[sarepaar]

Hi everyone,

So I decided to buy a mic because my first recording posted here was terrible. I did not want to spent too much money on it so I found the samson G track usb second hand for 50 euros on internet. This mic had great reviews and I listened to sound samples of others and to me it all sounded great.

When I use the mic however I hear too much background noice(static noise in English?) for my liking. Is it normal to hear this noise when I put the volume alle the way up and am I expecting too much from it? Or is something wrong? I googled it (google knows everything:))and found that there is often a problem with the mic in combination with windows 7. Couldn't find anything about windows 8 which I am using.

I might also just be too stupid to understand the settings. When I just record my voice I used mono and inst/mic with the mic knob 3/4 up and volume almost all the way.

Anyone here got any idea what might be the problem? or am I expecting too much.
thanks!
Sarah

[Boydie]

It sounds like a "gain staging" issue to me, where your signal is being recorded too "hot" (high)

I think we can get this sorted for you....

Could you describe EXACTLY how you are recording and at what levels

Eg

How is the mic connected to the PC?

What drivers are you using (if there are ASIO Drivers I would try these)?

What software are you using to record?

What signal level is the meter in your software showing (I would aim for -9dbs)

I would suggest turning the INPUT volume down on the mic so that your software meters bounce around the -12 to -9dbs mark

This should give you a health enough signal to work with but minimise background noise/static

[sarepaar]

Hi boydie thanks for your reply!
It is a usb mic so it's connected with a cable directly into my laptop.
I am new to this so I hope I can give the right answers.

Had to look up what driver I am using because I am no computer nerd at all. But I think it is amd e1-2100 APU wit radeon(TM) HD Graphics (2 CPUs), 1.0 GHz. Could that be right? I have no idea what it means. I'm using my very cheap acer aspire V5 notebook.
I now used the trial version of reaper. I think the signal level was about -20. Input volume would be the mic knob? Because if I turn that down the recording sounds very empty.

[Boydie]

Hmmm, that driver sounds like your video card

Did you just plug the microphone in and it "worked" or did you have to install the drivers (either from a cd or the Samson website) - if not I would suggest that you download the latest drivers from the SAMSON website

Another place to look is in the WINDOWS audio settings

Under MICROPHONE properties there is a tab called LEVELS - Windows can sometimes set this to +30 by default (which would be the rogue "gain staging" issues) - if yours it set to +30db then use the slider to reduce it to 0db and only use the knob on the microphone to change the recording level (not WINDOWS or REAPER)

Try this and let us know how you get on...

[sarepaar]

haha sorry I really don't understand these kind of things.
When I first plugged in the microphone it automatically started installing things. After that it just worked. Is that enough?

It tried to change the levels but it did not record at all after that. Am I doing something wrong again? It was set to around 50. Anyway changing it did not solve the problem. I can hear the noise even with the mic knob turned all the way down.

[shadowfax]

Hi, you should consider getting yourself an interface which will give you more control over the mic levels..
If you think you are gonna get serious about recording don't make the same mistake I made....
I bought cheap stuff and kept wondering why I had a rubbish sound..it sounds like you may be going down the same route, I think Boydie will agree that (if your gonna get serious) it's worth getting a Rode NT 1A and a reasonable priced interface from..maybe, Focusrite..everybody will have their own view on equipment..these are just some suggestions..
I spent a lot more money than these two items cost before I realised I would have saved a lot of money if I'd bought them straight away..just had nobody around to advise me...

good luck, Kevin

[sarepaar]

Thank you for the tip! I actually don't even know what an interface is. For now I think the mic is just fine. The sound is already much better than in the recordings before. Think I'll just focus on writing good songs and making okay recordings. Once I feel I have a little more experience writing songs I will start worrying about recording. And then I'll know where to find you!

[Hooky]

I don't have a samson G track but I do have a samson Go Mic which is its smaller brother, I find using ASIO4ALL is better than the native drivers. You could give that a go. Just google ASIO4ALL and install the software.

[manninomusic]

I would plan on getting an audio interface. There are many of them to choose from, and at all different prices. When I started, I used a Behringer UCA-202, which lasted me for 5 years, and I ended up changing t because I wanted to upgrade. It cost me $35 and it was the best $35 i have ever spent. I recently changed to a bigger an better Audio interface. I purchased the M-Audio Quad for around $250, and the sound quality had dramatically increased. Here is a sample of one of the songs that I have created in my studio using the M-Audio Quad interface. This was recorded in Logic Pro X.