Microphone Hiss, But Not From Background Noise...

[aranders]

Hi everyone! I'm having trouble pinpointing a specific issue that I'm having. As you can tell from the title I'm dealing with microphone hiss. Now, I'm pretty dang sure that there is no background sound or ambient noise coming from the room that would be this noticeable. I have a Toshiba laptop that I have my presonus audiobox plugged into. I have the microphone that the bundle came with, a pretty crappy mic (which i'm sure is probably why i'm having this issue), and the XLR cable that came in the package. My computer doesn't make very much noise at all, and most of the time i'm recording far enough away from the computer that it shouldnt be an issue. So i've come to the conclusion that it is a static noise from the microphone or the cable. But i'm not sure if this is possible. Does this happen with lower quality mics? Is there a fix or should I just get a new mic? That  is certainly an option because i'm creating pretty decent sounding recordings with the crappy mic already, and i'm looking to improve. Could the cable quality figure into this also? Its not a very good cable im sure, but it works i suppose. 

 

Sorry for the long post but it takes some explaining to get the point across. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated, as im getting quite frustrated at the his that i cannot EQ out and is creeping into my recordings at annoying volumes. I've tried changing up the order of which i plug things in and it helped a ton, but there is still the issue. Thanks and merry christmas to all!!

 

-Allan Anderson

[aranders]

The specific Mic is the Presonus M7. It's the mic that comes in the package deal. I couldn't find the specific self noise levels in the specs

[aranders]

But hey thanks for the reply!!!

[aranders]

Oh yes I have the powered USB hub and it helped significantly, but not completely. I'm not sure how to disable my computers sound card,is it fairly simple to do?

[Rudi]

aranders,

 

Solved it yet?

 

I had similar problem with my condenser mic. It drove me crazy. Mine was an intermittent hiss, and it varied in intensity. It was like listening to wind gusting outside. 

 

It turned out to be condensation. My studio is often very cold. Now I keep the mic in a warm room in the winter months. If this is what is happening to you, you may need to put the mic into a warmer environment for a couple of days (no not the oven! ) before trying again. 

 

Good luck.

[john]

Noise can come from many things. If your mic is pretty sensitive you would be amazed at what it can pick up. Usual environmental sources of hiss can be computer fans, air conditioning, circuitry noise (often made worse by incorrectly set mic input gain levels), and even headphone spill.

Ideally house your mic in a different room from your computers. Turn off non-essential electronics.

Unfortunately circuitry in sound cards can be a contributing factor.

turning off your onboard sound card is usually done in the system bios, although often you can reduce power consumption and other problems without going as far as disabling your sound card completely. That said my system is dual boot, because it makes sense to work with a system that is more or less dedicated for audio.

Gain levels are certainly important contributors of unnecessary noise on many recordings, so I would eliminate that first.

Also check that you are not using a default sound processing such as EQ, reverb and compression. Onboard sound cards are especially guilty of doing this.

Is your mic cable balanced or unbalanced?