Mic Levels

Hello Folks - I use Magix and Sonar LE to record vocal tracks.  I plug the mic (USB) into my laptop.  My vocal tracks have hissing in the background and the track is unusable.  I have turned my mix levels to zero and still it picks up a background noise.  Could it be my ‘cooling fan’ from my laptop?  My mic is powerful (I guess) as I’ve picked up the television located downstairs….
Thanks for any assistance anyone can provide!!

Cathy

Using a USB microphone is never going to give you great sound quality because the analog to digital conversion used in those things isn’t very good. If the convertors aren’t great, the sound quality and hiss will be bad. If it still is hissing when the level is at zero, it is because of the way your computer has to convert from analog to digital with that microphone.

Mod8

I’m curious when you say “I have turned my mix levels to zero”, which mix level you’re referring to.  Just turning down the fader in your Sonar, may not be turning down the input from the mic.  So, it’s possible, even with the mix fader all the way down, you’re still hearing the mic.  And yes, a condensor mic will pick up all the noise in the room.  If you can hear your laptop fan, the mic will hear it better.

Hello Mod8 - I guess nothing can replace the ‘real’ thing, a recording studio setting.  Thank you so much for responding to my question!!

Cathy

Hi Dave - the level that I am turning down is the mic - through windows, control panel, sounds, etc.  I’m still working on it, and may have it to a decent level where at least a vocal track can be recorded without too much noise.

Thank you and I appreciate your time in all this!

Cathy

In a related note, I’m getting huge hiss using a TC Helicon Voicelive, a shure sm 58 for voice and 57 beta to mic the guitars, going into an alesis multimix 8 and from there into my Mac. Very frustrating. I did just read to up the gain on the voicelive and then lower the gain on the mixer. I’ll try that and let you know how it goes. Cathy there are lots of small mixers you can use to connect via usb to your pc. Then you can use a quality mic to record with.

John

Hi John, 

  Your TC Helicon sounds expensive…yes, the hissing is very frustrating.

  In response to your mention of small mixers, what kind are there?  I am totally tech challenged!  lol…

  Thanks

  Cathy

Cathy,

I have an alesis, which gets the job done, but am currently looking at upgrading to a Mackie. I use a Shure sm 57 and 58 mic, both beta, and I can get the noise to a reasonable level, much better than before by turning the gain on the mixer down, and upping the mic levels—they are 2 different things. It made an immediate significant improvement. I don’t think you can possibly get the job done with a usb mic…I would suggest a quality mic and a small mixer—you need the mixer or some sort of mic preamplifier to boost the signal of your microphone.

Just so you know, you could go absolutely nuts on this stuff, but depending upon your needs, you will be able to get a good recording from something that simple.

That’s my take so far, although I’m new to the arena.

John

At what level is it suitable to turn your studio mic to for recoding? Any ideals