I do voice over work and recently bought a new laptop and mic so I can improve the quality of my work.
I’m quite new to Audacity but am having issues with crackling sounds when recording, but only when using the Fifine AM8 dynamic mic. The google drive link below are test recording, with the Fifine mic. I can only include one link but I can say that when recording with the in-built microphone in audacity, there is no crackling.
I’ve tried troubleshooting with pretty much all the suggestions I’ve seen in similar posts on the forum - I can’t link them as new users can only post one link
I’ve tried changing the buffer length, giving Audacity above normal CPU priority, putting my laptop into airplane mode, trying different USB ports for the Fifine mic, installed driver updates…but nothing seems to work. I’ve even tried using the native windows recorder, and the crackling sound appears there too.
Yes, I’ve tried each USB slot. I’ve also tried unplugging any other USB devices (e.g. bluetooth mouse) to see if that helps, no change. No, I’m not sharing a USB connection.
I haven’t tried with wired headphones yet, I have some ordered which will arrive in a few days so will try it with them when they arrive.
So I don’t have an old laptop, but I do have a work computer. I can’t download programs onto it so unable to record with audacity, but recording with the mic in the native windows voice recorder interestingly has no crackling (it does crackle on my new laptop with the native windows voice recorder). I’ve attached a drive link with the recording on my work computer below
I’ve done a variety of work, mostly youtube narration. I have a Rode smartlav mic but as mentioned above unable to use audacity on my work computer. I bought my own laptop and a better to improve the quality of my work and potentially look at doing audiobooks on ACX
OK, just to be crystal clear about that. You don’t hear it during the performance when plugged into the bottom of the microphone, but it’s noisy in the computer later.
You can tell Audacity to play the live performance back to you right away. Edit > Preferences > Recording > [X] Playthrough > OK. Listen to the computer. Your voice will have an echo or be delayed. That’s “One Computer Late” and that’s normal. Is it noisy then?
That’s why the microphone has the headphone connection on the bottom. Live production with no echo. As a side note, recording while listening to yourself is highly recommended. Once you get used to it, it can help you with expression and volume control.
Obsessive Engineer will be Googling “Noisy FiFine Microphone.” I think this has come up before. Did you save your receipts?
To to be crystal clear, previously when I first recorded with the headphones plugged into the mic, I couldn’t hear the crackling while recording. But when playing the recording back, I could hear it.
I’ve just tried recording again, with the playthrough option ticked, and I CAN hear the crackling while recording when I speak. Naturally, I can also hear it on the playback.
What are your thoughts? Faulty mic? Maybe I should return it and ask for a replacement? The mic has very good reviews, on Amazon and elsewhere, so maybe I just got a slightly broken one.
That’s why I said Google complaints. Those are less likely to be posted by the manufacturer.
Doesn’t look good.
The only piece left is change computers. You may have USB problems. Nobody would know if your USB keyboard or USB Mouse had trouble, but the instant you plug in a constant-connection, good quality, real time microphone, USB problems appear immediately.
Doesn’t count. A network drive or file interconnect system will just keep trying and trying until it gets the work done. If it’s bad enough, it will throw an error and give up, but you can go a long time with a ratty connection and everything will seem to be OK—maybe a little slow sometimes.
We also have conditions where one particular microphone and one particular computer hate each other.
The computer maker cut corners and left it up to the microphone to pick up the slack. The microphone maker cut corners leaving it up to the computer to pick up the slack. That’s what happened with several other noisy microphones.
Really appreciate all your help on this. I messaged Fifine support, they suggested trying a different USB cable (can’t believe I hadn’t considered this!). Lo and behold, it works fine now. So it was just an issue with the USB cable it came with.
Thanks again for the time you took with all the replies.
That did occur to me under slightly different cover. There is a limit to the length of a USB cable. You can’t just keep extending them. I have a printer system that is technically too long. I have trouble getting the first print job running, but after that, it seems to work OK. I know what’s wrong and if it ever stops dead, that’s the first place I’ll look.
That you for posting back. This is me writing that down.