Audacity Forum

I have a Samson C01u USB condenser mic and want to do voice recording to the computer. I want better quality sound so I was looking at the Yamaha audiogram 3. However, it doesn't look like there's a slot to connect the USB Samson c01u to the yamaha audiogram 3. Is this right?

The Samson C01-u is a stand-alone USB microphone. It doesn't need a mixer, mic-pre, amplifier or anything else. The Yamaha is an analog mixer looking for an analog microphone.

In Audacity, you could record from the microphone or the mixer, not easily both, and you can't plug the microphone into the mixer.

Koz

The Samson is not a dreadful microphone. What are you trying to fix? Be specific.

Koz

kozikowski wrote:The Samson is not a dreadful microphone. What are you trying to fix? Be specific.

Koz

I can hear hissy noises in the background.

neorock wrote: it doesn't look like there's a slot to connect the USB Samson c01u to the yamaha audiogram 3. Is this right?

Yes that is correct.
USB microphones are "all in one" devices - they include their own mic pre-amp, analog to digital converter, and USB interface to the computer. You can't use them with a separate mic pre-amp or mixer.

(I have seen one "hybrid" microphone that has both a USB connector and a conventional 3 pin "XLR" connector so that you can use it either as an all-in-one USB mic or as a conventional mic with a separate mic pre-amp. However, that mic is extremely unusual).

neorock wrote:I can hear hissy noises in the background.

ALL microphones have some amount of hiss. If you are getting an excessive amount of hiss from the Samson CO1U microphone you are probably too far away from it, or talking into the wrong part of the mic. Note that with the CO1U microphone you should talk into the side of the microphone head, not into the end of the microphone.

Was there a software package or driver software that you can get for that microphone? Many live performances need a volume adjustment somewhere and USB microphones, unless you got really lucky, don't have any. As above, you can't plug USB microphones into anything but a computer, but there's a possibility that Samson provided some of those missing volume controls as a software package. I was surprised when some of my old, comfortable USB devices do have extra software that I can use to change volumes. I would have told you it was impossible.

Did you try to record your acoustic guitar from across the room? Most USB microphones won't do that. They're designed for close speaking in a loud clear voice.

If the sound is too loud, it's possible that the digital sound system will overload and that is fatal. It sounds awful and there is no recovery later. You're dead. So most USB microphones record a little on the weak side to prevent overload. That usually puts you in direct competition with the microphone's natural hiss noise. Hiss on a USB microphone is very common, and it's difficult to get rid of in post production. Don't, for one example, fall in love with Effect > Noise Removal.

USB microphones do not expand well. Your choices are use them or put them in a box in your sock drawer. It's very difficult to combine two or more and you can't plug them into an analog or most mixers.

Analog microphones when connected to a good analog mixer have adjustments to prevent hiss and volume problems. That's what they do. You do need to be careful not to scrape the bottom when you're buying better equipment. The Yamaha Audiogram 3 is the smallest device I've ever seen that will do most of the "mixer" jobs. The only reason it qualifies as a "mixer" is because it will mix one single microphone with a different analog source such as a cassette machine. It will not mix two microphones together, and because it's so aggressively simple (not bad, just simple), it is possible you're still going to run out of volume controls and have a hissy show.

What's the show? What are you trying to record? We can usually suggest general solutions to many recording problems, but there is no such thing as a "simple" recording job. The two longest running forum message threads are one trying to record his classic acoustic guitar and the other trying to record his voice. Please understand that both of these posters were trying to produce professional results (Ian just passed his first paid gig), so they weren't just recording game play or quicky blogs.

Koz

steve wrote:ALL microphones have some amount of hiss. If you are getting an excessive amount of hiss from the Samson CO1U microphone you are probably too far away from it, or talking into the wrong part of the mic. Note that with the CO1U microphone you should talk into the side of the microphone head, not into the end of the microphone.

I am using it correctly, but still get hissing noises.

kozikowski wrote:
What's the show? What are you trying to record? We can usually suggest general solutions to many recording problems, but there is no such thing as a "simple" recording job. The two longest running forum message threads are one trying to record his classic acoustic guitar and the other trying to record his voice. Please understand that both of these posters were trying to produce professional results (Ian just passed his first paid gig), so they weren't just recording game play or quicky blogs.

Koz

I'm trying to record a voice over on the computer. I've used Adobe Audition's noise reduction to get rid of the hissing sounds in the background but sometimes I ended up echos in the voices.

neorock wrote:I am using it correctly, but still get hissing noises.

Please post a short audio sample to demonstrate the problem. We may be able to identify where the problem lies if we can see/hear it.
The audio sample should be about 5 seconds long and include a few seconds of "silence" (noise only) and a few seconds of speech. It needs to be in WAV or FLAC format (compressed formats such as MP3 do things to the sound that can make it impossible to tell what the problem is).

See here for how to post an audio sample: http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... 49&t=72887

Also, please tell us what operating system you are using (for example, Windows 7 Home Edition), and the exact version of Audacity (for example: "Audacity 2.0.3"). The Audacity version can be found in the Help menu > "About Audacity".

There is one other possibility that will clear itself when you post a sample of the noise. Is it "frying mosquitoes" rather than rain in the trees hiss? That's very different. That's coming from the computer, not the microphone.

Koz