Voice noise.. why on earth??

[prettyGirl]

Hi all,

Sometimes when I record my own voice on the pc, the record is pure, but other times using the same mic and the same recording program and without any change, a noise appears in the background..
and here is a sample of the noise, followed by a sample of the pure recording:

http://encodable.com/cgi-bin/filechucker.cgi?action=landing&path=/&file=noisepure.mp3


What on earth causes this??? and how to avoid it??
thanx

[robertruetz]

Welcome to the forums,

Can you give us some details about your setup? Everything from the mic down to the computer/software. It sounds like interference from something. It could be dirty power coming from somewhere. For example, if the circuit you're using to power your rig shares power with an air-conditioner or refrigerator or some other large appliance, it might throw some nasty interference down the line whenever the motor kicks on. It sounds like some kind of electrical hum to me.

With more details, we might be able to pinpoint something for you.

Rob
:cool:

[GROW]

Hi all,

Sometimes when I record my own voice on the pc, the record is pure, but other times using the same mic and the same recording program and without any change, a noise appears in the background..
and here is a sample of the noise, followed by a sample of the pure recording:

http://encodable.com/cgi-bin/filechucker.cgi?action=landing&path=/&file=noisepure.mp3


What on earth causes this??? and how to avoid it??
thanx


If its not one of the annoying household items listed above you could also have your soundcard set to +10 on one of your inputs and when you use the "hot" one more noise is audible.

Try using the low end cut located on your condenser mic (if you have one)

Look into purchasing a noise reducer (I use the waves one...it rocks!!!) Helpful even if you solve this issue. I use it on samples from movies to get rid of other sounds making the vocal the focal point. And if your using a lot of VST's, no matter how expensive they are, they will add some noise to your mix so u may like the results of putting some noise reduction on the entire mix during mastering to reduce ear fatigue and give you a more analog studio sound.

So go turn off them fans..turn off the refrigerator, turn off the ac, close the windows, tell your roomates to shut up, check the settings of your inputs on your interface, get a noise reducer, and keep on recording! Good luck:)

[mellodge]

Well , I couldn't listen to the upload because it wasn't there. Going of the info you've given i'm taking a wild guess. If you are going in to the computer onboard sound card, then its almost certainly CPU noise.

[robertruetz]

CPU noise is typically pretty random. This didn't sound like that to me. I could be wrong, and if you are using the onboard soundcard, that is most likely the explanation. This sounds more repetitive and therefore electrical to me.

Rob
:cool:

[TimOBrien]

Still using a built-in soundcard?? Unfortunately, those are made with less than 50-cents worth of chips for beeps, boops and light gaming (not to mention cheapness for the manufacturer) and NOT quality music production.

#1 Rule of Recording: You MUST replace the crappy built-in soundcard.

Here's a good guide and suggestions: http://www.tweakheadz.com/soundcards_for_the_home_studio.htm

[prettyGirl]

Thanks a lot every body..
It seems that the problem is related to the type of the sound card I have, unfortunately it’s built in..
So I moved to the next step: reduction of noise using adobe audition..
But here also I had a trouble!
the “noise reduction” I applied on my recordings removed all the noise except with the sound of the letters “s” , “z” and “sh”!
I think this happened cuz their sound is close to the sound of the noise!
what can I do?

[robertruetz]

This is the inherent problem with noise reduction. The noise you're trying to remove shares frequencies with some of the actual sound you want to keep. All you can do is keep trying to take it out, or do some EQing with Audition to see if you can isolate it and remove it. Your best bet is to fix what's causing the noise in the first place, so it won't be there next time. Replacing that onboard soundcard is the first step.

Rob
:cool: