VO-BB - 19 YEARS OLD!

ronphi · Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 6:36 pm Post subject: Ambient Noise Question

Hello all. I have been playing around with my new NT1A. It is so much more sensitive than I expected (having been using a cheap dynamic for practice). I am hearing so many little things it's driving me nuts. I turned off the central heat, air purifier, humidifier, TV in the living room and all ceiling fans. I'm still hearing low frequency noise. Turned off the mixer I use and still get noise on my Sound Forge VU. With mixer off it runs about -70 db. Turn on the mixer and crank up the gain to get decent level in Sound Forge and the noise goes to about -55 db. Thinking I may be picking up drive noise from the computer I moved the mic to a different room. Same problem. OK, may be internal noise from the computer. Borrowed my wife's laptop and tried again. Same thing.

I need help either identifying the possible source of the noise or someone to tell me that what I'm hearing is normal and can be ignored. I'm posting two links. One of just Ambient sound. One with voice recorded.
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Deirdre · Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 8:24 pm Post subject:

It doesn't like the apostrophe.
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MelissaVoicer · Guest

I am NO audio engineer, but two things come to mind...one was something dumb I did a while back. Is your mic directional? Do you have the "good side' facing you and is the switch on the right setting (you know the cartioid thingy?) I know I know, but sometimes you just have to make sure the lamp is plugged in before you change the bulb! Smile

The second thing is are your xlr's pushed in all the way? And I've also been told that cable laying on top of each other can cause a hum... Ok, now someone who actually knows what they're talking about try to help!!!! Smile

bobsouer · Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 9:21 pm Post subject:

Ron,

Welcome to the world of professional audio equipment! And the never ending quest for sonic greatness.

Now to start to answer your question...to me it sounds like a combination of air handling (was the central heat still turned off when you made the voice recording?) and the noise from your computer's power supply fan.

The ambient recording seemed much quieter than the recording with your voice. Did you raise the gain (normalize, for example?) your voice recording when you finished? If so, you should process the ambient recording to the same degree and re-post it, so we can compare apples to apples.
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Jeffrey Kafer · Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 9:27 pm Post subject:

Does a noise reduction pass clean it up without degrading the sound too much?
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bobsouer · Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 9:44 pm Post subject:

todd ellis · Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 9:47 pm Post subject:

Sounds like power supply to me. You might also try an external sound card.
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ronphi · Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 10:38 pm Post subject:

Melissa. Thanks for the suggestion. The mic is cardioid and the "good side" is facing me. It is single pattern so there are no switches.

Bob. My first thought was air handling. I turned off the central heat so no fan is running there. I moved the mic to a different room and had the same low noise. Thought it might be noise picked up internally so I tried my wife's laptop which is where the recording was made. The PC was turned off.

Todd, I am using an Alesis USB mixer so (if I understand correctly) it bypasses the sound card. The mic is a Rode NT1A.

Here is a fresh recording from the PC (not the laptop). This has both voice and dead air.

Now for some reason I'm not able to hear the audio from the links. I can hear the sound files on the PC and I can hear the sound files on the web site but not using the link I just posted or the links I posted earlier. Neither can I hear the audio from the links Bob posted. I get the QT screen and the player moves but no sound. I'll look into that but if you can't hear the audio I posted please let me know.
_________________
Ron Phillips

"The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?"
David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urging for investment in the radio in the 1920s.

sdelgo · Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2007 6:14 am Post subject:

Sounds like it's your mixer's preamps. have you tried using a stand alone mic pre? Usually the mic preamps on lower end mixers are just that... low quality (alot of noise and low quality electronics) Try a good quality mic preamp e.g. Grace, FMR, PreSonus for about $500 - Avalon, Manley, Focusrite $1500 on up. Mackie mixers have pretty decent sounding preamps in their mixers.

Hope this helps you out.

Steve
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