can repeat with the AT2020 for people to compare.

Thanks everyone,

David

Good morning again. Before I can make proper recordings tonight, here is a comparison of the G-Track Noise under Windows 7 and Windows XP.

The gain has been set for proper and equivalent voice level.

Wow that’s a big difference.
A couple of things that would help with an objective comparison:

1. If you could include a couple of seconds of sound as well as the “silence” - for example, playing the first couple of notes from a CD player, with the same volume on the CD player and the same distance from speaker to microphone.
2. Flac format is preferable for the files as it is a lossless format.

I’m not a Windows 7 user, so I don’t know why you should get such a huge difference. There’s probably some optimal set-up procedure that we don’t know about - I’ll see what I can find out.

Thanks, I’m planning that test for later tonight once the kids are not as “noisy”

Guys,
I am experiencing the same thing with Windows 7 and the G-Track mic. I’ve tried every combination of controls and even put the microphone by itself in a closet with zero background noise and the static is still there! I tried switching the mic to a couple different laptops running XP but it will only record on left side, no stereo, so that won’t work, although I did notice that the noise floor was definitely lower in XP.

Would a shockmount potentially help this?

I’m hoping you guys can come up with something because this is driving me crazy!
Thanks,
Tom

Good afternoon Tom.

No, shock mount won’t do a thing here as the problem is caused elsewhere. It’s called white noise I believe, since it ain’t coming from the recording environment, but from within somewhere in the system (mic, cables, softwares, hardware, etc.). Your tests confirm what I’ve also experiment.

I should have the new AT2020 in the next couple days, so I’ll do a controlled comparison for everyone here.

Thanks

The microphone is a mono microphone so you should set Audacity to record mono.
“Edit menu > Preferences > Devices > Channels 1 (mono)”

I can tell you about the Left-Only thing. USB microphones do that. They represent a single sound channel (assuming they are really a single microphone) and only show up as “Left” or “Mono” in Audacity. If you’re in Audacity 1.3.12 like you should be, then duplicating the track and making stereo out of your presentation is a snap.

The noise thing is a lot more worrying.

Koz

To extend that a little. Sometimes the single built-in microphone in a laptop can be caused to record in stereo. The Laptop I’m typing on can do that, so it’s natural to assume all microphones can do that trick.

No. My Logitech Desktop USB microphone records in Left or Mono. No options.

If you have a full-on mixing desk and analog microphone or even fancier, then the signal delivered to the computer is already in stereo and Audacity will record whatever the computer gets.

Koz

I’ve been fighting this issue forever but thanks to an idea from another forum I have the answer!
Its going to sound weird but take a mini DIN male to male cable (like the kind you use for playing Ipods through aux inputs and run it from the headphone output of the G Track to the line in jack on your audio card. I had to boost the gain and the recording volume some but the background hiss is GONE. I also had to use the input jack on the front of my PC to listen to the track I was recording to but thats a small price to pay. At first I thought some of the resonance from the mic was lost but after a little tweaking I can’t tell the difference.

It seems the Windows 7 USB audio drivers suck!

Speaking of cross-forum pollination… Another posting described how turning off the WiFi service completely also deleted the poster’s microphone noise.

Koz