Need help with "Noise" from recording..

[RobertAllan]

Im sure this has been tackled a million times and answered a million times,
but as everyones set-up is different i figured id give it a go..

I recently baught a rode m3 condencer mic with the goal to use it to add one of my accoustic guitars to my music. After trying a bit using my internal soundcard (which works for my vocal mic, midikeyboard and virtual guitar amps) i ended up using my USB guitar link thingy to plug my new mic. For the first time i have a mic now that captures the sound i love of my accoustic guitar, HOWEVER it also adds a (i guess its called?) white noise.. Not loud but loud enough to ruin it for me,lol
Ive tried using the noise reduction thing on Mixcraft 6, but when i hit the number where the noise goes away it also cuts out some of the beauty of my guitar
I dont have a ideal home studio room, and im sure getting it perfect is impossible with my current situation as im not even concidering sound proofing the room etc..
BUT i saw a video awhile back where a dude removed a similar noise using a stand-alone compressor?
Basically from what i understood he tweaked around and in the end ended up putting the "Noise" in the back of the recording and then managed to "hide" it from the final take by adjusting the attack etc..
Is this possible? And if anyone understands what i mean..May i ask someone explain it to me?
Feel free to dumb it down In the end i just want to be able to record as clean as possible without having to wait until i move to a house i can hook up a real home studio in,lol


RobertAllan

[gypsy101]

the "acoustic guitar" compressor setting in Classic Compressor might work & tweak it from there.
is the mic picking up room noise like maybe a ceiling fan or other "outside" noise?

how high is the gain on the mic pre?

maybe something as simple as a duct cover for the mic would help.

you could also try to EQ out the white noise w/ the 20kHz slider on a graphic eq or use a parametric eq to single out & reduce the problem frequency.

[RobertAllan]

Much much appreciated Gypsy101!
Im only guessing as my knowledge on matter is limited,
but if i were to guess i would say that the "noise" is either from my computer running
(i stretch the cable/mic as far as it can go in the room) or my mic settings (no clue how to adjust them as i use my guitar link usb thingy to plug the mic..)
I will definately look into all of your suggestions and hopefully find a method that works
Thanks man! High-five from a far,lol







RobertAllan

[gypsy101]

record a soundbyte of it then post on Soundcloud & paste the link here for us to hear.
it may be as simple as turning sideways to your computer monitor but that would be more of a hum than a hiss.

from the mic's description-
Frequency Range: 40Hz ~ 20,000Hz selectable High Pass Filter (HPF) @ 80Hz 12dB/octave
three stage pad (O, -10db, -20db),

try turning the hi-pass filter off.

[freightgod]

Check your cable run carefully and make sure it's not crossing any power lines, also look around your room at unused appliances that may share the same circuit as your recording gear, even lighting, especially fluorescent, can introduce stray hum.

[RobertAllan]

Okay..Uploaded a quick recording..
https://soundcloud.com/robertallanoffic ... k-mixcraft

[TrevsAudio]

Sounds like mic placement to me - especially if its a condenser. Maybe too close to the sound hole?

Have a look at this vid.

[outteh]

Condenser microphones inherently have some air and noise to them. You could try a wind screen and adjust the microphone placement as suggested. Anyone know what the pattern is for this microphone? That could help in determining a good placement arangement for reducing noise.

[RobertAllan]

Thanks for the reply trevlyns, and you might be right.
It doesnt make much sense to me though, but i guess its all about learning.
The only difference i can see from my set-up for the recording and the guy in the video is that he has his mic "facing down" or hanging, while mine has been used same way as my other microphone meaning tip facing the source i wanna capture in this case my accoustic guitar..
Could this be it? And if so...How can where a mic is facing create that "shhhh" noise you hear if you have decent volume? is it that its having a hard time focusing on what to capture or something?
*I prolly wont try more today as im starting on todays "to-do"-list*





RobertAllan

[freightgod]

It's just my impression, but a quick listen makes it sound to me like you're miking the room more than the source. It sounds like your mic is a thousand miles away from your guitar? That's just me.

I record in a really noisy room, lots of traffic going by, radiators popping and computer noise. My solution is close miking for vocals and for my acoustic a Seymour Duncan soundhole pickup. I just surrendered.

[GovernmentMule]

Sounds to me like the gain is too high.

What is a "USB guitar link thingy"? Does it have any settings? If it is made especially for guitar it could have a high gain for non-active pickups.

[Acoustica Greg]

Hi,

It's also important to have a high enough recording level in Mixcraft. If the recording level is too low, you'll have a greater noise-to-signal ratio when you turn up the volume and listen to the recording.

Microphone placement might be key!

Greg

[RobertAllan]

Thanks for the ideas and thoughts guys!
The mic is litterally 3 inches away from my guitar during the recording
The recording level is high aswell, allthough thats a good tip.
The guitar link thingy is a usb driven thing that i can plug my guitar into to use virtual amps
instead of using the internal soundcard on computer or a digital recording interface.
I baught it a few years ago to use with guitar rig and amplitube etc..
its designed to use with guitars/basses other electric string instruments, but after playing around with it i realised that it worked to just plug my mic directly into it aswell..

I dont really know how to change the settings there, but i know i have, i remember having a huuuuge latency issue when i first startet using it, but it would make sense that the settings are a bit weird, as i now (Appearently) use the same exact settings for recording my electric guitar as my accoustic guitar, im sure they should have different settings for best result..
Only thing i KNOW how to mess around with is buffer size and wether or not to use Asio4all or wave rt etc.. and to my knowledge that didnt change much..






RobertAllan

[RobertAllan]

Okay..Let me know what those who listened to the first recording
thinks of this one..
https://soundcloud.com/robertallanoffic ... ftaudacity

I noticed i still had audacity installed and decided to give it a quick shot without much hope before
messing more around with it..I added the mixcraft track, went to effects, chose "noise removal", clicked to get a "noise profile" before i okayed it and heres the result..the annoying noise is basically gone and it took 1 minutes and little to no effort at all,lol

Obviously it would be more fun to record more cleanly, but atleast this is a great free plan b




RobertAllan

[TrevsAudio]

Again, an opinion - I think 3 inches is too close. You could be picking picking up unwanted resonance from your guitar. Try placing it about 6 inches away opposite the sound hole but pointing to the 12th fret. It makes no difference if the mic is inverted or not. I like to keep the level between -12 and - 6db for the peaks.
As another thought, check you're not too close to walls or solid surfaces that could bounce the sound around and back into the mic.