Noisy neighborhood...

[Allan M.]

I've been trying my hand at recording for a while now, redoing my own stories over and over, trying to get the hang of the technical details. I have a Aspireone Netbook and an M-Audio Producer mike.

While its usually rather hard to notice, after running the audio through the Levelator, I've noticed that road noise is much more evident. I have a reasonably dead space to work in, but nothing I've seen can dampen the deep rumbles of passing Harley humpers and diesel trucks. Considering I live on the corner of a main connector to the local highway, I can't do much about stopping the noise.

I'm just trying to get my voice out there, and learning how to use the equipment. Considering this is the Mentoring section, I suppose this is the best place to start.

[Curtis Carlsen]

I just managed to listen to your second clip. I was at work earlier. I don't hear much hum at all. Ears must be getting old. It sounded like you were close in on the microphone, with give you some hiss on the 'S's, Your voice sounded pretty even. I think you won't get a whole lot better than this without rather more work. I agree that the best bet is to find a quiet time/place to record. Noise reuction is a band-aid fix, and always degrades some aspect of the audio to reduce the noise. It's too bad that after what sounds like significant effort you're still getting occasional interference. A couple professionals I've talked to say It usually takes several times longer to record a track than play it. (And the editting takes more time than recording if you want good quality) The situation for folks without a full sound room is just worse.

Good luck.

[Allan M.]

By the way, thanks for all your comments. I kinda wish they used a standard forum format, though.

Unfortunately, there are no adjustments or settings of any kind on the mic itself, barring the possiblity of a potentiometer inside the case. Just a USB B port, a headphone minijack, and what I've heard called an onion? It is cardioid if that makes a difference, but I've been sure to speak into the correct face. I'll see if I can find my really long USB cord and hook in to my main PC.

[Dan Sawyer]

I took and amped the thing to hear what you've got going on, and there are at least two things giving you your noise floor:

1) amplifier noise -- if this is a USB mic, play with the driver settings for sensitivity. If it's XLR, check to see if you're adding phantom power somewhere, or if you're running it through multiple preamps (in which case you should turn one of them off).

2) A low rumble. This sounds like a household A/C unit, but it could be vibrations from a nearby road transferring up through the floor, or it could be a refrigerator on the other side of the wall. Look for sources of low frequency noise, and filter them out. If all else fails, surround the mic with foam and shock mount it, then record in a quiet room.

Keep in mind that if you can push the noise floor to below -60db, it's going to take an amazing amount of amplification for the noise to show up at all.

[Rhonda R. Carpenter]

Listen to Nathan and Sawyer they know what they are talking about. I have many nights wish the neighbors dogs an ill timed fate. I don't usually have the traffic noise as I live in the mountains. but get a pack of coyotes killing something on the golf course a 1/2 mile away and I can hear it in the recording. I also tend to record in the middle of the night. from 12 to 2 am so that the road noise is null and the hopefully the neighbors dogs are quiet.