I posted this on the Clips & Snips forum, but I thought I’d post it here too:
I’m getting an awful lot of background noise and relatively little whistle volume when I record (by background noise, I mean a static-y hissing, not things like the dog barking in the background, which is a training question rather than a recording question;) ). I’m using the stock “Sound Recorder” and mike that came with my daughter’s computer (the one that came with my computer has never worked). Is there a “soft” fix for this, so you can hear the whistle without hearing what sounds like a background chorus of asthmatics in crisis, or do I need a new mike (or better software?)? I’ve tried downloading a couple of the shareware recording programs from the web, but can’t seem to get them to work at all.
Sometimes it could be as simple as double checking the volume settings for your system. For example, if you have your mic turned up all the way in the recording software and you aren’t getting much signal, it could be that your computer has a separate sound input volume setting.
My MAC defaults to very low volume when I shut it down. I have to go into the control panel to turn it up all the way just to get the Audacity to work, and Audacity has its own volume setting. The clue would be that you had to turn something ALL the way up just to get a signal. Should be a real strong signal coming in that you have to turn DOWN…
Just an idea. Other than that, you are picking up the sound from the CPU fan…
Sounds like your problem is breath hitting the mic.
Try this: Sit or stand perpendicular to the mic, so you aren’t actually facing toward it, but it points at your whistle from the side.
You can then place the mic quite close (just not so close it hits your fingers) and record without getting the wind noise on the mic. Move the mic around to get the best volume, but in a quiet room this shouldn’t be a problem.
Hope this makes sense. It works for me.
Tom
[edited to remove a pathetic attempt at a diagram]
[ This Message was edited by: WyoBadger on 2003-02-28 17:53 ]
Are you sure it’s plugged into the “MIC” jack and not the “LINE IN” jack?
Make sure of that first. (I don’t mean that to be an offensive question, I realise it’s a simple one)
If it is plugged in good and tight into the MIC jack, then I agree with the others, just experiment with how close / far away you are from the mic, how you are positioned to it, etc.
On 2003-02-28 17:51, WyoBadger wrote:
Sounds like your problem is breath hitting the mic.
Try this: Sit or stand perpendicular to the mic, so you aren’t actually facing toward it, but it points at your whistle from the side.
You can then place the mic quite close (just not so close it hits your fingers) and record without getting the wind noise on the mic. Move the mic around to get the best volume, but in a quiet room this shouldn’t be a problem.
Hope this makes sense. It works for me.
Tom
[edited to remove a pathetic attempt at a diagram]
[ This Message was edited by: WyoBadger on 2003-02-28 17:53 ]
This one makes quite a bit of sense, as I noticed that the “static” is louder when I take a breath…almost sounds like someone blowing on the mike. Next time I record, I’ll try both repositioning myself relative to the mike and checking the settings to see if it makes a difference.
I just checked to make sure the mike is plugged into the mike jack (it is)…another good suggestion, as we recently moved things around, and it wouldn’t have surprised me at all to find it plugged into the line-in jack.
One other question…is there a way to edit that noise out of a recording, or am I just going to have to re-record the tunes?
if wind/air/breath is your problem, you may want to construct yourself a wind screen. any thin, relatively pourous material should work. perhaps a facial tissue? just find something rigid to hold it open and put it in front of the mic. computer mics are also very directional, so you might want to move your fipple area closer to the front of the mic.
as for hissing, open up your sound preferences and mute every channel except for master, wave, and microphone. you’d be suprised how much noise all of those other channels add to overall signal. you might also want to try another program as sound recorder just records “master” instead of a specific channel. if all else fails, there are many sound editing/recording programs that have noise filters in them. just do a search and find one that suits what you want the best.
There you will discover many features. To cleaning up your sound. You will also be able to experiment with sound effects if you so choose to.
Another cool feature. If you have albums or tapes you can hook the record player or tape deck into your line in and record it right to the program. From there you can clean it up, burn a cd or export to a Mp3.
