Can I get a sound quality check?

Emmett Andrews · **Voice Talent** Joined: 17 Jul 2004 Posts: 132

I hear the whine now. It sounds like hard drive noise to me, but you say it doesn't matter if the PC is present or not. Is there ANYTHING else in the room that generates any kind of noise? Try taking the mic into a closet and see what happens.

Colin is right about AD noise too. I'm not convinced that the whine is AD noise, but some of the hiss is. There's a fair amount of his that can be minimized by recording in averaged mono (L+R) or applying the channel mixer. I gave it a shot and some of the HF hiss is greatly reduced with that single step, as the noise is, at least somewhat, out of phase. Even with USB mics, an AD conversion must take place. In your case, it occurs within the mic itself, rather than in an interface. However, the same thing is happening and the same rules apply.

And yes, the noise gate is a commonly used (and misused) tool. It's much better to fix the problem at the source, however, and just use a gate to polish it or not use one at all.

Try the closet thing. The fact that switching to figure 8 makes it dissolve makes me think that it's something in the room. If I am correct, it has to be something at or prior to the AD converters. Please post a sample from the closet so we can hear exactly what is happening with the mic without the interference of a room.

Emmett

Aharon Rabinowitz · **Voice Talent** Joined: 05 Dec 2007 Posts: 12

"I hear the whine now. It sounds like hard drive noise to me, but you say it doesn't matter if the PC is present or not. Is there ANYTHING else in the room that generates any kind of noise? Try taking the mic into a closet and see what happens. "

Actually, that was from the closet. But I'll see if there is anything else going on. in there. There are some phone wires (like a major cable) that runs through the closet (welcome to NY), but I can't imagine that's the issue.

Definitely not hard drive noise. sounds exactly the same with the computer in or out of the closet. Exactly. Even the noise level (measured on the audio meter) is exactly the same with no change.

"There's a fair amount of his that can be minimized by recording in averaged mono (L+R) or applying the channel mixer. "

Can you explain that. I'm in audition, what tools should I use for this?

"The fact that switching to figure 8 makes it dissolve makes me think that it's something in the room."

Like I said, the people at Samson were baffled.

However, one suggestion was that my input volume for the mic (in windows sound controls) was too low (20%) and that I should crank it up, and lower the input gain in Audition 2 (in other words, allow more original sound into the computer, and use audition to lower the incoming volume so it doesn't peak past the red zone and blow out). They said that the noise I;m hearing may be the result of not enough actual sound coming in, and electronic noises that wouldn't normally be heard are competing with low analog audio (my voice).

I tried this, however, that did not seem to actually do anything. I went into the mixer (in AA) and tried to lower the input gain for the USB mic, and while the audio played at a lower volume, the sound was still peaking far into the red, and blown out exactly as before, sounding crushed. So now it sounded distorted but just at a lower volume.

I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong in there (using the wrong controls to lower input gain) or if Audition 2 just doesn't understand how to lower the input gain for the usb mic.

So I guess the question is, how do I set up my mic to allow 80% in, and somehow control that incoming sound in audition?

Thanks.[/i]

Aharon Rabinowitz · **Voice Talent** Joined: 05 Dec 2007 Posts: 12

Thanks for your continued patience. Although I've been behind the mic for a while, doing it all on my own is new to me.

OK, using a noise gate of -60 db I got rid of the buzz. Also, I think I got rid of most of the reflection, but now I have to work on bringing up my levels.

If you had to work with this file, what would you do to get it up to par?

Thanks.

Aharon

Ed Gambill · **Voice Talent** Joined: 04 Jun 2007 Posts: 585

Chris

Can you point the way to the EBU requirment you mentioned for -9 db.

I would like to read it.

Thanks Ed