Problem with USB Microphone and Laptop recording

Audacity 3 Help Forum Windows
1

Short story, this week I bought a Nubwo Cypher x300 Microphone, I live in Thailand and it is a Microphone that a lot of gamer use.

Some specs of my laptop:

i5-7300HQ @ 2.5 GHz.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050
8 GB
64-bit
HDD (but added an SSD when I bought it).

I make YouTube videos using Filmora, and although it’s not the best. I can record in 1080p with my Canon G7x Mark II, then edit, render and export in Filmora without trouble. This laptop is good enough for what I’m doing and I don’t have the budget to upgrade anyways.

Prior to buying this microphone, I was using my Laptop mic for both my voice and my laptop sound when I’m recording. This obv had to change.

Now, this was just the context, I’m trying to give as much info as possible.

So I downloaded Audacity today, plugged my USB mic into my laptop and did some testing.

Before even pressing the red button to record I did a monitoring test and noticed left and right side both between -36 and -28 without me even speaking. It does not matter how far away the mic is from the laptop or if the laptop is on battery mode, etc, that number is always between -36 and -28. It does not matter how low or high the volume of the mic is, neither how much Gain I put. Sure, if I play with it the -36 might become -42 or vice-versa for the -28 but the result while recording is the same.

When I record, my voice will go between -12 and -6, I notice that if it hit 0 and go even further the sound is not as great. So I like the mic low volume or it gets too loud. FYI, I love the sound that the mic creates, it’s night and day compare to the laptop sound that I’m used too, this is not an issue, I love it. What I hate is the interference in the link attaches below.

I went to an internet cafe right after all of my fail testing to see if the problem was the mic. It’s not. Upon playing with volume and gain of the mic, that annoying sound was gone. The combo that works best seems to be low volume + high gain. Yes, there are background noises from people talking, but I don’t mind that. What I mind is the interference that seems to come from my laptop electronic or something like that. Something is going on but I don’t know how to fix it. I don’t mind sound from the room, if I was looking for soundproof mic I would have bought a dynamic mic, but I mind that noise that I have attached below.

2

When I unplug the USB mic and Monitored with the Microphone Array there is no green thing moving, it’s like there is zero interference, and when I start recording and listen to my voice after there is 0 interference and my voice is good, but ofc it’s not near the USB Mic level.

3

How is the mic connected you your computer? Does the mic have a 3-pin “XLR” connector?

4

That’s the frying mosquitoes (whining) sound when the 5 volt USB power from the computer is not “clean.” The microphone is combining your voice with electrical trash in the cable. There is an Audacity tool to help, but this noise is too loud.

https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/usb-whine-filtering-yeti-curse/45601/35

Neither the microphone nor the computer may be broken, but they’re a bad match. The maker of the microphone left out the parts that can manage bad USB power. The maker of the computer left out the parts to make clean USB power.

This is most likely to happen when they’re both affordable. They can’t both leave out parts.

Does the sound change if you make recordings with the computer plugged into the wall and then try again on battery power?

Koz

5

We would normally look at the web page for the microphone and it will give us connection information. But this one is not in English. You are using the USB connection, right? Not a cable like this?

Koz

6

The sound is the same whether the Laptop is plug or not.

I am using the USB cable provided with the Microphone, one hole below the microphone is connected to the USB port of my laptop.

I am having a very similar issue to this guy (he has a Blue Yeti): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDVmXftB7f8

6:35 is where I will try his solution, aka buying USB Extension cable, he actually had to buy two but it did the trick.

7

I can make it a little better with both Mosquito Killer at 10 mosquitoes and high noise reduction 12, 6, 6.


That’s not normal and you would have to do both of those corrections to every recording.

a Microphone that a lot of gamer use

Gamers have powerful computers and may be able to use any kind of microphone.

I went to an internet cafe right after all of my fail testing to see if the problem was the mic. It’s not. Upon playing with volume and gain of the mic, that annoying sound was gone

Right. It’s the combination of your computer and your microphone.

The computer USB connection can be used with a keyboard or mouse or anything that doesn’t care about how healthy and pure the connection is. This microphone cares. Does the laptop have more than one USB? Do they all do it?

You can’t run a USB microphone through a USB hub or splitter.

Koz

8

Here’s more tools. I added Effect > Amplification and Effect > Noise Gate.


So that’s Mosquito Killer, Noise Reduction, Amplification, and Noise Gate.

You can do that to every show, but you’re going to spend more time patching the sound than performing, and it does leave little noises behind your voice. I think that’s a good as we can do.

Koz

9

What you did is A LOT better, but as you said I can’t do that every time. I am making YouTube videos every day, I can’t spend too much time on this part.

The Laptop has 3 USB, I try all 3 while keeping the other two empty, same same.

I’m not sure if my other reply got approved or not, but I saw someone on YouTube moments ago with the same problem on his Blue Yeti (also a USB mic). He solved the problem by buying 2 USB Extension Cable (1 was not enough to remove all the static). So by the time mic reach laptop or vice-versa the static is gone.

10

6:35 is where I will try his solution, aka buying USB Extension cable, he actually had to buy two but it did the trick.

Post back when you try it. We never found one fix that worked for everybody.

Koz

11

We have to read all new forum user posts before the post is visible. If we’re both on-line at the same time, it can be a race who is going to post first.

I need to play Real Life for a while.

Frying Mosquitoes is unofficially known as the “Yeti Curse.” Not because it’s a bad microphone, but there are many Yetis.

I bet his Yeti doesn’t work on your computer.

Koz

12

I’m chatting with my dad atm, he has a Blue Yeti but he is in Canada while I’m in Thailand. He told me that the Blue Yeti cable is 4 feet while my Cable is closer to 9 feet so it should be enough, therefore he doesn’t think adding cable extension would work. I am still keen to buy one today to try anyways.

