click noises between takes [Solved]

[zoumerela]

Hey everybody, I noticed some very unpleasant noises between my takes. I use a noiseless mouse and keyboard. What is this, why is it caused?
Thanks!

[Trebor]

Hey everybody, I noticed some very unpleasant noises between my takes.
I use a noiseless mouse and keyboard. What is this, why is it caused?

Its rate-of-change is too quick to be an acoustic click, (like a creaky chair).
IMO It's something electrical, like a sudden electrical discharge within the microphone or A/D circuitry .

IMO-electrical.png (22.93 KiB) Viewed 414 times

[zoumerela]

Trebor, please save my life mate. How do I fix it? It occurs each time I hit record.

[steve]

I agree with Trebor that the problem appears to be electrical - probably either your microphone or sound card. I don't think you will be able to avoid this problem (other than by upgrading your hardware), but it can be fixed manually.

Fortunately, the click is visible, so probably the quickest way to manually fix the problem is to select the area containing the click, like this:

clicks.png (12.54 KiB) Viewed 395 times

Then press the "Z" key on your keyboard (see: https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/sel ... sings.html)

Then press the "Del" key to delete the damaged section.

If there is still a slight click (probably won't be, but if there is), then you can apply the "Repair" effect across the edited region. See: https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/repair.html

[Trebor]

Having listened to it again I can hear slight digital-artefacts: some sort of processing has gone on.
If you have real-time noise-reduction / echo-reduction enabled in Windows, try turning them off,
(a long-shot, but worth a try).
Such enhancements are in the Windows-audio recording-tab, see ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxnUjiGgBaI

[zoumerela]

Hello everybody, thank you so much for your help, I really appreciate it.
I tried 2 different mics - a plug in USB mic and an XLR mic with audio interface, also 2 different ports, different USB cables and I do get that sound when I hit record. My laptop is not on battery. I also disabled windows sound enhancements. No result. So I am looking at the option of manually correcting this, but is there a shortcut to manually correct all these mistakes at once, instead of marking each individual one? They occur whenever I hit record, so they are exactly on the split line. Like is there a way to select all split lines and apply some miliseconds of silence on them?
Thank you so much!

[kozikowski]

My laptop is not on battery.

Does it still do it if it is?

Like is there a way to select all split lines and apply some miliseconds of silence on them?

One at a time.

Drag-select the damage > Edit > Remove Special > Silence Audio. There is a shortcut key. Control+L on Windows??

Silence Audio has the benefit that it doesn't change the length of the show.

Has it always done this, like from the first day you started production? Not all computers lend themselves to video or audio production.

Koz

[kozikowski]

audio interface

What's the interface?

As above, it's an electrical event followed by what looks like an analog sound system recovering. That has to be happening before the digital conversion. Digital errors are much more crazy and dramatic, such as sudden spikes up to 100%.

What's the computer?

I bet the interface is powered from the computer, right? There's no interface batteries or plugging into the wall?

The clicks are slightly wrong for a disturbance and recovery, but they're exactly right for the laptop turning the USB on and off and the microphone or interface is making turning-on noises. Anything you plug into the USB connections will probably make those noises and I don't know of any way to stop it.

I really want to know if you can run on batteries. There was a guy at work whose batteries were so broken that he had no choice but to run from the wall power. He had odd problems like yours.

There is also the possibility your computer has a super efficiency mode where it turns off things as it thinks you're not using them. This might kill the USB service while you're not recording. Consult your instructions or any on-line info about your laptop.

If you can't fix any of that or change an adjustment, then this laptop is not good for recording your shows.

Koz

[kozikowski]

This noise is the illustration. See the sharp, spiky disturbance is over on the left, but most of the noise doesn't happen until a fraction of a second later.

Screen Shot 2019-09-24 at 8.28.28.png (19.37 KiB) Viewed 374 times

That's the noise a microphone might make if you just plugged it in (or just turned on the USB service—or changed the USB service). The USB isn't supposed to change at all while you're using it. I think yours is changing.

Koz

[zoumerela]

@kozikowski Thank you sooooooooooooo much for the detailed answer! You gave me an amazing idea when you said that my laptop is doing this because of turning the usb service on and off. So instead of hitting record and stop, record and stop and so on I just hit record once and then I hit pause between my phrases, so that the mic would be on all the time, and i got rid of the annoying sounds. It is just a workaround but hey, why not?

The interface is a Focusrite Scarlet Solo 2nd generation and the laptop is an ASUS UX303. I wrote to both those manufacturers today and await response from their support, but I don't suppose they will help so much like you did. Yes, the interface is directly plugged to the USB port of the PC.

Thanks again mate!