Noise reduction for hiss - is there a solution?

[orgelquaeler]

I'm not quite up there when it comes to recording myself. I just know that setup worked for me. You can get a Presonus PreAmp on Ebay pretty cheap. It has both 1/8' and 3 prong XLR jacks for input and output. umm...just don't try to outbid me for the one I'm trying to get now...

[steve]

If the mike is generating noise on its own, how would a preamp prevent that, or somehow take that noise out? I could understand that with a passive mike, but not a condenser mike. And that won't work with my Samson C01U because the connectors just aren't there, right?

No you can't use that solution with the CO1U - as you say, the connections just aren't there.

A good Pre-amp can make a very big difference to both passive (dynamic) and condenser microphones. When using a cheap low quality pre-amp, most of the noise comes from the pre-amp, rather than from the microphone itself.

Dynamic microphones have virtually zero self-noise, unless they are inadequately shielded and pick up electromagnetic interference.

Condenser (and electret) microphones always have some degree of self noise due to the active components. The self noise of these microphones can be made much worse by incorrect loading of the microphone output, and poor quality (noisy) supply current.

A high quality microphone pre-amp will itself have low noise and low distortion, and will also provide optimal loading for the microphone output, a good condition (noise free) supply current for condenser microphones, and a suitable drive current for a line level input.

The laptop was showing baseline noise at -40. Computer #2 running Audacity 1.2.6 on Win XP shows baseline noise at -40. Computer #3 running Audacity 1.2.6 on Win Vista is a little better at -43. All measurements are across the room and under a towel.

This is very poor.
Even with a cheap computer microphone plugged into the microphone input of a cheap sound card I get a noise level of just a little better than -44dB.
With my Zoom H2 I get better than 60dB, and most of that noise is from my computer fan.

I would say that either the noise is coming from somewhere else, or it is a bad microphone.

EDIT:
I found this (from Samson) on the internet:

... the C01U has a high-quality, low-noise internal analog mic preamplifier. That's the only hardware gain stage, since the C01U is set as the input device in the Sound control panel, and no other hardware input is active.
I think that ultimately it's best to use the C01U applet for the hardware gain control. Then, use it with the input control of the recording application so you're only dealing with two controls. Plus, you have the advantage of the C01U applet's input meter for setting a good level.

Also, this (from http://reviews.harmony-central.com/revi ... /C01U/10/1 )

.... Make sure you use the 'Samson C01U' -tool properly to increase the gain on build-in pre-amp for low level stuff. You might think "Duhhh! ". Just don't think the normalization will take care of the gain later.
It will give you noise. (other microphones & digital interfaces WILL let you get away with normalization later)