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Soft Hissing Sound While Recording


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I think this is a question that has been asked a million times, but I haven't found an answer so I'm asking it here.

When I record I have a soft hissing sound in the background. Is this because of the quality of my mic? Or do I need ot adjust some inputfilters?

Can I do something about it after the recording process?

Here's an example of what I mean. After a second you can hear the voxtrack begins, there a obvious hissing sound in the background:

https://soundcloud.com/ardeche/we-know

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Its pretty much due to the microphone,that Im sure. Maybe even the sound interface also. I face this problem as well.

I usually select/highlight the first few seconds of the track that ONLY has the hiss and use the Noise Reduction Profile option. This reads all the frequencies of this noise and when you use the noise reduction option,it will completely remove the hiss. You have to be careful though,it might even change little the sound quality of your voice/instrument. You can adjust to your liking with the levels/setting present in your DAW for that option. (I use Reaper,Adobe Audition(its just a sound editor) and Audacity)

Find a threshold where the quality of your instrument or voice is not changed and the hiss is removed to an extent.

And this applies only to the raw track. If you try doing this to a rendered track(with all the instruments on a single track),then it might change things too much.

Obviously the better option would be to buy better equipment if you can afford it. :)

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Its pretty much the same routine in all DAW,here's an article I found that has pictures as well showing those settings.http://www.deeplysimple.net/2006/10/removing-hiss-with-audacity.html

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Its pretty much the same routine in all DAW,here's an article I found that has pictures as well showing those settings.http://www.deeplysim...h-audacity.html

Thanks Mahesh! This is realy helpfull!

At first I removed the noise from the master, but I got all kinds of artifacts. I decided to try to denoise the vocaltrack only and the result is amazing!

Edited by Gijs
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There are other causes such as setting input gain incorrectly. For example... imagine you are one foot from the microphone... the volume of your voice reaching the microphone is what you are looking for etc... now place the singer three feet from the microphone... to get the recorded signal up so that it achieves a similar recording level for yhe voice either the singer sings louder OR you turn up input gain... the trouble is that in amplifying the signal to the same level the ambient noise is now also boosted.... ie the Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) is now a hell of a lot worse.

you can improve your situation by using a more sensitive microphone, and better Analog to Digital Converters (ADC), closer microphone positioning, generally quieter circuitry, placing your mic in a different room from your computer and othet (fan noise etc) and by careful cable routing ( though that is more to reduce crosstalk between cables) etc. Closer positioning can also bring in to play "proximity effect" (boosted bass) depending on your mic and microphone pop (use a pop blast screen - buy or cheaply make your own. My first home pop screen was made with stockings/hose and metal coat hanger lol

on the subject of cable noise make sure your audio cables are as isolated as possible to reduce noise of varios kinds. particularly as far as possible from mains/grid power cables and digital cables, including midi).

yes you can use denoiser software/hardware but you WILL colour the original sound to. While it can be done to an acceptable level, prevention is better than cure. Something to also consider is the use of a high shelf Eq but that too will also colour your sound.

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  • 2 weeks later...

What kind of computer monitor and how close is the mic to the monitor / computer as well? CRT's can give off resonate frequencies like neon lights and single coil guitar pickups. Generally I isolate my computer in a closet and pad for insolation

I can't say about europe but in the US if your house was wired before 1960 you are going to have some serious ground issues

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What kind of computer monitor and how close is the mic to the monitor / computer as well? CRT's can give off resonate frequencies like neon lights and single coil guitar pickups. Generally I isolate my computer in a closet and pad for insolation

I can't say about europe but in the US if your house was wired before 1960 you are going to have some serious ground issues

Yes, that's the source of the hissing. It's standing next to my computer and it's recording the computersounds. The hiss is far less after I put it futher away from the computer. Good call!

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lol I must try to write shorter posts no one seems to read the longer ones :P

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There are other causes such as setting input gain incorrectly. For example... imagine you are one foot from the microphone... the volume of your voice reaching the microphone is what you are looking for etc... now place the singer three feet from the microphone... to get the recorded signal up so that it achieves a similar recording level for yhe voice either the singer sings louder OR you turn up input gain... the trouble is that in amplifying the signal to the same level the ambient noise is now also boosted.... ie the Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) is now a hell of a lot worse. you can improve your situation by using a more sensitive microphone, and better Analog to Digital Converters (ADC), closer microphone positioning, generally quieter circuitry, placing your mic in a different room from your computer and othet (fan noise etc) and by careful cable routing ( though that is more to reduce crosstalk between cables) etc. Closer positioning can also bring in to play "proximity effect" (boosted bass) depending on your mic and microphone pop (use a pop blast screen - buy or cheaply make your own. My first home pop screen was made with stockings/hose and metal coat hanger lol on the subject of cable noise make sure your audio cables are as isolated as possible to reduce noise of varios kinds. particularly as far as possible from mains/grid power cables and digital cables, including midi). yes you can use denoiser software/hardware but you WILL colour the original sound to. While it can be done to an acceptable level, prevention is better than cure. Something to also consider is the use of a high shelf Eq but that too will also colour your sound.
lol I must try to write shorter posts no one seems to read the longer ones :P

Sorry, John. Didn't mean to ignore you!

