recording hiss

[Quintin]

Ive been having trouble recording audio tracks without alot of recording hiss. Anytime i turn the track up the hiss gets louder. how do i get rid of this?. Im using an Nt1 rode, and a pair of samson co2 condensers. I would likr to turn up the tracks without the hiss going up. Im aslo usinf and audiobox 44vsl by presounus

[john]

Hey

 

hiss is often the result of too much gain, however you need to look at the full signal chain... For example, is EQ being unintentionally applied? Are you using pad? Your Rode NT1 is capable of good SNR. I can't remember what switches it has for attenuation and signal boost...

 

one other her common culprit is mic positioning. Especially using the mic on an unidirectional polar pattern but facing the mic the wrong way! This makes the engineer crank up the gain to get a decent level, but the ambient noise is usually through the ceiling!.... Which sounds kinda like your problem.

 

lastly noise could come come from other sources, such as a PC audio interface, or your computer fan, or even forgetting to turn the mic off or an unintentional effects return

[Nightwolf]

^^What he said^^

 

A low pass filter or De-esser may be able to fix it if it isn't too bad.

Better to find the problem of course. Look for external causes. Is the PC far enough from the mic? is your AC on? Ceiling fan, Fluorescent lights?

[Quintin]

On 6/30/2016 at 10:56 PM, john said:

Hey

 

hiss is often the result of too much gain, however you need to look at the full signal chain... For example, is EQ being unintentionally applied? Are you using pad? Your Rode NT1 is capable of good SNR. I can't remember what switches it has for attenuation and signal boost...

 

one other her common culprit is mic positioning. Especially using the mic on an unidirectional polar pattern but facing the mic the wrong way! This makes the engineer crank up the gain to get a decent level, but the ambient noise is usually through the ceiling!.... Which sounds kinda like your problem.

 

lastly noise could come come from other sources, such as a PC audio interface, or your computer fan, or even forgetting to turn the mic off or an unintentional effects return

 

On 7/1/2016 at 8:15 AM, Nightwolf said:

^^What he said^^

 

A low pass filter or De-esser may be able to fix it if it isn't too bad.

Better to find the problem of course. Look for external causes. Is the PC far enough from the mic? is your AC on? Ceiling fan, Fluorescent lights?

Hello John, Nightwolf. Last night i recorded with my NT1 and One sansom condenser mic. I recorded my clapping then i sang on another track. The the NT! when soloed captured the clap almost perfect, but the samson condenser mic sounded horrible for the clap. Why is this?. I also lowered The gain on the preamp to lessen the hiss. That seemed to work but there is still hiss just not as much, and I have to add some plugins to bring up the vocal. I think it is my computer fan, i hope ill be able to make my computer more quite so i can record without any hiss. Mabey a new fan? I make sure to turn off all fans, didnt know about lights. My fridge is also loud. Im very dissapointed with the samson condenser mic. I think the Nt1 would even be better for recording acoustic guitar, I just get alot of hiss with it.

[john]

Are you suer you are orienting your RODE correctly? It should have a cardoid polar pattern... so orient it so that the low sensitivity is pointed towards the computer and the exact opposite side is pointed directly at the source you are recording. There should be a mark to indicate the orientation of the polar pattern. In case you are not aware, polar pattern is a little chart that shows the sensitivity orientation of the microphone... ie it picks up sound more easily from one direction than another.

 

You could also place a baffle between the computer and mic to soak up some ambient fan noise. Even better, get a proper microphone baffle set up... they aren't too expensive but they can make a huge difference to the acoustic environment.

 

What Samson model are you using? Yet again it could be orientation and / or polar pattern selection if you have a multi pattern mic

[Quintin]

I dont know which side should be pointed towards the the computer, I will have to do some research on orienting . I think a baffle sounds like a great idea, I record in my bedroom so i would like to make my room more like a studio space. Mainly just invest in some sound proof materials. I have a big living room but the floors are tile, and ive heard that is not good for recording because of the reverb. My Samson Co2 condenser mics dont sound as good as the NT1. I still want to make use of them, hopefully I can. I took some pics of my Mics. Also When I record with the pencil condenser I use the pop filter/wind shield thing u see in the pic, I haven't recorded with out it yet.

[john]

The polar pattern for your Rode is on page 4 of the Product Manual. The large metal Dot on the microphone body, just below the mesh (showing on your photo) should always be pointing at the source you want to record. Normally this is with the mic in a cloce to vertical position. To reduce fan hiss, place the mic such that the metal dot is furthest from the noise source.

 

http://cdn1.rode.com/nt1-a_product_manual.pdf

 

As for your Samson C02... the cardoid polat pattern is on page 6 of the manual:

 

http://www.samsontech.com/site_media/legacy_docs/C02_ownman_v1s.pdf

 

Mic position is approximately the distance of a wide spread hand, the distance from tip of the thumb to the tip of the pinkie. Any closer and you would suffer from an artificial bass boost (called the proximity effect). It is unidirectional. Point the mic at the source along the barrel, like a gun barrel pointed at the target. Ideal mics for instrument recording, while your rode is excellent for vocals and some acoustic instruments.

 

Your Rode is much more sensitive, ie it can pic up quieter sounds. I assume you have a mixer? At least break out box to bing audio into your PC? Mixers have a "pad" button in the channel strip. This is a 26db attenuator... used to reduce the inpute of very sensitive microphones... I would expect you to have this depressed for the NT1 and not depressed for your samson. If it is depressed when using your Samson you will have a very quiet mic signal, making you use high gain to record... and that would give you extra hiss... made all the worse if you have the orientation wrong. With a break out box interface for your mic, the pad button may well be controlled via your software interface mixer for your break out box.

 

I hope this helps