Phone answering machine messages to PC

[ktot]

I have a removable telephone pickup to transfer messages from my phone answering machine to Audacity. I am able to record the messages, but there's a terrible background noise, a hum. How do I get rid of that? I'm brand new to Audacity and using it only for this, so I'm certainly not expert on mixing and other sound type terminology. I just want my messages (which are clear on the answering machine) to be clearer on my PC where Audacity has recorded/copied them.

[kozikowski]

What kind of answering machine do you have and how do you have it connected to your computer? Is the computer a laptop? Can you record a short piece on laptop batteries only, no wall power, and see if the hum goes away?

Koz

[ktot]

What kind of answering machine do you have and how do you have it connected to your computer? Is the computer a laptop? Can you record a short piece on laptop batteries only, no wall power, and see if the hum goes away?

GE with built in phone (old fashioned large handset). It's a digital recorder. Laptop on battery power with the hum. Netbook, actually, to be technically correct.

Koz

[ktot]

What kind of answering machine do you have and how do you have it connected to your computer? Is the computer a laptop? Can you record a short piece on laptop batteries only, no wall power, and see if the hum goes away?

Koz

Forgot to answer one of your questions. The removable telephone pickup is what connects the two.

[kozikowski]

Let's assume a Magnetic Pickup since that's how most of these machines work. The earpiece in a telephone handset is highly magnetic and it throws off serious sound magnetic fields while it's working.

However, magnetic pickups like this also love to pick up Everything Else. Do you have fluorescent lamps in the room? How about compact fluorescent bulbs? Does it change if you turn all the lights off?

Does the hum change if you move the answering machine and and computer to another part of the room?

Get Audacity to monitor the pickup out loud and wave it around the room to see where the worst hum is. I live under city power lines and there are parts of the house I can't use for recording because of the buzz.

First Aid for this problem might be cleaning the connectors. If you have a mini stereo audio cable like this (top one)...

http://www.kozco.com/tech/audioconnecto ... ctors.html

Pull it out and clean it with alcohol-based glass cleaner, dry it and plug it back in again.

Do you have a model number for the pickup so I can look it up?

Koz

[ktot]

Let's assume a Magnetic Pickup since that's how most of these machines work. The earpiece in a telephone handset is highly magnetic and it throws off serious sound magnetic fields while it's working.

However, magnetic pickups like this also love to pick up Everything Else. Do you have fluorescent lamps in the room? How about compact fluorescent bulbs? Does it change if you turn all the lights off?

Does the hum change if you move the answering machine and and computer to another part of the room?

Get Audacity to monitor the pickup out loud and wave it around the room to see where the worst hum is. I live under city power lines and there are parts of the house I can't use for recording because of the buzz.

First Aid for this problem might be cleaning the connectors. If you have a mini stereo audio cable like this (top one)...

http://www.kozco.com/tech/audioconnecto ... ctors.html

Pull it out and clean it with alcohol-based glass cleaner, dry it and plug it back in again.

Do you have a model number for the pickup so I can look it up?

Koz

Absolutely no lights on. No other appliances anywhere near computer and recorder either (e.g., refrigerators far, far away from the room where answering machine is). Totally rural, off the grid, so no power line interference.

Search at radioshack.com with the name I gave of the pickup and you'll find it. It's the only one RS sells ($7.99 on the website).

[steve]

Totally rural, off the grid,

So where does your power come from?

Since you are using a Netbook, could you try making a recording with the pickup somewhere outside of your home (or wherever it is that you are using this). No need to use a telephone, we just want to see if the source of the hum is localised or if it is picking up the global "mains hum".

[ktot]

Totally rural, off the grid,

So where does your power come from?

Since you are using a Netbook, could you try making a recording with the pickup somewhere outside of your home (or wherever it is that you are using this). No need to use a telephone, we just want to see if the source of the hum is localised or if it is picking up the global "mains hum".

Power comes from off-grid sources, obviously. Type is irrelevant to this forum.

[steve]

It's not irrelevant if you're sitting on top of/under a generator. Neither is it irrelevant if the power is significantly non-sinusoidal as this would produce significantly greater EMI. If you can test the equipment at a totally different location then we can rule out localised EMI effects. Until we rule out that possibility there is little point looking elsewhere. If the effect IS caused by EMI and you can't get away from it when making your recordings then we need to look at managing the symptoms rather than finding a cure. If the effect is not caused by excessive EMI then it looks like you may have some faulty equipment (most likely but not definitely the pickup).

[ktot]

It's not irrelevant if you're sitting on top of/under a generator. Neither is it irrelevant if the power is significantly non-sinusoidal as this would produce significantly greater EMI. If you can test the equipment at a totally different location then we can rule out localised EMI effects. Until we rule out that possibility there is little point looking elsewhere. If the effect IS caused by EMI and you can't get away from it when making your recordings then we need to look at managing the symptoms rather than finding a cure. If the effect is not caused by excessive EMI then it looks like you may have some faulty equipment (most likely but not definitely the pickup).

Once the power is in the house, it is identical to the power you pay huge monthly bills to receive from your local power company.