My purpose is to make my computer able to record voice such that I can make
a book-on-tape of my novel. Great! Last week I posted and many of you
helped a lot. The problem is that there was soooooooooo much white nose
that I could hardly hear the voice. It was recomended that my first get a
mic preamp which I did. I folloowed the recomendations and got a M-Audio
mobile pre USB. Thjat is cool in that I can use it through my usb ports
rather than the sound card. Also, is XLR and that works with my mic without
and adapter.

THe noise has been cut to less than half, which is a big first step. But
there is still too much to make a descent recording. I'm hoping to get a
next step for the experts, you guys and gals.

Keep in mind, I am not looking for perfection, just something that is
reasonably good.

The mic is an Audiotechnia ATM41A. Sound Blaster Audigy 2 24 bit card.
software, SoundForge.

Thanks in advance

Holden

"Holden" wrote in message
m...

THe noise has been cut to less than half, which is a big first step. But
there is still too much to make a descent recording. I'm hoping to get a
next step for the experts, you guys and gals.

Keep in mind, I am not looking for perfection, just something that is
reasonably good.

The mic is an Audiotechnia ATM41A. Sound Blaster Audigy 2 24 bit card.
software, SoundForge.

Where are you placing the microphone? And is the output of the preamp
running into the line input of the Audigy card?

Peace,
Paul

Are you getting enough signal level into your sound card? In
Soundforge, does the waveform look pretty big?

Al

On Mon, 21 Mar 2005 17:33:32 GMT, "Holden"
wrote:

My purpose is to make my computer able to record voice such that I can make
a book-on-tape of my novel. Great! Last week I posted and many of you
helped a lot. The problem is that there was soooooooooo much white nose
that I could hardly hear the voice. It was recomended that my first get a
mic preamp which I did. I folloowed the recomendations and got a M-Audio
mobile pre USB. Thjat is cool in that I can use it through my usb ports
rather than the sound card. Also, is XLR and that works with my mic without
and adapter.

THe noise has been cut to less than half, which is a big first step. But
there is still too much to make a descent recording. I'm hoping to get a
next step for the experts, you guys and gals.

Keep in mind, I am not looking for perfection, just something that is
reasonably good.

The mic is an Audiotechnia ATM41A. Sound Blaster Audigy 2 24 bit card.
software, SoundForge.

Thanks in advance

Holden

Holden wrote:

snip

THe noise has been cut to less than half, which is a big first step. But
there is still too much to make a descent recording. I'm hoping to get a
next step for the experts, you guys and gals.

Your probelm could be a case of "garbage in, garbage out" in the form of
noise in the room. Is your mic located close enough to your computer that
the mic is hearing the noise created by the computer's fan(s)? Recordings
have a way of revealing environmental noises that most people ignore when
using only their ears.

snip

--
================================================== ======================
Michael Kesti | "And like, one and one don't make
| two, one and one make one."
| - The Who, Bargain

THe waveform could be better, but it's OK. Even when I'm just looking at
the levels with no recording, the background is very high. Michael could be
right, jusnk in junk out. But even when I move far away form the computer
and have a minimum of crap from everything else, the levesl are still high.
Doesn't seem to have much of a difference.

I was hoping that sound forge had a noise reduction in which I could make my
recording, record some of the background, and then use the background
recording to filter the noise out of the origianl recording. But I don't
see anything like that in the program.

I've done these things before, but it has been so long that I am not clear
what ther possibilities are.

Next I will try to move as far away from any background as possible and see
if the baseline is more quiet.

Holden

"play on" wrote in message
...
Are you getting enough signal level into your sound card? In
Soundforge, does the waveform look pretty big?

Al

On Mon, 21 Mar 2005 17:33:32 GMT, "Holden"
wrote:

My purpose is to make my computer able to record voice such that I can
make
a book-on-tape of my novel. Great! Last week I posted and many of you
helped a lot. The problem is that there was soooooooooo much white nose
that I could hardly hear the voice. It was recomended that my first get a
mic preamp which I did. I folloowed the recomendations and got a M-Audio
mobile pre USB. Thjat is cool in that I can use it through my usb ports
rather than the sound card. Also, is XLR and that works with my mic
without
and adapter.

THe noise has been cut to less than half, which is a big first step. But
there is still too much to make a descent recording. I'm hoping to get a
next step for the experts, you guys and gals.

