Guest danne Posted June 15, 2003 Posted June 15, 2003 hello! When I am about to record something thru my analog input I can see some sort off unwellcomed noise (around -76db) even if my mixer is´nt turned on. I´ve managed to reduce it a little bit with pluggs without affecting the main sound. is this a usual problem in homestudios or is can my soundcard (ESI waveterminal 192L) broken or disturbed by something like other cables?? any tips about mastering this noise whould be very helpfull. I hope someone can help me out! regards daniel Quote
Guest soliptic Posted June 15, 2003 Posted June 15, 2003 hmm, i'm afraid i'm not familiar with that soundcard, so its hard to say if its some £30 piece of crap designed purely for 'normal' people (ie games and annoying "you've got mail" type system-sound playback)... the kind of card that comes pre-installed in a general consumer pc... well, then the ADCs will be really shitty, and a bad S/N ratio is to be expected. in this case i would simply say buy a better card. something like the audiophile from m-audio or similar product from echo/terratec/etc will give you 24/96 recording with hi-quality ADCs and they are only about £170. if it IS some designed-for-musicians card of £150 or above then really i would expect it to be fine.... i guess the problem must be elsewhere. it certainly is a problem, a noise floor of -76db is definitely not 'usual' imho. the computer itself can cause interference, thats why the most expensive s/cards mount their converters in a separate box... not much you can do about that... also cables could be causing noise if they were broken or badly earthed or something. what does the noise sound like- a hiss or a hum? Quote
Guest danne Posted June 16, 2003 Posted June 16, 2003 hello soliptic! the card is designed for musicmaking it have 24/196 recording, high quality a/d converters asio etc...i bought it for 3000 swe krowns (300dollars). I dont think the noise comes from the comp. because when I record from another app to another there is no noise. The noise sounds like some kind of hum. thanks for the reply danne Quote
Guest soliptic Posted June 17, 2003 Posted June 17, 2003 ah right, the soundcard should definitely be more than capable then if its hum, rather than hiss, i would suspect the problem lays with "mains" (electricity) cabling - ground loops and stuff. i dont really understand all this to be honest, but *i think* it is something to do with earths, if (say) your synth power plug in not earthed right, it will hum down the jack lead. or something. told u i didnt understand it ;-) if u cant fix the actual problem, there is one piece of good news - mains hum is at a disctinct frequency - i think its usually something like 40-50hz - it varies in different countries (depending on their voltage or whatever). then of course there are harmonics (100, 25, etc) but in general, it may be possible to kill the hum with a very high Q parametric eq notch "sound on sound" magazine has good info on this stuff, u could try searching their website: http://www.sospubs.co.uk Quote
Guest E.T. Posted June 18, 2003 Posted June 18, 2003 What is your recording source, danne? Maybe it's not the fault of soundcard, but your external signal... Quote
Guest daaaaaaaaanne Posted June 18, 2003 Posted June 18, 2003 recording source is a mixer (phonic 1202m) but the source is not the problem, because I still have a noiseflor around -76 db even if everything is pulled out of the card. I think it´s somthing with my computer or maybe my amp that are causing the floor. thanks! Quote
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