USB Mic Problems

[TheRightWayne]

D'oh, forgot the attachments. I hit Preview, had to log back in, panicked a bit when I thought I lost that post, heh. Here they are:

[kozikowski]

By he way. That's a ten second clip, not ten minutes. I need somebody proofreading after me.

Koz

[kozikowski]

It's a magnitude thing. Microphone level is reeeely tiny. We're talking very small fractions of a volt. When designers make a microphone amplifier, they have to choose parts that do the basic electronic job, and then consider how noisy they are. Molecular level noise. Microphone signals are the butterfly wings of the sound world.

It's certainly possible to not have this problem by throwing money. My ratty sound test was made on $19 USB analog headset adapter. My $100 Shure X2U USB Microphone adapter doesn't do that. The Shure is an expensive pro adapter with filtering and processing to get rid of USB noise problems. (It does have low volume and I don't recommend it).

The UCA202 has the problem, too, but since that adapter doesn't manage microphone levels, the whine is so tiny that it took flynwill lab instruments to find it.

Koz

[TheRightWayne]

Heh, OK, the 10 minute thing made me raise an eyebrow, but I was certainly willing to believe dropping by the quality by 2/3rds would drop the filesize by 90%.

It's certainly possible to not have this problem by throwing money. ... (It does have low volume and I don't recommend it).

Fair enough. :] In that case, what would you recommend?

Oh, and going back to the power discussion; I pulled up HWMonitor* and took a look at the voltage section on the motherboard. Everything else seems to be in line, but the +5V is only reading 3.027, while everything else is about right (12V is reading 13 and change, for example).

* Downloaded that when I started having overheating problems. Turns out my problem was putting the intake fan on top. Did you know hot air rises? I swear I used to know this stuff, heh....

[kozikowski]

the +5V is only reading 3.027

That's not good news. I don't remember what the lower limit on logic is, but you're getting close to it.

In that case, what would you recommend?

I have done paid recordings with my analog microphone, simple sound mixer and a Mac with Stereo-In (older design). It has good flexibility, good volume, low noise, and high quality. It's not convenient and you do need to know what you're doing. It's very not plug and play and it needs a wall plug. I have a smaller FP24 Shure mixer that's actually too small. It starts to have USB microphone problems and it doesn't have good volume adjustments.



I know you were hoping for a quiet USB microphone that works.

ACX has a recommendation in their videos. They use an analog microphone with a USB microphone amplifier and digitizer.

The ACX recording class recommends a Rode NT1-A microphone and the MBox Mini-2 Mic-Pre and digitizer. If you're not depressed enough yet, you can watch their video, remembering that they're playing to the broadcast and audiobook market, not casual recording.

http://www.acx.com/help/video-lessons-r ... /200672590

Play the first one: Setting up a home studio.


Koz

[cyrano]

Oh, and going back to the power discussion; I pulled up HWMonitor* and took a look at the voltage section on the motherboard. Everything else seems to be in line, but the +5V is only reading 3.027, while everything else is about right (12V is reading 13 and change, for example).

I'm guessing HW Monitor is reporting this for the 3.3V power. If it would be for 5V, it would be far below the 4.85V limit. Most 5V logic will still work at 4.75V, except some audio gear because it needs to transform the 5V to a higher voltage.

Supposing the webcam has an internal low drop regulator and it works on 3.3 V internally (otherwise it shouldn't work at all), this would explain the excessive white noise on your audio.

I think you need to check your computer's PSU. The easiest way is by cutting a USB cable and measuring the red and black wires if you happen to have a multimeter. If the voltage on the USB port is around 5V, HW Monitor is wrong. If it's only 3V, there is something wrong with your computer's hardware, I'm afraid.

[TheRightWayne]

Thanks again for the help, Koz, checking that video now. :]

Edit: OK, I don't have that much money to throw at the problem. Bookmarked for when/if we want to take this to the next level, though.

It's not that I have a problem with traditional mics, it's just that between the webcam and the condenser (which I did manage to get a proof-of-purchase for and am sending back soon) I have a lot of USB equipment already.

We definitely need something convenient, and preferably mobile (for some recordings I plan to take my desktop to a friend's house and record there for a couple hours, that edit that down a couple episodes later), which is why as you can imagine the webcam seemed like an especially good idea.

I'm guessing HW Monitor is reporting this for the 3.3V power. If it would be for 5V, it would be far below the 4.85V limit.

I heard the limit was a pretty narrow +/-10% or so, yeah. All I know is what it says. :/ (Attached below.)

Supposing the webcam has an internal low drop regulator and it works on 3.3 V internally (otherwise it shouldn't work at all), this would explain the excessive white noise on your audio.

That would explain a lot!

if you happen to have a multimeter.

Argh, no such luck. I have a lot of electricians in the family, but they're all about 600 miles away, bit far to bum some equipment. I'll keep that in mind, though! I already sent a tech support ticket in to MSI about the problem, might as well get the ball rolling.

[kozikowski]

We definitely need something convenient, and preferably mobile (for some recordings I plan to take my desktop to a friend's house and record there for a couple hours, that edit that down a couple episodes later)

Post back when you get something you like. This isn't a help desk (although it functions like one). It's a forum, users helping users. You're a user so you should be helping other users.

We have found that tiny home systems don't expand. There are vast legions of people desperate to connect two and three USB microphones to their computer. You can strong-arm force two USB microphones, but three isn't happening. I don't know of a USB microphone that doesn't have USB microphone problems. Convenience and Cost tend to bump sound quality.

You can send a microphone back if it's not convenient enough and you just wouldn't buy it if it costs too much, but if the quality is a little ratty, well, that may be OK. Let's see just how ratty we're talking here.

Koz