Like 4 months ago I’ve got my brand new Natec Genesis H33 headset. It was working well, great microphone, no hissing sound on the background.
But I was away for a week, and now when I come back my microphone has a hissing sound in the background when recording in game or just by using a sound recorder.
I’ve set my mic boost to 0, didn’t work.
Tried all the frequencies in my driver, didn’t work.
Unplugged and plugged my mic again, didn’t work.
I’ve reinstalled my sound driver, didn’t work.
My sound driver is Realtek HD Audio Manager, which, depending on the microphone, allows you to choose between some frequencyes, higher is the frequency, higher is the quality of the recorded voice.
So I used to use 192 000 Hz(Studio), which is the highest one for my mic and the quality was amazing.
But now if I use it, it has that hissing sound. Even if I use 96 000 Hz(Studio), it still has that hissing sound.
But if I use lower ones, like 44 000 (CD) and 46 000 Hz (DVD), I have the option to use noise cancellation, which fixes the problem, but the quality of my voice is horrible.
I tried the headset on a different PC, there’s no such problem.
Are you recording “Stereo Mix”, or just the microphone?
If you are recording Stereo Mix, open the Windows playback mixer and experiment with the sliders to see which input is picking-up the noise. If you are lucky, the noise is coming-in on an unused input.
You may also be able to improve the signal-to-nose ratio by adjusting the various input levels and the master playback & recording levels. The concept is called gain staging and the idea is to keep a strong signal (without clipping/distorting) before the noise get’s mixed-in. (That’s assuming you are recording Stereo Mix… If you are directly recording only the microphone, none of these other controls are going to have any effect.)
Tried all the frequencies in my driver, didn’t work.
Unplugged and plugged my mic again, didn’t work.
I’ve reinstalled my sound driver, didn’t work.
Noise is analog so I wouldn’t expect any of that to make a difference.
So I used to use 192 000 Hz(Studio), which is the highest one for my mic and the quality was amazing.
That’s total overkill… There’s no harm if you are getting good recordings and you don’t mind the bigger files. But, sometimes you can get problems recording at high data rates when multitasking.
CDs are better than human hearing. If you take a 24-bit/192kHz file and downsample it to 16/44.1, you can’t hear any difference in a proper scientific blind listening test. (24/96 seems to be the current “studio standard”.) And with a headset mic and a consumer soundcard, you may get a perfectly adequate spoken-voice recording, but you are not going to get anything near “studio quality” or “CD quality”.
I watched an “Unboxing” video that somebody did – with one hand – and in three minutes I think they stopped jittering/moving the camera on the plugs once. Look quick!
So it’s an analog headset, not USB. Look in your soundcard setups or Control Panels for a “20dB Mic Boost” setting. See if that makes any difference. It could go either way. No boost may mean you need to crank up the other volume controls in the system causing noise, or the boost itself could cause noise.
If you like to use Skype, that can reset your sound settings. It’s famous for it.
24/96 seems to be the current "studio standard
16/44.1 is adequate for one pass, but not if you’re going to do multi-pass mastering production. The channel technical limits are always right there meaning you can never make a mistake anywhere in the process.
Can’t edit my post. Sorry.
I’ve recently changed my internet provider, now I have a new router, which has a telephone connected to it. Can this be the issue?
Also, I heard something about PC grounding. What is it?
Solved.
I had to move the cords a bit, and make the power cord not touch other cords.
Also, in addition you can give the power cord it’s own supply in the wall outlet.
Not only something that’s plugged in. It could be your internal mic or virtual sound devices if you have those. Look in Windows Sound to see the sound devices.
Assuming that microphone on the Recording tab is the internal mic, you could right-click over it and choose “Disable”. Or you could go into the Realtek manager and mute the mic (look on the playback side as well as the recording side).
Are you quite sure those cables aren’t touching?
What is the make and model number of the mic?
Are you running any audio programs you weren’t last week? Skype?
I doubt a landline telephone would be the issue, but did you remove it from the router or modem?
Muting the microphone doesn’t fix it, and if I mute it and record, there is humming at all, it’s dead quite.
The model of my headset is Natec Genesis H33.
Now the cable actually touches other cables, can’t really manage to make it not touch any, as I have a lots of them underneath my desk. I will try to do some wire management though.
Not running any new audio programs at all.
I disabled the telephone, and unplugged it from the new modem. Nothing has changed.
Lucky you. I bet if you start a recording and take the headset off, the buzz changes, probably getting less. If the noise comes and goes, I’d say you had a bad shield.
While you’re recording and wearing the headset, move around or wave your hands slowly around your workstation. Does the buzz go up somewhere in the process? Like when you touch your desk lamp, the buzz goes nuts? If you touch any metal surface does the buzz go away? Does it vanish when you turn your room dimmers off?
First level maintenance is soap and water. Shut down the computer, pull the headset plugs out of the computer and clean them with a fresh paper towel and unflavored vodka (preferred), or any glass cleaner or rubbing alcohol (if you have to). Continue to rub with a twisting motion when the plugs are dry to get the last of the residue off. Plug them back into the soundcard and twist them to make sure they make good contact.
Unplug and replug several times each power plug to make sure each plug’s ground connection is secure. Include everything connected to the computer like your printer.
Turn it all back on and see if the hum is still there – or if it has changed. Change is important. It can also get worse if you do all those things. That’s important to know, too.
Microphone signals are impossibly small and delicate and they take special precaution to keep the normal garbage, buzz and hum that’s in the air around us at all times from damaging it. I think there is at least one connection damaged and you are an antenna because of that damage. Then you touch the metal cabinet you stop being an antenna and the buzz goes away. There is a connection in the headset that’s supposed to prevent that and there’s something wrong with it.
It’s possible a connection inside the headset failed and it’s also possible the connection inside the soundcard failed.