Keep in mind, I am not looking for perfection, just something that is
reasonably good.

The mic is an Audiotechnia ATM41A. Sound Blaster Audigy 2 24 bit card.
software, SoundForge.

Thanks in advance

Holden

Holden wrote:

THe waveform could be better, but it's OK. Even when I'm just looking at
the levels with no recording, the background is very high. Michael could be
right, jusnk in junk out. But even when I move far away form the computer
and have a minimum of crap from everything else, the levesl are still high.
Doesn't seem to have much of a difference.
:
:
I was hoping that sound forge had a noise reduction in which I could make my
recording, record some of the background, and then use the background
recording to filter the noise out of the origianl recording. But I don't
see anything like that in the program.

Noise reduction should be a last resort. You should try to find out
what the real source of the noise is. Plus, if it's truly white noise,
it's too chaotic to be able to effectively cancel out.

Here are some random ideas on trying to pinpoint the source of the
noise:

Try recording just the microphone in the room, without speaking into it.
Then look and listen to the waveform. Is there still noise? What does
the noise by itself look like? Is there any kind of pattern at all?
Can you characterize the noise you're getting? Is it constant like
the "whoosh" of a seashell? Is it high pitch (bright) or low pitch
(muffled) white noise?

Next, if you can, try a different microphone and cabling. It seems
unlikely, but it's possible something has gone wrong with one of them.

You could also try recording "silence" just like above -- and without
changing the level -- but wrap the microphone up in a blanket. Then
if you are getting exactly the same noise as when the microphone was
in the open air, you know that it's an electrical problem and that
it's not the mic picking up some kind of noise in the environment.

Another idea is to upload a test WAV file (just 30 seconds or something)
to a web site and then post the URL here. It might be easy for
someone to spot the source of the trouble if they can hear it.
You might record a period of several seconds of speaking, then
some silence, then some more speaking. That would allow people to
hear the difference between voice+noise and just noise.

- Logan

In article , "Holden"
wrote:

The problem is that there was soooooooooo much white nose
that I could hardly hear the voice.

Since you have that new M-audio box perhaps your mic or cable is crapped
out. Maybe you can borrow someone else's just to test that out.

"Holden" wrote in message
m...

THe noise has been cut to less than half, which is a big first step. But
there is still too much to make a descent recording. I'm hoping to get a
next step for the experts, you guys and gals.


You need to learn about good "gain staging" (search Google).

He said the M-Audio was using USB. My guess is it's his gain structuring,
which could be bettered by reading the RAP FAQ at www.recaudiopro.net.

--


Roger W. Norman
SirMusic Studio
http://blogs.salon.com/0004478/

"Paul Stamler" wrote in message
...
"Holden" wrote in message
m...

THe noise has been cut to less than half, which is a big first step.
But
there is still too much to make a descent recording. I'm hoping to get
a
next step for the experts, you guys and gals.

Keep in mind, I am not looking for perfection, just something that is
reasonably good.

The mic is an Audiotechnia ATM41A. Sound Blaster Audigy 2 24 bit card.
software, SoundForge.

Where are you placing the microphone? And is the output of the preamp
running into the line input of the Audigy card?

Peace,
Paul

Holden wrote:
THe waveform could be better, but it's OK. Even when I'm just
looking at
the levels with no recording, the background is very high. Michael
could be
right, jusnk in junk out. But even when I move far away form the
computer
and have a minimum of crap from everything else, the levesl are still
high.
Doesn't seem to have much of a difference.

By process of elimination, unplug the mic (only).
Did the noise change? If so the noise is coming
in on the mic. If not follow the signal chain on
through to the PC and find where the (biggest)
difference is made.

I was hoping that sound forge had a noise reduction in which I could
make my
recording, record some of the background, and then use the background

recording to filter the noise out of the origianl recording. But I
don't
see anything like that in the program.

You can get a DirectX noise reduction plugin that
will run in Forge, but if you can get the noise
down far enough to begin with you should be able
to use the noise gating from within SF to get some
additional suppression. You should be making every
effort to elimiate the source of the noise.

Next I will try to move as far away from any background as possible
and see
if the baseline is more quiet.

I suspect that this is really where the issue is.
Room treatment and isolation.
Another thing to be aware of is differences in
sampling rates. If you are trying to resample
on-the-fly you may hear some nasty artifacts.
Make sure everything is set the same (ie 44.1)

Holden

good luck
rd