Recording Help

[chris_r]

Hello,

When recording we have a quite loud/noticeable 'hiss' noise from start to finish.

We have this mic, on a stand with pop filter: http://www.rodemic.com/?pagename=Products&product=NT1-A

The mixer we use is http://img.luthman.se/ProductImages/HiRes/210683.jpg

and we have the mixer going into brand new vista laptop via 3.5m jack we cannot get rid of this hiss noise, its very annoying. we have used hiss reduction is adobe audition but it aint upto scratch an takes away the life of the lyrics.

any ideas, i have been told it may be laptop sound card? i dnt know? Please help, thanks

Laptop is HP Pavillion DV9000 vista edition

 

[banja]

A few ideas. I assume that mic needs phantom power, is it working?

Make sure you set the input gain / sensitivity correctly on the mixer first. You want it as high as possible without clipping on the mixer / desk meter. This way you'll have the highest signal you can and (hopefully) best signal to noise ratio.

Make sure all the other volume options are ticked off in the volume properties in Windows. If you're going Line in, make sure the Mic input one is off, and the CD player one too (from your CD rom). All of them. Theoretically, these playback boxes shouldn't cross to the recording anyway, but nevertheless.

Next make sure the balance between the Windows input, and the software input you are using, are balanced correctly. This can be tricky because it's easy to get confused by which is the input level and which is the recording level. Again you want the input level as high as possible without the signal distorting.

Of course, the noise could be caused by any number of factors. Electrical interference etc. Is it there when you monitor the mic, before recording? Or only once recorded? Can you monitor the sound on the PC before recording? Is it there then? If it's only there once recorded then you know it's happening between the mixer and the PC, or within the PC as the recording happens.