Audacity Forum

Thanks again for the information, I really appreciate it
I will test the system tonight and update what I find.

Thanks!

Stuart

Okay this odd. I tried setting up my Art usb preamp with my old (5 years) Dell with windows xp. I download audacity beta 1.3 and the sound seems much cleaner but I have to get fairly close to the microphone for a good level. (Is that the right word?)

The start of this soundbite does not have the noise that my new dell win 7 laptop has(listen to earlier post)....so now I have to figure out what is interfering with the program. I don't think it is emi but maybe a really cheap soundcard on my laptop? (I tried the laptop in the kitchen with no electronic devices around)

My laptop has something called IDT HD sound but I'm not sure if that is the problem..

Thanks again for all the help! I will keep playing with the system. (I would rather have it working on my new laptop.)

Stuart

tallbridgeguy wrote: I download audacity beta 1.3 and the sound seems much cleaner but I have to get fairly close to the microphone for a good level. (Is that the right word?)

Yes that's a lot cleaner. There's still some hiss (as expected), but it doesn't have those spikes that the first recoding had.
I'm not surprised that you need to get close to the microphone to get a good recording level - this type of microphone is designed to use up close. At some point in the future you may want to upgrade the microphone for one that is a bit more sensitive, but the Behringer mic should do OK for now.

I doubt that the problem is to do with the sound card in the laptop because when using a USB pre-amp, the pre-amp acts as the sound card, so the internal sound card is not used.

Did you try making a recording with the laptop in the same location as the XP machine?
If you did, did you also try running the laptop both on battery power (power supply disconnected) and running with the power supply connected?

Hi Steve thanks for the help!

Did you try making a recording with the laptop in the same location as the XP machine?
If you did, did you also try running the laptop both on battery power (power supply disconnected) and running with the power supply connected?

Yes I did everything exactly the same between the win xp 32 and the win 7 x64, including running on a battery and trying a different power supply for the Art preamp. I also have a blue snowball that I didn't really like. I just tried it on the win xp machine and it sounded good. My win 7 machine has some "noise".

Sooo...I tried all the usb ports and no change. (I am using audacity 1.3 beta for xp on the one machine and audacity 1.3 beta win 7 version on the other.)

I also have a win 7 x64 desktop and I get the same problem as the new laptop. Could win 7 x64 be the problem? Or a driver issue?

I appreciate the help!

Stuart

Do you know (or can you find out) which type of USB you have on the Win 7 machines? (USB 1, 2 or 3)

tallbridgeguy wrote:… so now I have to figure out what is interfering with the program. I don't think it is emi

The EMI could be emitted from your newer computer and picked up by the microphone and/or its cable.

Your old computer which does not cause the problem could be better shielded to prevent EMI.

You could test this hypothesis by moving the mic and its cable closer to / further from the newer computer while recording a commentary : “the mic is now X inches from the computer”.

If the noise is constant regardless of how close the mic or its cable is to the newer computer then EMI from that computer can be excluded as the source of the noise.

Trebor wrote:The EMI could be emitted from your newer computer and picked up by the microphone and/or its cable.

There is some EMI being picked up by the microphone, but I don't think that's where those spikes in the spectrum are coming from.
If you check the first recording, Stuart has recorded both left and right channels even though he only has the microphone plugged into the left channel. However, the "spiky noise" occurs on both channels.

By the way Stuart, if you set Audacity to record "1 channel (mono)" in "Edit menu > Preferences > Devices", then Audacity will just record the left input of the Art and you won't get that empty right channel and the microphone recording will play through both speakers and not just the left.

The Art Pre is well shielded and should not be picking up any EMI.
The USB cable is digital, so that won't be picking up analogue noise directly. However, noise on certain wires (pin 1 or 4, GND or VCC) in the USB cable could cause problems in the pre-amps.

Another test you could do Stuart is to make a recording with no microphones plugged in, then while you are recording, adjust the pre-amp gain from zero to max and back to zero. If the spiky buzz is constant then I think that proves that the noise is coming from the computer (the low buzz and the hiss will go up and down). If the spiky buzz goes up and down along with the noise and the low hum then it doesn't prove anything.

Stuart, do you know anything about changing BIOS settings?

By the way Stuart, if you set Audacity to record "1 channel (mono)" in "Edit menu > Preferences > Devices", then Audacity will just record the left input of the Art and you won't get that empty right channel and the microphone recording will play through both speakers and not just the left.

Thanks I will change that.(I wondered about that.)

You could test this hypothesis by moving the mic and its cable closer to / further from the newer computer while recording a commentary : “the mic is now X inches from the computer”.

I will try this after work today. I tried recording with audacity and just the Art pre amp plugged in (no microphone) and I had the "noise".

Do you know (or can you find out) which type of USB you have on the Win 7 machines? (USB 1, 2 or 3)

I will try to figure that out.

Stuart, do you know anything about changing BIOS settings?

Yes, I also just downloaded the latest recommended bios update from dell, plus an update to the audio....should I run these and try again before changing the bios?

I think the computer is the problem. Even though I have disabled all other recording devices I think there is a conflict in the sound settings.

thanks again for all the help! I know you must be getting tired of me...

Stuart

I sort of think I have this problem?

http://www.ecalpemos.org/2011/02/usb-mi ... gh-in.html

s

I don't use Win 7, but the ART website says this on the subject of using their USB devices with Win 7:

Q: I am using Windows 7 and am having trouble with my ART 2-channel USB product.
A: Unlike previous versions of Windows, Windows 7 defaults to a single channel and adds too much gain to the signal coming though USB audio devices. There are some things you will want to change in "Control Panel > Sound Settings" to get Windows 7 to work with 2-channel USB audio products.

The default setting for the input is 1-channel / 16bit/44.1K. In "Properties", change this to: 2-channel/16bit/44.1K.
Windows sets the Mic input gain very high by default, so this needs to be reset.
Use the "Configure" button in the Sound window to access the Speech Recognition section and select "Set up Microphone" and select "Other" under the input type.
Run a signal into the USB device and run the Windows 7 Speech Level Program, following the prompts.

After this, the gain levels will be appropriate, and both channels if the unit will be recognized.

http://www.artproaudio.com/default.asp? ... p_id=59#27