Silence is Golden

Sober · Post by **Sober** » Wed Jun 15, 2005 11:42 pm

I think Fluffy's thread on the old board was "The silent recorder."

Right now I am staring at a 3/4" hole in my wall. It goes straight through to the next room, which is a walk-in closet to an adjacent bedroom. My computer is going to be in that room, so that the noisy bastard doesn't interfere with my recording.

Puce I know has done this.

I'm going to widen the hole a bit, and to bridge the gap between the two walls, I'm going to cut open a can of delicious Monster energy drink, and fashion it into a tube that will server as passage between the two rooms, and will also prevent the cables within from getting wet/moldy/gnawed on by rats.

After the Monstertube is in place, I'll spackle up the openings real nice, and it should all look pretty decent I think. Anything to get this noisy bastard out of here.

Comments, suggestions, etc.?

I'll try to take pics of the whole process.

Sober · Post by **Sober** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 12:09 am

Roadblock.

I gotta make this hole big enough for cables with big ends like monitor cables. The monster can is gonna be either too narrow to allow these bigger cables, or too short to bridge the wall gap.

Next.

Edit: Toilet paper tube looks like it'll work great.

Update: Ok, toilet paper tube reinforced with monster can and lots of electrical tape is in place. I'll start feeding cables through, and we'll see if this thing will work.

Sober · Post by **Sober** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 1:02 am

Done. It's nice and quiet in here now. Also, this setup affords me a little more slack with most of my wires, particularly my mouse and keyboard. And, it only took me a little over two hours. What else can you do in two hours that will dramatically improve your recording quality without spending a penny?

Ok, so Puce and I have done it, WHY HAVEN'T YOU?

Southwest_Statistic · Post by **Southwest_Statistic** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 4:27 am

The Sober Irishman wrote:Ok, so Puce and I have done it, WHY HAVEN'T YOU?

One word. Watercooled.

Kamakura · Post by **Kamakura** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 5:09 am

Southwest_Statistic wrote:One word. Water.

Absolutely!
If you put your PC in a container just slightly larger than its case, and fill it with water. It's guaranteed to be totally silent...

Adam! · Post by **Adam!** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 8:39 am

Sober, shhhh! You're giving away the secret!

No seriously, well done and welcome to the club. Ever since I did this I've never ever had to worry about noise again. I just put a low (like -60db) gate on everything I record and I haven't heard a hint of noise since. All for less than a penny.

Southwest_Statistic wrote:
The Sober Irishman wrote:Ok, so Puce and I have done it, WHY HAVEN'T YOU?
One word. Watercooled.

Watercooling is great in theory, but most watercooling systems still have fans for the reservoir and a power supply. I always wanted to do watercooling, but now I probably never will because I've stumbled upon a free alternative.

erik · Post by **erik** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 9:04 am

The Sober Irishman wrote:WHY HAVEN'T YOU?

I don't want to stare at a 3/4" hole in my wall.

HeuristicsInc · Post by **HeuristicsInc** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 9:52 am

i use my laptop when i record vox. much quieter. and i don't have to put holes in anything... especially since i don't know where i'd put the comp.
-bill

starfinger · Post by **starfinger** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 10:35 am

and who wants to walk back and forth to the closet in the other room when they want to burn a cd or something.

-craig

Adam! · Post by **Adam!** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 11:00 am

starfinger wrote:and who wants to walk back and forth to the closet in the other room when they want to burn a cd or something.

That's the only drawback I can think of. Thankfully I had an external CD-RW that I wasn't using or planning on selling.

Post by jb » Thu Jun 16, 2005 11:07 am

HeuristicsInc wrote:i use my laptop when i record vox. much quieter. and i don't have to put holes in anything... especially since i don't know where i'd put the comp.
-bill

my laptop's pretty noisy. i don't have another room to put the PC in, so i just string cables all over. i'm also getting one of these:

http://sweetwater.com/store/detail/TranzPort/

if they ever come out. sigh.

jb

Leaf · Post by **Leaf** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 11:34 am

I have this great space...but it's full of stuff. Attached to the "shed" I'm in is a wood shed... and the plan is to re-roof it... cut a door between the two attached buildings and make a "control" room, with an adjoining vocal booth. I've already collected old monitors and keyboards and mouses are cheap...so the idea is the pc will sit in the other room, while the sound room and the vocal booth will each have a monitor, keyboard and mouse. So...no running back and forth.

Now... all I need is the time, the materials, and my roofer friend to show me how it's done!

hey Sober...are you in a rental? That'd be a deterient (ikes on the sp on that one! ) for a lot of people.

In the meantime, I put my pc inside a IKEA cupboard, and this masks the noise pretty good. The back is open, so I get good air flow, but I still have to make sure the mic is not directed into that corner, or I get some SLIGHT background noise.

Mostess · Post by **Mostess** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 12:11 pm

The Sober Irishman wrote:WHY HAVEN'T YOU?

