[habiTat]

Hi guys,

Things are getting serious now, the album is coming on and some good quality recordings are required.

Ramshackles and a few others have commented on the background noise on my tracks, given that I now record in a pretty dead space, the only cause can be the laptop itself, in the room with me.

I'm considering getting a separate monitor and mouse and wiring things up so that the laptop stays outside the room.

Any ideas or tips??

[Kafla]

I am not expert Habi but it could even be the level you are recording at

I always record with the input lower than I think I will need - you will be surprised at the amount of 'static ' a good mic can pick up

It will also show up in your work more as its normally just guitar and voice

Make sure as well its nothing in the house , all kinds of electrical equipment can interfere with your sound - you got aerials or satellite wires/connections in the loft?

Try different positions for your laptop - turn the input gain up very high and see if it picks anything up when you move the laptop in different positions - mines works well placed behind the mic but I am not sure there is any science basis to this 

[Michael]

I agree with Kafla - go easy on the gain knob and rather try to get the guitar / yourself closer to the mic to achieve the required volume. You want as big a signal-to-noise-ratio as possible, otherwise when you turn up the volume of the track in the DAW later, you'll also increase the noise volume.

Mic placement can be a surprisingly big factor too. I used to record my guitar with the mic pointing in the approximate direction of my computer - which was still more than 2 meters away - because it was easier to just turn around in my chair, record the track and then resum working on the computer. After rearranging that recording-setup, i could hear a small but noticable difference in the recordings.

In the end, no matter how acoustically 'sterile' your room is, every mic will pick up some or more static, depending on the quality and price range.

There are lots of plug-ins out there that can help reduce the noise in your recordings, called De-noisers or Expanders. They kind of do just the opposite of what a compressor does: They turn down the volume whenever the signal falls below a certain level - so during the quiet parts where the static is most noticeable.
Handle with care though, you have to get the plug-in settings just right, otherwise it might ruin your recording.

[Ramshackles]

If you have any rockwool lying around or anything, try making a little box for your laptop.

It can also be your gain staging.

You need to run your preamp fairly hot. Preamps, being analogue devices have a 'nominal' level at which their signal to noise ratio is best. If you have a VU/level meter on your preamp, aim to get it around 0VU. It is ok if some peaks go over this as long as you can't hear distortion. Note that I am talking about the level meter you might have on your preamp and NOT in your computer. That is the level after the audio has been converted to digital through your soundcard and is something else.

If you have no level meter, then turn up your preamp until you can hear it distorting on the loudest parts. Then turn it down a bit. So you get maximum level from the preamp without distortion.

This high level might be too much for your computer and cause clipping (your meter on your DAW goes above 0dBFS). So you will need to turn down your input channel.

Note that you might need to turn down your input channel BEFORE turning up your mic preamp as you might mistake clipping in the DAW for distortion from the preamp

Tell us a bit about your kit (what mic, preamp and audio interface you have) and I might be able to be a bit more specific.

[KEROUAC1957]

I haven't had a listen as yet but just a thought. I know I get some audible mains lead noise when my laptop is plugged in, which disappears when I use just battery power. Could it be this?

[Stephen Palmer]

Unlikely to be laptop noise I would have thought - much more likely mike noise (gain too high) or even more likely - cables. Cables are my first thing to check if technical difficulties arise...

[habiTat]

Great replies guys, thanks 

My laptop fan is quite loud, it always has been from new, just a constant audible whooshing sound, if I ask too much of the computer it gets louder

But you may well be right about the recording level.

I am using a Samson G-Track USB condenser mic with built in audio interface, plugged directly in via USB, that's it. No pre-amps or other interface stuff, if I'm honest I have no idea what all those things really do 

I have a 'mic' knob and a 'inst' knob (for instruments) and I set the mic level by watching the little blue bar (in Audacity) bounce around, i turn the mic knob up as high as I can until the blue bar starts to appear (background noise), then I turn it back down a notch.

Sorry to put it in such basic terms but where the tech bit is concerned, I learnt just enough to do what I do, the way I wanted to do it, then stopped 

From where I see it though, to have a laptop buzzing away less than 1 metre from a very sensitive mic must be something worth sorting out..?

btw, my old laptop does do the static sound/interference thing when plugged in, but this new one doesn't.

[Ramshackles]

Here is what to do with your samson:

When using it as a microphone:
- set the input selector to mic/inst
- set all level controls to 0
- While playing your guitar/singing at the volume you will record at, turn up the mic volume until the peak LED flashes on the loudest parts. Slowly turn down the mic volume until it is as high as it can be without any peaks
- Set the volume on the input channel on your DAW so that your record at around -10dBFS. It doesn't have to be exact, but you do need to leave yourself enough headroom. As you add more tracks, the headroom on the master stereo channel in the DAW will decrease. Setting your record level on individual tracks at around -10dBFS is fine for most recordings


If you are still getting a lot of noise, at least you know it's not the mic!
 

[habiTat]

Cheers Ram, great advice..

My only question, the input volume slider in Audacity is measured from 0.0 to 1.0 and only shows up incremental changes of one tenth (ie    0.1 - 0.2 - 0.3   etc..)

Any ideas?

[Ramshackles]

you should have a meter toolbar in audacity?

Probably your scale is set to linear, rather than dB. Somewhere around 0.5 in that case...