I was trying to record faint wildlife sounds that are, just, audible to my ears. In doing this I discovered there is a continuous hissing or buzzing sound- not loud but apparently to Audacity louder than the noises I can hear.
This buzz
-doesn’t go away, or even diminish, if I run noise suppression
-seems to be across multiple frequencies so I can’t remove it with a notch filter
-was still there when I disconnected the laptop from the external microphone and used the built in one.
-was still there when I disconnected from mains power, having read this can have an effect.
This appears to be an inherent limitation of either Audacity or my computer. Most likely the later but if it is Audacity and someone knows how to fix it I’d be very grateful
No sound editor introduces any noise. Noise is introduced by the sound channel: microphone + sound card. Most likely, your microphone has limited sensitivity. In addition, if you use the laptop’s built-in sound card, it also introduces additional noise. Built-in sound cards are not professional and are not intended for high-quality sound recording.
I presume you are outside while you are recording these wildlife sounds.
Have you tried using a field recorder? They are solid-state and usually have fairly decent microphones built in. You could try one from a company that grants a 30-day return to see if you like it.
A field recorder has some problems of their own that you have to deal with. You will want a tiny tripod that you can use as a handle. Field recorders have a tripod mount on the bottom just like cameras. You will also want a shock mount between the tripod and the recorder so noises made by your hands don’t transfer to the microphones. You will also want something called a “dead cat” to put over the microphones to eliminate wind noise.
I would also recommend a 32-bit float recorder. You don’t have to set the gain on one. In fact, they don’t even have a gain control. There are cheap ones in the $100 range available. You will also need a micro SD card to store the audio file on.
I enjoy recording “wildlife” on my walks at the zoo. I just start the recorder, and keep it on, then extract the interesting parts using Audacity. Once I got the sound of a tiger coughing up a hairball that way. I would never have had time to do that if I had to get the recorder out and turn it on.