Hi, so recently i built a new sexy PC and everything is fine, but i noticed something odd while recording in audacity, the line that indicates the presence of sound/audio frequency or whatever it is called is never fully flat like my old PC! even when i unplug the mic and there is no recording input, it still looks a bit thick, i did a total generated silence on it and yep! something is definitely up! i amplifed the volume too to see the shape of that frequency but i know nothing about audio stuff haha so i’m sharing this pic with you all in hopes that someone can aid me:
The highlighted area is how to originally looks, the segment/area after it is the total silence one (with the Generated filter from audacity) and the last part is the amplified one so you can see how it looks
I can’t hear any noise from it personally and when playing the sound, the noise monitor up there in audacity doesn’t indicate anything (doesn’t budge at all) and i repeat, it happens EVEN WITHOUT A MIC INPUT! and also a side note: the volume while playbacking on audacity is ALWAYS lower than anything else on my pc for some reason! (yes i checked the windows volume mixer, no changes there)
My pc specs if needed:
AMD Ryzen 7 5800x
32gb RAM
Motherboard: Asus Rog Strix Gaming B550-F (Wifi)
Mic: Blue yeti (works fine in EVERYTHING else)
GPU: R9 380 4gb
(Old PC: intel i5 4440, 8gb ram, some randomass gigabyte motherboard)
Do you mean with the mic volume turned down to zero? If so, then the noise is probably coming from the USB power supplied by the computer. It seems to be a weakness of Blue mics that they don’t filter the USB supply (or at least, not very well).
Typically the noise sounds like a (quiet) high pitched whine and can sometimes be removed with a notch filter. If you post a short sample in WAV format (just a few seconds) then we can take a look. See here for how to attach an audio sample to your post: https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/how-to-post-an-audio-sample/29851/1
Assuming this is USB power-supply noise, the noise on the USB power does vary from computer-to-computer. It’s not a problem with the digital audio data, but it sometimes gets-into the analog electronics (the preamp built-into your Yeti, or the preamp built-into a USB powered interface). Some USB audio interfaces have their own separate power supply so this isn’t a problem.
Your noise “looks like” switching power supply noise. Analog and acoustic noise is usually more-random.
even when i unplug the mic and there is no recording input
It shouldn’t be possible to record from the USB input with nothing plugged-into the USB…
I can’t hear any noise from it personally and when playing the sound,
That’s the important thing! There is always SOME noise from the analog electronics and some acoustic noise. If you’re making an audiobook the noise requirements are rather strict and you’d probably fail. Most “home studio” recordings fail because they are not soundproof enough, even if the electrical noise is under control.
lso a side note: the volume while playbacking on audacity is ALWAYS lower than anything else on my pc for some reason!
Even if you load a known-good MP3 (or other music file) into Audacity?
Your recording won’t be as loud as commercial recordings because most commercial recordings are compressed & limited (and re-boosted). Audacity does have compression & limiter effects which allow you to bring-up the overall loudness without clipping (distorting) the peaks. But, they do change the character of the sound and whenever you boost the volume you also bring-up the background noise.
You say this noise is normal for analog switching and whatnot but i didn’t use to have it on my old pc! D:
for the last part: Yes! even when loading a normal music or anything else, audacity audio is always lower than my media players for some reason~
does it have something to do with the motherboard? it’s advertised that it has some sound effects and stuff, maybe there’s an interference?
I mean i muted my mic with the physical button and ALSO even tried unplugging it and using the only left option in the input menu: “Microsoft sound mapper - input” I still get the result
You say this noise is normal for analog switching and whatnot but i didn’t use to have it on my old pc!
I said noise from the computer’s USB power supply will vary from computer-to-computer. If there is any electrical interference, that will vary when you move the mic and it depends on whatever is causing the interference. And of course the acoustic noise level in the room will vary from day-to-day, etc. If your heating or air conditioning switches on, that’s more noise. Sometimes a microphone will pick-up noise from your refrigerator (which will cycle on & off so sometimes it’s making noise and sometimes not)…
The noise generated by the mic itself will be fairly constant (except it might vary when you change the volume control).
Your old PC may have had one of those real-time effects enabled called noise-gate.
If you have the option to enable a noise-gate then you’ll get true flat-line -∞ silence when there is no mic attached.
hmmmmmm, this seems to be the only logical explanation, all my USB ports in this new pc are blue (3.2) they might have more power output then the generic 2.0 or 3.0 usb, i’ll try a usb adapter or something similar and see if it makes a difference.