He told me that the mic sound need to be corrected before entering the laptop, therefore he suggests the Hub Behringer Audio Interface. You told me something about Hub not working with USB, is this something different? Does Behringer work only with XLR mic?

If there is nothing I can buy to fix this, I will need another mic. I will just keep this one for whatever future life when I can upgrade my laptop. Obv can’t buy another USB mic so what do you recommend? XLR mic with a Behringer? If so, what kind of budget mic? I bought this mic because similar to the yeti you can record from every angle possible. Me and my Girlfriend are making YouTube reaction video.

Our last video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY3vluLI1ow

We didn’t publish since because we bought a mic, softbox, etc, because we created a little room to improve the production. I can’t wait to shoot more because the lighting is now amazing, etc, but we can’t use Microphone Array from the Laptop anymore, it hurt the video quality too much and we are at the point where we needed to improve our gear. So now I’m stuck not producing content because of a failed mic. We need a mic that can project both my voice and GF voice. I don’t care about background noise, the failed mic background noise was fine, but the mosquitoes killer is not.

13

Something just hit me, can I buy an adapter and plug the microphone into my phone directly?

A few months ago I plugged a very cheap lavalier mic into my phone and was able to record, ofc sound was cheap the mic was $6 buck but maybe I can try with this mic? Chances are the Static sound will still be there because the phone is not really better than the laptop, but is it worth trying?

14

the lighting is now amazing,

I have a favorite example. Somebody made a terrific news set. Good lighting, shadows in the right places and and the colors complimentary to flesh tones, etc. Really well done. The illusion was perfect until somebody started to talk. The sound was from the microphone on top of the camera and it was just recording in the bathroom terrible.

my Cable is closer to 9 feet

The standard recommended USB cable is 6 feet. Do you have a shorter cable you can try?

he doesn’t think adding cable extension would work.

I’m with him. There’s no good electronic reason for a longer cable to work. Did you find more than one person that got a longer cable to work? I bet you can’t find three. This USB noise problem is very popular and I suspect we would have heard if that worked.

There is a way out of this with a USB hub. Use a shorter USB cable and find a high quality hub that plugs into the wall for power instead of depending on the computer. The microphone power comes from the hub and not the computer. You can’t plug anything else into the hub. We used to recommend the hub trick right up until somebody found a hub that was so “affordable” that it caused other problems. One step forward and one step back, except somebody had to buy the hub.

can I buy an adapter and plug the microphone into my phone directly?

I don’t know. You just sailed right out of my experience zone.

There is no “Hub Behringer Audio Interface.” I have a small Behringer UM2 that seems to work OK. That does take an XLR cable from the microphone and has a USB connection to the computer.

I don’t know about recommending microphones. It’s too easy to stick somebody with a bad microphone by accident. It has to match your studio, the type of show you’re doing, your experience level, and the path to the recorder.

We need a mic that can project both my voice and GF voice

That’s a problem. Are you two going to speak on the front and the back of the microphone? You will need a microphone with either a figure of eight pattern or omni-directional—record from all over. Both of those need good sound proofing in the recording space and not just an empty room.


This microphone can switch between all the common patterns.

Screen Shot 2020-01-25 at 16.33.11.png
Omnidirectional. Record from all over.
“Soft” cardioid. record mostly from the front half
Full Cardioid. no recording from the back.
Hyper Cardioid. ignore sound from the back and sides.
Figure of Eight. Record from the front and back but not the sides.

Koz

15

What was wrong with the sound you posted in your video? Maybe I can see problems with switching between super good quality music performances and your studio sound. That’s up to you. I would continue to produce shows with that sound until you can get something else that works better.

There’s a trick to this, too. If you keep enough background music and effects sound going, nobody will notice you’re recording in a tiny room.

Koz

16

“There is a way out of this with a USB hub. Use a shorter USB cable and find a high-quality hub that plugs into the wall for power instead of depending on the computer. The microphone power comes from the hub and not the computer. You can’t plug anything else into the hub. We used to recommend the hub trick right up until somebody found a hub that was so “affordable” that it caused other problems. One step forward and one step back, except somebody had to buy the hub.”

If you have an example of USB Hub that I can try I will buy it :slight_smile:

USB Type-C is the USB Cable that comes with the Microphone.

17

If I only have two hole plugs on the wall (no underground wire), will this still work? We live in Thailand Countryside, this is no Canada :frowning:

Can we:

  • Plug Power Strip to the wall
  • Plug the USB Hub to the Power Strip (keeping every other Power Strip hole empty).
  • Plug the Hub in the Laptop.
  • Plug the Microphone in the Hub.

???

18

It may be worth trying a better quality USB lead if you have one. Some USB leads have one or two “ferrite beads” which can help to reduce the noise from USB power.

19

Can buy clip-on ferrite-cores ~USD$5 for a pack of 10 …

index.jpeg
So can add on multiple cores if necessary, (on the computer power cable too).

20

Went to a local shop with my laptop + microphone to try.

As expected it didn’t work, but then we tried a 1 meter USB Cable, instead of the 2 meter+ cable that came with the Mic. It works! Shorter USB Cable removed ALL of the static!

I then went to the car to test both, same thing, the shorter USB Cable was removing everything.

Great, I then bought the cable, arrive home, try to plug the mic… the light in front is red (mute), refuse to turn green. So to make sure our home is not cursed I tried the long cable again, light is green but obv the static is insane. Try the short cable, light red, can’t even test.

No idea what is going on, the short cable was working with my laptop in the car 20 min ago, and at the shop 30 min ago.

I am so frustrated, I thought the problem was solved :frowning: