Audacity Forum

OS: Windows 10 64bit
Microphone: Trust Starzz microphone http://www.trust.com/en/product/16973-starzz-microphone
(this microphone is not very known, but for the price the quality is perfect and i have been using it for a few years without problem)

(sorry for my bad english, i am not from english speaking country)

Hi,
for a few months i am fighting a very strange and very serious problem for me while using audacity to record audio (voice) with my microphone. When i am recording, apart from the expected and normal background noise, there is very strange and very loud buzzing noise. You can "repair" it a little bit with noise removal function, but it ruins the quality and you cannot rid of it completely. I attached short audio clip of it in the post (its unedited, without background noise removal. You can clearly hear the classic background noise which can be removed without problems, but also you can here very loud buzzing / squeeking sound (i dont know how to describe it properly in english).
Main problem is, that i have no idea why is it happening. Weird thing is, that it happens like 19 of 20 times. I can start the recording, stop it quickly to listen to it, there is buzzing, i can start new recording right after that, buzzing is still there, then again new recording and suddenly its not there. So i start new recordind in hopes it will be ok and i can finally start recording for real but its there again.
Thank you for any helps and responses, its killing me.

It is only a standard computer mic that will pick up all noises close to the motherboard. Professionals would be inclined to use a mic with an XLR connector in a USB interface or with a USB mic pre-amplifier, unless their computer has a proper stereo line-in in which case they might connect the mic to a non-USB mixer and connect the mixer to line-in.

If this mic did not make that noise before, consider what changed on your computer just before the noise started. If the noise started after you upgraded to Windows 10, go to the web site of your computer or motherboard manufacturer and install the latest Windows 10 audio drivers intended for your specific computer or motherboard.

If that does not help, you "might" get better results by turning off boost for the mic in Windows Sound.


Gale

That's the problem, because it startet happening even before upgrading to WIN 10 on WIN7, drivers are newest, i tried reinstalling them. Nothing in my PC changed, no matter how hard i try to think what might be causing this, i don't know. And can you be more specific with the boost disabling? I didn't find anything about boost in the link you provided. What is the boost, how can i disable it and what will it cause? thank you.

If you have installed new software that runs all the time and makes the computer work harder, that could be enough to cause the noise.

Conversely on some machines when the CPU is working at full speed, it is silent, but when the workload is lower, the CPU goes into power-saving mode and that mode creates the noise. This is quite likely on a laptop or netbook. In that case you may have to look at Power settings or BIOS/UEFI settings. Search online for similar problems for whatever make and model of computer you have.

You may actually need to spend money on a new microphone.

If you want to check for the mic boost, right-click over the speaker icon by the system clock, then choose "Recording Devices". Right-click over the the external mic (or however it is described) and choose "Properties".

Look at all the tabs. The mic boost may be called "Gain" or "Boost" and it may be on the "Levels" tab or the "Advanced" tab. If it is in the Levels tab it might be behind an "Advanced" button.

On the Advanced tab, disable all the effects and enhancements.


Gale

I've got quite powerful PC and i've tried recording while PC was "idle" with very low or almost none usage of CPU or GPU and it was buzzing, i tried recording with very demanding game running, but it was still buzzing.
I have been thinking on getting more expensive mic, but the thing is that this mic used to run perfectly and i have no guarantee that the new expensive mic won't have the same problem i have now so i cannot risk it.
As for the boost, that is another very weird thing - i have nothing like that in properties of the mic. On the levels tab, there is only volume and nothing else. There is not even the advanced tab. There "specifics" tab, where i can set in what bits and Hz the recording will happen but nothing about boost.
One other thing that i forgot to mention. When i was buying the mic few years back, it was recommended to me, to buy usb dongle external sound card, that its supposed to work better with it. And to my surprise it did. The mic is not usb by itself, it has jack, but you put the jack to the usb dongle and then the usb dongle to usb port on the back of the PC. I tried connecting the mic to the PC directly to try if the usb dongle sound card is not causing this somehow, but then the mic is not working at all. Its there, PC see it, but it doesnt record anything. (i tripple checked to see if its selected as primary device, if drivers are newest etc)
Perhaps something there is weird? But how would anything like that cause buzzing sounds?

Sorry for bothering you so much, i know i ask a lot of questions, but if i am recording a lot of voice with the microphone (youtube purposes), what mic would you recommend? Something that has very clear and quality sound and is not causing any buzzing or weird noises. (BTW what is better? usb mics? or mics with jack? or the mics that are somehow connected to the PC with the XLR connector through some amplifier? Is it difficult to set up?

Molda22 wrote:When i was buying the mic few years back, it was recommended to me, to buy usb dongle external sound card, that its supposed to work better with it. And to my surprise it did.

I would expect that to be less noisy in theory, because you are using a USB sound device rather than a sound device inside the computer which is close to sources of mechanical and electronic noise.

Molda22 wrote:The mic is not usb by itself, it has jack, but you put the jack to the usb dongle and then the usb dongle to usb port on the back of the PC. I tried connecting the mic to the PC directly to try if the usb dongle sound card is not causing this somehow, but then the mic is not working at all. Its there, PC see it, but it doesnt record anything. (i tripple checked to see if its selected as primary device, if drivers are newest etc)

Have you tried restarting Audacity and explicitly selecting the external mic as recording device, not Primary Sound Capture Driver or Sound Mapper - Input?

And if you are choosing Windows DirectSound host in Audacity (to left of where you choose Recording Device) you could try MME or WASAPI instead. MME should be the most compatible.

And you could try another USB port. Connect to an empty USB port. Do not use a computer USB hub.

Assuming your computer only has a mic port and no proper stereo line-in, an XLR mic would have to connect to a USB interface, USB mixer or USB mic pre-amplifier. You would have to buy the mic and the interface. It may not help if your USB ports have become noisy for some reason. I was assuming your posted noise sample was from connecting the mic to the computer using the mic's 1/8 inch plug.


Gale

I don't hear a loud buzzing, squeaking sound in your sample. I hear normal microphone rain-in-the-trees pink noise shshshshshsh and maybe a very, very tiny crickets at night sound that I might miss if I wasn't listening for it.

Do you get the noise if you play the sample on a different computer or music player?

Koz

It's a mono microphone , but the noise not the same on each channel :
there's a ~5kHz tone on the left channel and a ~15kHz [harmonic] on the right ...
Disable all other recording devices, other than the mic, just-in-case an unused recording device is responsible for the stereo noise.

Things to try in Audacity preferences ...
Set Audacity to record in mono not stereo.
Change the sample rate from 48000Hz to 44100Hz.

there's a ~5kHz tone on the left channel and a ~15kHz [harmonic] on the right ...

Correct, but they're very low level you could go a long time before you even notice them. Neither of those is the loud buzzing noise in the complaint.

Koz

kozikowski wrote:

there's a ~5kHz tone on the left channel and a ~15kHz [harmonic] on the right ...

Correct, but they're very low level you could go a long time before you even notice them. Neither of those is the loud buzzing noise in the complaint.

If I crank up the volume I can hear the ~5kHz noise : it's similar to FM-radio interference ...