Assistance with hiss diagnosis

Audacity 3 Help Forum Windows
21

Thanks, I’ll check out that Tascam option.

22

Coincidentally I just purchased a thrift store mic with a 1/4inch plug type. I got an adapter to bring it down to 3.5mm [mono to mono] and just tried it out and incredible overbearing hiss (and low level results of recorded material/with mic volume to max [and boost option on] and acoustic guitar playing loud and close to mic)-- Way worse than any plug-in to the computer type mics I’ve tried before. Which makes me wonder if the new version of Audacity got something wrong somewhere in this department? OR just a coincidence? Last time I tried recording with Audacity was with a USB mic a few versions back and the noise was not this bad. ALSO with out even having a mic plugged in and monitoring my recording levels I’'m at about -36 dB! Where’s that from? That can’t be right, either my computer is noisier now or something :question: …SOS :exclamation: …HELP :exclamation:

PS My mic and headphone jacks are an after-market USB plug-in that by-passes my original computers jacks that failed about a year ago. I’ve been using the headphone jack–no problem. This is the first I’ve tried the mic jack.

23

Just to clarify, Audacity can only record from the selected recording device, so noise from other recording devices must be leakage surely?

If you are checking there, in my opinion it is also worth checking the playback side, in case any inputs are capable of being unmuted for playthrough. You don’t want any unmuted inputs there.

Gale

24

Hello Gale - Not sure I’m clear on what you’re saying, my apologies. I don’t really know too much about audio recording. I don’t understand what is meant by playthrough. I’m thinking you mean I should mute any other devices that are listed in the Sound > Playback tab, is that correct? Sorry if I’ve misunderstood, thanks for providing info.

25

I’m curious, what is your input recording level with the room quiet? With mic plugged in (and on), and without mic plugged in.

http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/m/images/1/13/metersundockedoneabove.png

Here’s how to check:

“Start Monitoring/Stop Monitoring (recording meter only): Starts/stops monitoring of the input (recording) level without actually recording a track. You can also start and stop monitoring by left-clicking on the recording meter.”

http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/meter_toolbar.html#menu

26

Yes, if there are any other devices. Lower end computers probably won’t have that feature, so the Playback tab will only have a volume slider for the speakers and/or headphones. But if you also see sliders for inputs like mic or line-in, you should mute those sliders.

“Playthrough” just means that if the input’s playback slider was enabled, the input would play through the speakers or headphones of the built-in audio.


Gale

27

Howdy - When I’ve got the monitoring turned on, and I’m not speaking, nothing is registering at all. I expanded the levels bar so I get a good detailed view, and nothing registers. So it doesn’t appear to be any environment noise that’s causing my hiss, at least nothing that is registering on the monitor levels. If you were getting at something else, let me know.

Thanks.

28

Sorry for the late reply, I’ve been sick. :frowning:

In my playback tab I’ve got:

  • Realtek HDMI Output (ATI HDMI Audio - Not plugged in)
    Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio - Default Device)
    Realtek Digital Output (Realtek High Definition Audio - Ready)
    Speakers (USB Audio CODEC - Ready)

I’m thinking that bottom one is related to the mic, so I shouldn’t mute it, and maybe not mute the Speakers that are currently the Default Device… but maybe mute the others? What do you think?

Thanks.

29

Experiment, but the first experiment could be to mute all but the USB “speakers”.

It’s only likely to make a difference if when you double-click the Realtek Speakers to open their Properties then click the “Levels” tab, you find that there are unmuted sliders for the computer inputs like mic or line-in.


