RECORDING LOW BACKGROUND MUSIC W/ VOICE

[cosmiclight22]

Thank you for your valuable advises, thanks so much!!!
At least the pop filter works !!! Yeah! I am making progress!!

OK, as agreed I am attaching the file (that is the least the forum allows me to upload)
when you listen to it, as you can see, if you just leave the volume as it is, it sounds great, but the moment you turn the volume up (either in Media Player or other) then the vibrations and background noise shows up
I did some NOISE REMOVAL but there was not much difference

I asked a person who works in a music store if I maybe should need to get another microphone, he told me that maybe I could get an audio interface instead, considering that my Samson is also an XLR mic, and can be connected to an interface through the XLR cable, so in that way I could bypass the limited PC sound card, that he thinks might be causing the ground noise that I hear only when I higher the volume ,
he said that-- most of simple consumer-based built-in soundcards are not even close to a decent noise floor of 80 or 90dB, --and as there is so little dynamics when the noise floor is low then my voice gets buried in the noise, and so by then amplifying the sound file either via a simple overall-gain tool or using the Amplify feature, I am also amplifying all the noise.
Does that makes sense to you?---Do you think that that is what may be causing the white noise and that by buying an interface it can help?
He suggested either Presonous or this M Audio fast track
Would you be able to tell me after you listen to my file if you also think that that might be my problem and if I should buy also an audio interface?

in reply to your other advises, When you say :
“In the Amplify dialog http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/Amplify do you have "Allow Clipping" checked? If so, the "noise" you are hearing could be clipping distortion.”

No I did not have the ALLOW CLIPPINGS” checked, so this noise it must be depending on something else.

About you asking me if the recording volume maybe being too low?--, I put it at around just the middle, if I move the slider farther, then the clippings appear, so I am guessing the recording volume is set about right?

And about your question how I turn the volume up:
I use only --always the volume on the upper part of Audacity windows, to adjust the recording --or playback volume before I record, ---I never use the gain slider in the track, but I do turn up that gain slider in the track a little bit, yes, only when I listen back to the recording, is it wrong? Should I never use that, not even when I play the file back?

Thanks in advance for your advises
Anna

[billw58]

I was able to get good results applying the Noise Removal effect to your sample.

1) Remove loud click at the start
2) Effect > Amplify and accept default settings: +19.2 dB
3) Select from 2.12 to 2.83 seconds (approximately)
4) Effect > Noise Removal then "Get Noise Profile"
5) Select entire track
6) Effect > Noise Removal with
- Noise Reduction 15 dB
- Sensitivity 0 dB
- Frequency Smoothing 150
- Attack/Decay time 0.15
- Noise: Remove

The fact that I could apply 19.2 dB of Amplification says to me that you are recording too low. Speak louder and/or move closer to the microphone. Turning up the recording volume will not help since you will also be turning up the noise. I also don't understand how you can get clipping when you are recording 19 dB below maximum.

How are you connecting the microphone to your computer? With a USB cable or with an XLR-to-mini adapter cable? If the latter, then that could explain the hum you are hearing. If you are using a USB connection then I am at a loss to explain the hum.

Without actually trying it out it is impossible to say whether an external audio interface would improve the noise situation. Would the music store let you try one out and return it if it didn't help?

-- Bill

[cosmiclight22]

Thanks again
OK I will do the noise removal again, following exactly the steps you enclosed for me (that is awesome, thanks for listing all steps)
and see if I can hear how it sounds and if it sounds better

After the noise removal, were you able to higher the volume or add gain, without hearing that static noise anymore?
Is the file that is attached to my post-- the one you modified-- or is it the original I sent you?

Yes I think you were right
I actually just recorded another file and I moved the mic volume slider a little after the middle, and this time was a little better,

No I am using the USB port to connect my mic to my PC (it has both options)
but by using the USB port, the mic, due to the fact that it combines mic/preamp/sound card into one unit, it does not allow me to use my computer's sound card -while using the USB port, the mic takes over everything, I tried but I cannot bypass it

In Windows XP I could manage to avoid this, but with W 7, the Samson mic takes over, I cannot find a way to avoid that, and so, maybe if I try to connect the XLR cable to and Audio Interface, and then the interface to the PC, then I do not have to use Samson inbuilt sound card and preamp, so maybe that might help??? I do not know if that makes sense to you?

I know it is hard to say, unless I tried, i just wanted to know if you guys, being familiar with recording things, had heard of similar cases and if audio interfaces usually are found to be helpful

Yes I think I can go to Bestbuy and try it out instead than going to his music store
I ll do the noise removal first

Thanks again for your valuable help
Anna

[solanus]

Royalty free does not necessarily mean totally free, but that you can use it without incurring usage fees or having to pay a percentage to the author.
A good source of royalty free background music is Melody Loops dot com:
[Link removed by moderator]
LOTS of styles of original music.
You have to pay a nominal up-front fee for a piece of music (generally $6.99, but they are having a sale right now), and you can use it as many times as you wish. They even have a utility to loop your music into seamless mp3s of up to 59 minutes long.
I used it for an instructional video, quite nice.

