I use a Rockmix 5 interface. I have a good Shure mic and a decent laptop. When I record my vocals with backing tracks, even with settings high I have to amp up my vocal track. The result is hiss and white noise which is heard loudly at the beginning and throughout the project when I record soft ballads. I have tried all the suggested solutions, noise reduction, treble cut, noise gate. Some of them seem to make the noise worse. Help will be appreciated.
Maybe you could try cleaning up the background noise after recording by using some vocal separation or noise reduction tools. Sometimes doing it in post gives you a cleaner result than trying to fix it while recording.
Are you sure you’re recording from the Shure ? … https://youtu.be/iyQ4nJgGHZk?&t=101
Audacity sometimes does not play well with multi-channel interfaces …
https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/multi_channel_recording.html
You’ll pick-up nose from the room. (The recorded noise is more noticeable when coming from a speaker or headphones than when “live” and coming naturally from all directions).
The preamp in the interface will also generate SOME noise. Some interfaces are better than others.
when I record soft ballads.
Singing/speaking with a strong voice, reasonably-close to the mic, will give you a better signal-to-noise ratio.
I have a good Shure mic
If it’s a dynamic mic (like the SM57 or SM58) they have lower output than a studio condenser mic. The hotter signal from a condenser gives a better signal-to-noise ratio with respect to the hiss from the preamp. Most interfaces work better with condenser mics. But that doesn’t help with room noise because it makes both the wanted sound and unwanted room noise louder.
BUT - Studio condenser mics need 48V phantom power (dynamic mics aren’t powered). AND from what I found on the Rockville website, it says your interface has 18V phantom power. That’s completely non-standard. (It could be a typo.)
Somebody posted a link showing good results with an AI tool called LyRuno
I have tried all the suggested solutions, noise reduction, treble cut, noise gate. Some of them seem to make the noise worse.
Yeah… Noise Reduction works best when you have a low-level background noise… When you don’t REALLY need it. If the noise is bad, “the cure can be worse than the disease.”
It’s similar with the Noise Gate. A noise gate can kill the sound completely when there’s only noise but it can be distracting when you hear it cutting in-and-out. And if the difference between the signal and noise isn’t big enough it can chop-out parts of the audio. A noise gate just reduces the level, or kills the audio, when the volume drops below the threshold. It doesn’t discriminate between the signal and noise.
Cutting the treble will help with hiss but of course it affects the sound and with vocals it reduces the “T” and “S” sounds.
Great advice! I have been considering upgrading my equipment. A more feature filled interface that will use a condenser mic. In the meantime, I’ll try those suggestions you gave, and the AI tool mentioned. I’m retired, so I definitely got the time. Thanks, and I’ll talk to you later.
Great news! I switched mic cords, and took a second look at Noise Reduction. I was getting the profile, but wasn’t actually applying it. I also used it on the backing track as well as the vocals. Much cleaner. I’ll be doing some more recording and tinkering this weekend and see how it goes. Thanks very much for the help!
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