I think I didn't respond to your post, because it's so jammed with information that I couldn't encompass it when I read it. I was busy tingling with the denoiser at the time. Seemed like a great solution. I should have read your post more carefully, because the solution was already in it..... Forgive me... Haha..

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what mic are you using?

It's a low end usb-mic. It's MXL studio 1.

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lol

all is forgiven! It is a genuine point though... it's easy to miss the wood for the trees. Too much info or too complete an answer and it just becomes a jumble and many would skip over it. If I added titles and pretty fonts I more or less wrote an article lol

doh!

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lol

all is forgiven! It is a genuine point though... it's easy to miss the wood for the trees. Too much info or too complete an answer and it just becomes a jumble and many would skip over it. If I added titles and pretty fonts I more or less wrote an article lol

doh!

Yeah, see. I'm at a point where I don't really know a lot about a the terms and such yet. So, in order to noet get overwhelmed to much, I tend to ignore the detailed information and focus on what I can comprehend at the moment. But maybe a lot of other readers found your article to be very helpfull. You never know, right?

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Computer fans are also a very bad culprate for this, especialy if your using a condenser mic.

This.

Even the slightest noise in your recording environment is going to be a problem when you turn the gain on your pre-amp up to mic level. The noise floor can become an insidious racket.

Prevention is definitely better than cure with this. Over used Noise Reduction algorithms leave noticeable side effects in the form of horrible metallic chirping sounds that are actually more distracting than hiss. You have to think very carefully about whether you've actually improved the sound when you use them.

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This.

Even the slightest noise in your recording environment is going to be a problem when you turn the gain on your pre-amp up to mic level. The noise floor can become an insidious racket.

Prevention is definitely better than cure with this. Over used Noise Reduction algorithms leave noticeable side effects in the form of horrible metallic chirping sounds that are actually more distracting than hiss. You have to think very carefully about whether you've actually improved the sound when you use them.

There is that :)

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This.

Even the slightest noise in your recording environment is going to be a problem when you turn the gain on your pre-amp up to mic level. The noise floor can become an insidious racket.

Prevention is definitely better than cure with this. Over used Noise Reduction algorithms leave noticeable side effects in the form of horrible metallic chirping sounds that are actually more distracting than hiss. You have to think very carefully about whether you've actually improved the sound when you use them.

Yes, that's defenitly the problem. I had my mic placed right next to the computerfan. I did a recording in another setting before and the problem of the his wasn't there. I never understood what the difference was. It makes perfect sence now.... haha. Well, thanks for the help guys! (You too, John)

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Ive read this with a great deal of interest. I have a very similar problem right now.

I have been trying to record an acoustic guitar. The recording has been spoiled by a low rumbling. It actually sounds like gusting wind, sometimes rising, sometimes falling. I can actually see it rise and fall on the meter!

I have tried using the mic in another room to the recorder (no change).

I have used different inputs,

altered mic proximity / input sensitivity (no change).

I never solved the problem and wasted half a day trying to overcome it.

At the moment I am actually using a solid body electric with an acoustic simulation patch. This is ok, but I really need the better sound quality of an actual acoustic instrument.

I wonder if the mic cable is the cause? I bought it with the mic (a Rodes NT2-A used with phantom power). They had no double shielded cables in stock at the time.

I thought I would check with you SS'ers before ordering a new cable.

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It could be a few things:

mains hum, and spill from other electric equipment sharing the same wiring - use a signal conditioner (spike protection etc) on your power cables. Quite common to spill onto mains/grid power are things like central heating / air con systems, and people turning things on or off. Mains hum itself is low and the audible frequency is low ~ 50Hz in the UK, but as mentioned other signals can spill onto the ground circuit and pass to other equipment.

crosstalk (route your audio cables so they are no where near power cables, digital audio or midi cables, use better shielded cables)

crosstalk within the circuitry of your recording gear

radio interference (a form of crosstalk) could be picked up by your cables, or your guitar pick ups.

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Thanks John,

Well my acoustic is a plain old box without pickups. The mic cable is as far from the power cables as it can get. Ive never heard of a a signal conditioner, so I'll google it. I've decided to source a double shielded mic cable anyway.

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