[steve]

Royalty free does not necessarily mean totally free, but that you can use it without incurring usage fees or having to pay a percentage to the author.
A good source of royalty free background music is Melody Loops dot com:
[Link removed by moderator]
LOTS of styles of original music.
You have to pay a nominal up-front fee for a piece of music (generally $6.99, but they are having a sale right now), and you can use it as many times as you wish. They even have a utility to loop your music into seamless mp3s of up to 59 minutes long.
I used it for an instructional video, quite nice.

I fail to see how that is related in any way to the topic being discussed here.
It appears to be an unrelated post that has the only purpose of advertising melody loops dot com.
This forum has zero tolerance for spam, which includes all unsolicited advertising.

[cosmiclight22]

Bill, thank you for the instructions

I am trying to apply the exact steps that you recommend to remove the noise from the file I sent you
I am having hard time to apply though only these 3 steps below, the rest is a piece of cake, (thank to your detailed instructions)

1) When you say:
Effect > Amplify and accept default settings: +19.2 dB

where exactly do I go to "accept the default settings of 19.2 dB"?

are you referring to the Amplification value box in the Amplify little window that opens up when I click on Amplify?
If so, I have tried to do that, but the OK button becomes inactive when I type 19.2, so i cannot click OK to apply that value!
The only way to apply that value of 19.2 dB in that window, is to click also on the option "Allow Clippings"
Do you want me to allow clippings in this case so i can leave the 19.2 dB? or is there another way/place where to apply this option

2) The other step is: when you say :
Select from 2.12 to 2.83 seconds (approximately)
Where do I go to do that, in Audacity? in the Amplification window I could not see no place where I could type these figures, , where else can I apply these 2.12 seconds ?

3) then, I still have not figured out how i do get the noise profile before I apply the noise removal,
---do i have to select a piece of the file first?
then go to EFFECTS>NOISE REMOVAL>click on> GET NOISE PROFILE?

then close the noise removal window,
then select the whole track and... then again go to Effect>noise removal , and this time click ok to apply it?

Or....does Audacity automatically get the noise profile once I click on that feature?

and last, I want to find out if you, after applying the noise removal to that short file I sent you, did you triyto turn up the volume, and if you did, could you still hear the static noise or was it gone?
If you do not remember, then do not worry

Thanks a lot
Anna

[billw58]

Sorry, I should have been clearer

1) Remove loud click at the start
There is a loud click in the first fraction of a second on your sample. You should select that and then click on Edit > Delete. Otherwise you will not be able to amplify by 19.2 dB.
2) Effect > Amplify and accept default settings: will probably be +19.2 dB; click OK to apply the Amplify effect
- you are now back at the main Audacity project window.
3) Select from 2.12 to 2.83 seconds (approximately)
- this is the noise profile we are going to use. You select it before you do Effect > Noise removal.
4) Effect > Noise Removal then click "Get Noise Profile"
- the Noise Removal dialog has now captured the noise profile you selected in step 3, and the dialog goes away.
5) Select entire track
- how have now selected the portion of the audio you want to remove noise from, in this case the entire track.
6) Effect > Noise Removal with
- Noise Reduction 15 dB
- Sensitivity 0 dB
- Frequency Smoothing 150
- Attack/Decay time 0.15
- Noise: Remove
- click OK

After I applied these steps the hum and hiss were greatly reduced. But as I said before, recording louder to begin with will be a big help. Don't just turn up the recording level slider - speaker louder and/or closer to the microphone.

-- Bill

[solanus]

Royalty free does not necessarily mean totally free, but that you can use it without incurring usage fees or having to pay a percentage to the author.
A good source of royalty free background music is Melody Loops dot com:
[Link removed by moderator]
LOTS of styles of original music.
You have to pay a nominal up-front fee for a piece of music (generally $6.99, but they are having a sale right now), and you can use it as many times as you wish. They even have a utility to loop your music into seamless mp3s of up to 59 minutes long.
I used it for an instructional video, quite nice.

I fail to see how that is related in any way to the topic being discussed here.
It appears to be an unrelated post that has the only purpose of advertising melody loops dot com.
This forum has zero tolerance for spam, which includes all unsolicited advertising.

Sorry Steve,
I was replying to a post on the first page of this thread
http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... 96#p115918
where cosmiclight22 was asking for places to find royalty free music.
Specifically the post asked "So i was wondering if anybody here knows where online I could find legitimate royalty free sound files to download, and to use, I am not talking about famous sound track, but something original, that can be used without doing anything illegal".
I thought that I was giving an appropriate response to that request, so it's not exactly unsolicited.
However, if you'd like, I will refrain from referring people to other sites in the future.

[steve]

No problem solanus,
we get a constant bombardment of spam to this forum so we have to be quite strict and vigilant in order to keep this as a pleasant and useful corner of cyberspace.
We don't mind genuine recommendations for products or services where they are relevant to the discussion, even for non-free commercial products, but we do need to be careful. It's not unknown for spammers to post a question, then reply to it with their spam, and obviously we don't want that. In the case of royalty free music, there are a lot of competing commercial companies offering a very similar service, making it difficult to justify why to recommend one particular company over the others. On the whole we prefer to recommend open-source solutions.

I see the question to which you responding (8th post in this topic - December 7th 2010). When posting a response to a specific point in a long topic like this it can be helpful to include a quote from the original post.

[solanus]

Yeah, I didn't realize how old that post was until too late
I'll follow your recommendations from now on.