We just moved. We had this set up in Iowa City, with the DVR/recording computer in the storage room and all the cables running through the walls to our TV/monitor on a floating shelf in the playroom. Kept the electronica out of the reach of the babies, and the hum/chirp/hum out of the trademarked sound of Hostess Mostess.

But our new Michigan house's playroom is just a big room. Nowhere for the fat old PC to hide. The room has wide, bevelled crown and hardwood floor that gives a pretty snappy acoustic response. But I'm afraid that response will be largely to the computer sounds and will have to be gated out. We'll see. I may have to start convincing the family that a wireless monitor is worth the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$...

roymond · Post by **roymond** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 12:56 pm

Sober wrote:Done...

Where are the photos? We need proper verification.

jb wrote:my laptop's pretty noisy. i don't have another room to put the PC in, so i just string cables all over. i'm also getting one of these:
http://sweetwater.com/store/detail/TranzPort/

How noisy is the Irishman's PC? I mean, I've worked on a few hundred PCs in my life and I haven't found many that make enough noise that a 10' cable can't get you far enough away to avoid.

Personally, my sofa-pillow voice booth is still proving invaluable. So, I guess I've done it to a degree (even though it's about letting the neighbors sleep rather than cutting out PC noise).

Logic allows you to program a controller such as an Oxygen8 or TriggerFinger as a remote console (sans the LCD panel). Of course I haven't done that yet, but it's an option.

Post by **Spud** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 1:14 pm

When Octothorpe first started, we had a totally sound-proof studio with the computer in the next room. Our production sucked. We had 60 cycle hum and all kind of other shit going on.

Recently, we have had everything in one room, and our production has greatly improved. Some miss the "old" Octothorpe. I don't.

It just goes to show, it's what you do with it.

Sober · Post by **Sober** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 4:38 pm

My PC is absurdly loud. It emits a constant ~12k beep. The fans are also quite loud. I'd record a sample of it for you, but it's too far away now

Dan-O from Five-O · Post by **Dan-O from Five-O** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 7:50 pm

The Sober Irishman wrote:My PC is absurdly loud. It emits a constant ~12k beep. The fans are also quite loud. I'd record a sample of it for you, but it's too far away now

Just run a cable back through that gaping hole in your wall. I'd love to hear this monster.

Sober · Post by **Sober** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 9:26 pm

This seems like an appropriate thread for this:

My SM58 is, as I'm typing this, emitting a static-y sound. I do not mean to say that it is bringing noise into my system, I mean to say that when I put my ear up to the mic I actually hear static.

What the hell is that?

I've noticed it on other occasions, sometimes louder, to where I can hear it from a few feet away. The mic is currently plugged directly into my sound card, and there's no phantom power or anything involved.

If it gets any louder, I'll record a sample of it with my other mic.

blue · Post by **blue** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 11:07 pm

a microphone is just a tiny speaker. there's voltage on your mic input. ouch.

Bell Green · Post by **Bell Green** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 2:55 am

I record everything in the same room and although you don't get a super quiet or clean sound I seem to be able to get away with it in the mix. I got a G4 leafblower a few years ago and read loads of websites about making it quieter. I have totally rewired the inside of this machine now and it's a lot quieter. The mics still pick up the sound, but as everything is pretty much close miced the S/N is good enough. I do use some gentle expansion if I'm recording some fairly quiet passages.

The room is also pretty live, with wooden floors and many hard surfaces. There is a school either side of where I live, so when I solo things I can hear the children in the background.

I would have a go at rewiring the inside of your PC. Change the fans for quieter ones and maybe add a slot blower as they are pretty quiet but move a lot of air. It's a trade off between getting it quieter and getting it cooler. I'm sure that you use your computer for more than just music, so this will make it less wearing and give your nerves a rest. Worth a go.

Sober · Post by **Sober** » Sun Aug 28, 2005 11:16 pm

Ok.

My monitors are making a noise. It's a constant static-y beep. The static increases when I move my mouse, and also seems to increase when there's a heavy load on the CPU (i.e. opening big files etc.).

It's not a monitor issue, the sound doesn't change at all when I turn my monitor off. It's also not anything I have running through my system. I've run this setup on my Tascam, on the Firepod, and direct, and I always had this noise. It's also not my new monitors, as this noise was present on my old Altec Lansings.

Weeks ago Sven said this may be related to a grounding issue. How do I check to see if it is, and what do I do if that's the case?

I used to be able to deal with it, but today I brought the gain on the back of the monitors up so I could shake the house with my keyboard. I don't want to have to get up and walk around to adjust my monitor gain all the time. I want to control it with Windows volume control, like a normal person.

I'll try to record what's coming out of these monitors and post it here.

Sober · Post by **Sober** » Sun Aug 28, 2005 11:37 pm

http://s93909993.onlinehome.us/mp3s/noise-01.mp3