Gale

30

wow that quiet? not even registering/doesn’t seem right. Are you even able to record? (I guess). Record with the mic switch on the mic off and then check the level by effect/amplify–it will show you the level. Also try with the mic on and room quiet. BUT make sure the mic’s working both times, by checking with the “monitor” …say, check check to make sure the monitor shows activity. If your on a computer with a built in mic tap on that too/with a pen to see if it’s somehow still on too. Not sure where your levels should be… but Microsoft is very noisy,Windows 7 (the highest I’ve achieved so far) even states this in their info and offers a noise suppression feature that seems not well developed/HQ any way. Happy hacking. :mrgreen:

31

I gave this a whirl, but couldn’t find anything that worked. Thanks for the suggestions though, much appreciated.

32

I’ve been communicating with Samson support, to see if they had any suggestions for me. They’ve been asking me a lot questions about my settings and configurations, most of which I’ve been able to answer. But one, I don’t know, and thinking someone here can probably tell me what it means.

They asked "Did you turn direct monitoring off in your software(sometimes this causes feedback noise)?

I’ve been trying to figure out what “direct monitoring” is and how to control this within Audacity, but so far I’ve been unsuccessful. I found some articles on “monitoring” in teh wiki, but couldn’t tell if they were addressing what Samson is asking about or not Is it just listening to my recording through Audacity, while I’m recording? Or something else?

I feel like even though I’m a beginner, this is something I should be able to figure out, so I guess I suck… if someone wouldn’t mind helping me out, I’d appreciate it.

Thanks.

33

The only thing like that in Audacity is the “Software Playthrough” setting. That is off by default, but you can check by looking near the bottom of the “Transport” menu (Not selected = Off).

I doubt that is the problem. I’d be looking at the levels.

34

Thanks, I looked at that setting and it was not turned on.

By “levels” you’re referring to how high I’ve set the mic recording level in Windows? I’ve settled on having that set at 0.03, and then the level on the mic itself at about three quarters. That records pretty quietly (about -20db through -18db), then I Amplify it and then use Noise Removal to get rid of the hiss. It’s not perfect but it’s usable. If I leave the computer level up higher and turn down the mic, the hiss is more apparent and my audio ends up sounding more distorted when I run it through the Noise Removal.

I’m really wishing I had another mic I could test with, just to verify I don’t have some setting that’s messed up someplace…

35

What happens if you set that to zero?

36

I get no audio.

37

I’m just checking because of a comment that I read recently elsewhere - is that absolute silence, even if you turn up the recording level quite high on the G Track?

38

It seems to me like it’s absolute silence, but I could be wrong.

Here’s a link when the mic level is set at 0 in Windows, and the level on the mic is way up.

And just checking, when I set the mic level in Windows, I see that the mic level within Audacity goes up/down correspondingly. So, when I set the mic level in Windows at 0, then open Audacity, it shows the mic level at 0 there too. If I keep both open and move the mic level up and down in Windows, I see the mic level go up/down in Audacity.

Correct behavior, right?

Thanks, appreciate the help.

39

Very close to absolute - certainly no actual signal. Thanks for confirming.

Could you make a short test recording for us following these instructions? (most of this is about setting up - we only need one word recorded and a few seconds of “silence” (background hiss).

  1. Position yourself about 20 cm in front of the mic. (facing the LED). If you have a pop shield, place that about half way between your mouth and the mic.
  2. Speak clearly directly at the microphone, and adjust the Mic control until the “clip” led just comes on, then back the mic control off just a little so that the clip indicator does not come on.
  3. Open Audacity.
  4. Grab the meter toolbar with your mouse and drag it so that it is the full width of your screen (Audacity Manual)
  5. Click on the little black triangle next to the mic symbol to open the dropdown menu and select “linear”. This sets the scale to a linear scale of 0 to 1.
  6. Click on the recording meter to make it active (or start recording).
  7. While speaking clearly into the mic, adjust the recording level in Audacity until the meters are peaking at around 0.5 (half level on the meter).

Now make a short recording with about 4 seconds of “silence” and one or two words of your voice.
Export the recording in WAV format.
(as long as it is less than 1 MB you can attach it directly to your post using the “Upload attachment” feature below the message composing box).

40

Here you go, thanks again.