Static While Recording

Hello to all. I’m having some recording problems with Audacity that are becoming quite frustrating and I’m not exactly sure what the problem is. I’m using a Blue Snowflake, which is a USB mic, to record my voice, and every time I finish and go back to listen to the recording, there are periods of strange blips of static that sound really awful. Sometimes they happen while I’m talking, and sometimes they happen during periods of total silence, when I’m not touching the mic, talking, and there isn’t any background noise. I just don’t know if it’s my settings, my microphone, or my computer that is causing the problem. I’m wondering if the mic may have a short in the wiring, but wanted to post here asking for help before I just go out and buy a new mic. I included a small clip of what it sounds like; it starts out during a period of silence, and then ends shortly after I begin talking again. I’ve searched around but can’t really find a solution to my problem. Any advice?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/8vfgwn0ol3nxspa/Troubleshooting1.wav?dl=0

The two most likely candidates are sending your microphone through a USB hub and having a busy computer that has to stop recording periodically to go off and do something else. Don’t use USB hubs with audio equipment.

http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/faq_recording_troubleshooting.html#noise6

http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Improving_Recording_Quality

http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/faq_recording_troubleshooting.html#clipping

http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/faq_recording_troubleshooting.html#skips

https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/alignment-probem-exporting-and-importing/33883/8

See if any of that helps. I think the last one is the one that addresses buffer settings which can cause unstable crackling or popping.

Koz