Soft Hissing Sound While Recording

[Rudi]

John, Guys,

When I said 'double shielded mic cable' I meant 'balanced line' . This is what the recording manual I am studying calls it. I have been looking for a couple of days. So far Ive just been confused because none are described as 'balanced line', but balanced or shielded (they should all be shielded I think) and prices vary from £3 to £80 and that is bewildering.

Can anyone recommend a decent balanced line XLR mic cable? A link would be great.

John, where in the chain are signal conditioners used? I imagined between mic and recorder. Is that right?

[john]

Ah... I assumed you were using a balanced line as it was a mic cable. Certainly unbalanced are far more prone to noise. Unbalanced basically inverts the signal ie +10dbV becomes -10dbV (mic cable signals are much smaller than that), so that a spike from a digital transition of +5v affects the mic signal as +1dBv on each line in the unbalanced cable so that on the original signal you now have +11dBv and the inverted now has -9dBv when the inverted signal is inverted again so it halves the difference (2dBv/2 = 1dBv) and subtracts that from the original signal... ie it removes any noise (theoretically) that affects the cable. Any efffect left is that caused by the minute differences between the effect on each of the wires in the cable... pretty good huh?

Dorry if I went a bit too techie! lol

nope it's a power conditioner / cleaner, it goes at your wall socket to "clean" the supply before it gets to your equipment.

[Rudi]

Right. Thanks.

I am suspicious of the mic lead. The local shop are useless. I need to look online, but have become paranoid that I will get another inferior lead.

[TheOminouseRecreation]

Things to take into consideration when thinking about your recording environment.

Unbalanced connections. if your using an unbalanced connecter like for instance a mic with out XLR input OR TRS (tip ring sleve jack)

you will get interference from radio waves into your signal.. the way a balanced connector works is by sending two signals from the same

source but with one phase inverted to cancel each other but then at the receiving source the signal gets flipped back so you get twice the signal and no sound or electrical distortion or interference

Listen to your room. Sit quietly in your environment and just listen try to determine what you can hear around you if you notice anything

you can sure bet it will turn up on your recording with a condenser, and maybe if you have an ultra sensitive dynamic.

Equipment make sure you service it regularly, check each individual piece starting from the input source. Faulty mics cause noise, faulty cables, speaker amps cause noise, faulty pre amps cause noise specially if its valve driver, and monitors close to sources cause noise

Learn about every bit of gear you own and learn about every inch of your environment, every corner that can trap low frequency's, every reflective surface for high frequency's to bounce of if you can acoustic tile these surfaces to shape your room sound to stop fatigue on you and your listener.

[Rudi]

TOR,

Good advice.

I know the noise problem follows me out of the room so its not the room itself.

The sound rises & falls. I have read up on the balanced line circuit and studied the diagram.

I dont know if I have one though or not, and because no vendor describes them as 'balanced line' I dont know where I can buy one. Its bugging me.

[Prometheus]

Right. Thanks.

I am suspicious of the mic lead. The local shop are useless. I need to look online, but have become paranoid that I will get another inferior lead.

Just buy a Proel cable and it'll be good.

[Rudi]

Prometheus.

That sort of specific advice is just what I was looking for.

Thank you.

I have just bought a Planet Waves Custom one though. I have not tried it yet.

[Prometheus]

I'm sure that'll be fine.