Squeaking noise randomly appearing in recording

[Gale Andrews]

It's a mono microphone , but the noise not the same on each channel : [...]Set Audacity to record in mono not stereo

I assume the mic port is one of these "compatible" stereo inputs. Setting Audacity to record in mono might help. Setting the mic to mono on that "Specifics" tab which has Hz settings might help too.

Is there a "Listen" tab when you right-click over the mic or the USB dongle in Windows Sound and choose Properties? On that tab you can enable "Listen" and make the device play through the computer speakers. Make sure Listen is turned off for both mic and dongle, as well as disabling other recording devices as Trebor suggested.

Was that sample from the mic when it was connected to the USB dongle?


Gale

[kozikowski]

I think this is a good time for a voice test. Noise in isolation doesn't tell us anything.
Koz

[kozikowski]

The noise in the posted clip doesn't rise to disaster level and I'm betting it's perfectly normal. I think this is where we find it's a playback problem.

The other more remote possibility is the microphone is misadjusted or broken and the performance is the same very low volume as the tiny noise. The microphone will need to be fixed.

A sound sample will tell us which direction to go.

Koz

[Molda22]

Kozikowski: i don't want to be rude, and i do aprreciate all help and comment, but i've played the buzzing sound to a number of people and they hear it very clearly and they confirm its a quite loud buzzing noise so if you say you don't hear anything or just some "tiny" sound, perhaps something could be wrong with your speakers or headphones.

Anyway, i have read all the tips and suggestions - a disabled every other recording device that i found and left only the specific mic enabled and set as main. It didnt help. I tried changing the audio host in audacity to wasapi (i had it set to MME) and it also didnt help. I tried to lower the rate to 44100 Hz - didn't help. I checked the "listen" tab and it is correctly ticked off.
However, i tried playing with all of this, and when i set the rate of the mic in windows to 48000 Hz and then also in audacity - it looks like the buzzing stopped. The backround noise is quite stronger (i cannot describe it better without knowing proper english) but after i clean it with noise removal, the resulting recording sounds pretty ok because the noise removal seems to handle the background noise well enough when the buzz is not present (even though the backgound noise now is weirdly strong and loud)

[kozikowski]

a number of people and they hear it very clearly and they confirm its a quite loud buzzing noise

Then we're even. Forum elves agree with me that there is a very, very thin background sound other than the gentle rushing (ocean surf, rain) sound probably made by the microphone. No buzz.

the backgound noise now is weirdly strong and loud

Then there's still something wrong. A change from 44100 to 48000 (Audio CD quality to Video quality) should not make the background hiss or noise level change. If the microphone is not OK with the two numbers, one of them usually just stops working.

I still wouldn't mind hearing an actual voice test posted. We can only do limited diagnostics when the posted sound sample has only noise.

This is the process for a forum posting. It's the same as an audiobook test.

http://www.kozco.com/tech/audacity/Test ... _Clip.html

As it says in the instructions, make the recording (anything between ten and twenty seconds will work), export WAV and post it with no effects, filters or other changes.

Koz

[Molda22]

I was testing everything again the whole morning and results are chaos. For a while, best results were with both audacity and windows set to 48000 Hz 16bit, no buzz at all, just background noise that was easily removed and then it was very clear. But then the buzzing was there again even with that settings and no changes to anything inside or outside my pc, i don't know anymore.

You can hear the squeeking/buzzing better with headphones of course when the sound gets directly to your ear.

I did the test recording as you said and it is in the attachement.

I think that when you record silence, there should be silence after you remove the normal background noise. And some time ago, i was getting that result. Now the buzzing is there, i can hear it, i can reduce it with heavier noise removal, but this will destroy the voice quality overall, or i can do just normal noise removal and the buzzing will still be there.

I guess we all hear little bit differently because when i asked my father, he didnt here any buzzing or squeeking, but then i asked my fiancee and she could hear it very clearly, same as my friend. Some may not hear it at all, some may not hear it well, but some will hear it and it bothers me because i want good quality.

One final question - my video recording is in stereo and after testing it seems that when i record my voice in mono, its little bit better and the buzzing is less of a problem. So if video recording is in stereo and i add audio (my voice recorded with audacity) in mono, can it cause some problems? some quality problems, syncing problems etc?
Once again thanks to everyone.

[Trebor]

Attachments buzz-test1.wav (1.86 MiB) Not downloaded yet

There is a faint constant 50Hz buzz on that ...

waveform & spectrogram of ''buzz-test1'' before-after.png (210.55 KiB) Viewed 516 times

50Hz buzz is from mains electricity, it can be intermittent : depending on the location of the microphone-wire & the position of your body.
The 50Hz constant tone can be quickly removed with Audacity's notch filter.

IMO the most objectionable thing about "buzz-test1" is not the buzz, but the lack of bass ...

''buzz-test1'' before-after.flac

"after" has Bass-Boost equalization , DeEssing & NoiseReduction

(1.1 MiB) Downloaded 26 times

[Gale Andrews]

I can only hear the buzzing (in speakers) at lower than reasonable volume. Otherwise the hissing noise overpowers the buzz.

One final question - my video recording is in stereo and after testing it seems that when i record my voice in mono, its little bit better and the buzzing is less of a problem. So if video recording is in stereo and i add audio (my voice recorded with audacity) in mono, can it cause some problems? some quality problems, syncing problems etc?
Once again thanks to everyone.

It should not be a problem because mono should play equally out of left and right channels.

If it is a problem, Edit > Duplicate the track then click in the track name in the upper track and choose "Make Stereo Track".


Gale

[kozikowski]

I'm not sure where to go with this.

Yes, there is some very low volume 50Hz power hum in there (and 100 as well), and I can hear some very low volume data noises, but all of those sounds are lower volume than the normal microphone hiss ffffffffffff. Your voice is not permanently damaged because of loud noises in the performance. It takes a bit of work, but I think I can create a good quality, ACX AudioBook compliant reading out of your clip. So no, we're not hearing the same things you are.

Ummmmmmm.............

Between the odd, moving symptoms, shifting listening reports and conflicting opinions, you're close to the end of what we can do from multiple time zones away..

I'm pretty sure you have more than one problem.

Post another clip very similar to the first one (which was perfect) that you think has no buzz damage. Let's try it that way.

Koz

[kozikowski]

There is a medical joke called a doorknob moment. The patient makes it through an entire consultation and with his hand on the door knob to go turns and as an afterthought says something that completely changes everything that happened in the meeting.

You have a technical distortion in the sound clip. This happened twice now and it's not normal. Attached, I amplified the clip as much as possible without distortion. That's the first half-second. That elevated blue wave at the far left is not normal. It's a tiny pop at the beginning of the clip.

That's not supposed to be there. There's also a little blue blob of something at .073 and that's not supposed to be there, either. That area of the clip is supposed to be pure, simple room noise. They might be symptoms of an unstable microphone system.

Koz