I’d just like to point out that many of the answers here are confusing two issues: analog and digital. A USB microphone and its associated internal hardware converts the sound energy into a digital signal, which is sent in digital form over the USB cable to the computer. It is not possible that hiss is added to the signal after it is in digital form unless the audio is converted back to analog form and passed through some sort of signal processing. This is not going to happen through a USB interface, or cable, or port. Any hiss has to be added to the signal either at the microphone, or someplace in the internal circuity in the microphone and signal processing hardware that creates the USB data.
It’s quite possible that there is something wrong with your USB microphone; it could be damaged, or defective. But it’s really not possible for audio hiss problems to be created elsewhere.
it’s really not possible for audio hiss problems to be created elsewhere.
Yes, they can be created elsewhere, just not introduced elsewhere.
There is a thing I called The Yeti Curse, where a poorly regulated or noisy five volts in the USB cable leaks into the microphone analog preamplifier causing Frying Mosquitoes. There’s nothing to stop it. The basic Yeti has no power supply filtering. None of the lower-end USB microphones do.
http://kozco.com/tech/audacity/clips/FryingMosquitoes3.mp3
There’s nothing wrong with the microphone (apart from cheap design). A computer defect is introducing noise in the MicPre.
Pure preamp rain-in-the-trees hiss does not have multiple sharp peaks in its frequency run. That is a condition where the digital is getting into the analog.
Koz
Thanks, that’s very interesting and helpful.