The Song Fight Bulletin Board

What do you guys do, I have settings noise reduction(db) 13
sensitivity (db) 0.17
frequency smoothing (hz) 240
attack/delay time seconds 0.60

what am I doing wrong, audacity, sure mike straight In lap top with adapter or run thru Samson 4 channel mixer dosent seem to make much difference. what settings do you use, for clean acoustic?

The input on your laptop is noisy, that is a fact. When you can, upgrade to an external audio interface instead. You should have less noise.

You can also lessen noise by lowering your gain settings, so play louder and record softer.

thanks ken but what ever program you use for noise reduction do any of these settings look out of line.

On my next tune I don't want to sound country, guess there's no help for that, either.

I don't need any noise reduction because my tracks aren't noisy. I have an external audio interface. I really would like to be able to help you. You know that old joke, where the guys says, "Doctor, it hurts when I do this" so the doctor replies, "Then don't do that!" Recording is a garbage in/ garbage out kind of endeavor. You can try to clean it up, but you are better off making your tracks sound better from the start. I hope you find good noise reduction, if upgrading your set up isn't an option. I wasn't really bothered by your last song if that makes you feel any better. I thought it sounded fine.

Yeah, noise reduction only introduces even more noise, of a different kind.

If you want to figure out how to reduce the noise level, you need to figure out where it's coming from. It could be your interface (especially if you're using the built-in line input on your computer), it could be the microphone, it could be your cables, it could be the lighting in your room, it could be your computer fan.

Tell us how you have your microphone hooked up to your computer, what kind of microphone it is, maybe post a pciture of your setup, and a 320kbps mp3 of just noise. Maybe we can provide more specific advice.

Is that a noise gate you mentioned in your first post, hill?

Yes it's the noise removal tool that works with Audacity. (noise removal by Dominic Mazzoni). I realize I need to upgrade to a audio interface, just hated to do so, all ready have a mixer and phantom power and all the proper cord's ect. It's Christmas and there's a lot of kids in our family tree I need to buy for and I'm out of work again. Only lasted 1 ten hour day on that last project Guy that was running the project liked to speak to people in a way I can't deal with.

A simple 2x2 interface is probably all you'll need to fix your noise problems, then. You won't even need one with phantom power, since you could just plug your mixer into it. If you can find a Griffin Technology iMic that's a pretty good starting point.

I wouldn't recommend Behringer's $30 dealy though; I bought one of those for a Linux-based art project and while it's good enough for that, it picks up a lot of AM radio noise (which actually improves the art project but doesn't help with recording music).

I also have a little M-Audio thing that came free with something years ago. I have no idea if it's any good but I can send it to you if you want. It should at least be an improvement over your laptop's built-in interface.

^ Unless the mixer is the source of the noise.

Billy's Little Trip wrote:^ Unless the mixer is the source of the noise.

OR the cables OR the mic OR the guitar. So many variables...

HOWEVER, you did only ask about the guitar. Do you also get noise when you record other sources with the same mic and signal chain?

I also wanted to mention that just switching my laptop's built in driver to ASIOFREE4ALL actually makes a big difference in latency, performance, and sound quality. It is a free program and really, really, works. I suggest you give it a try if Audacity lets you choose which sound driver it uses.

http://www.asio4all.com/

I actually deleted part of my post above before I submitted it because it sounded too obvious. It was a "if it were me" statement about taking everything apart....bla bla bla....blowing out all the dust...bla bla bla....re-setting everything up clean...bla bla bla.

Billy's Little Trip wrote:^ Unless the mixer is the source of the noise.

Yes, but if he bought it new and it provides phantom power it's PROBABLY okay. I'm just going based on what little information he's provided.

Hillbilly, could you please provide a list of the actual gear you're using and how it's hooked up? And could you provide recordings of the following:

- Nothing plugged in to your computer
- The mixer plugged in to your computer but nothing else
- The microphone plugged into your mixer and the mixer into the computer, positioned how they normally are when you're recording, with 10 seconds of silence and then play your guitar for 10 seconds

Don't apply any processing or noise reduction to any of these recordings. Then we can listen to them and at least make better-educated guesses about where the noise is coming from and what sort of noise it even is.

Ok fluffy, think you got it. Had never recorded a blank trak (nothing plugged). Would it be the sound card, with nothing plugged. I'm on a dedicated 20 amp circuit to my bed room or just the computer.

Only the nothing-plugged-in one made it through. Is that recording level the same as for your usual recordings? -32dB isn't wonderful but it's also not going to be that audible in a mixed track.

The thing is that having a cable plugged in to your sound card is probably going to have more noise than just having a floating connection like that, so I guess it would also be interesting to hear it with the mixer plugged in but turned off.

Actually, here's a better idea for a recording to make for us to diagnose the problem:

1. Plug everything in, but turn the mixer off, and turn all the mixer levels down.
2. Start recording
3. After 10 seconds, turn on the mixer
4. After another 10 seconds, turn up the level on your microphone input.
5. After another 10 seconds, start playing your guitar.

Having it all in a single file like that will make it easier for us to tell where the levels are, what's going on in the signal chain, etc.

mixer plugged but off. @8 turn mixer on(it gets quieter) @ 18 turn volume up(line noise returns) wait a few, grab a guitar and miss cord. I have done this test with 3 mikes, this is the best. Think yall are correct, it needs to come in on a usb port, thru interface.

Well, the noise is clearly coming from the audio interface, but there are easier fixes - that signal level is ridiculously low. Try just raising the gain on your input so that you peak at more like -6dB (instead of -26dB). That will minimize the problems with the line noise. (This is similar to what Ken was suggesting earlier, but attacking the basic problem in a different way.)

There might be a "-20dBm" switch on your mixer or microphone. Turn it off, if so. If not, there's probably separate knobs for gain and mix. Turn up the gain one.

If your mixer is already showing a reasonable peak level, try turning up the gain on your line input on your computer. Double-clicking the volume control will probably head you in the right direction (I don't know, I hardly ever use Windows anymore).