Hi, this is my first time on the forum and would be grateful for any assistance from your good selves.
My problem is the USB microphone causing a background hum when recording vocals via RealBand 2011.
I have a Sony Vaio laptop 64 bit system, running on the (irritating) Windows 7 Home Premium. I know that the hum is definitely coming from the USB microphone setup after much time spent on identifying the culprit.
I am using the Shure SM58 + X2U combo as the "USB microphone" input. There is a Realtek High Definition Audio driver (6.0.1.6235 - appears to be latest version as is at Location 0 (Internal High Definition Audio Bus)).
In the "Microphone Properties" of the "Manage Audio Devices" it is possible to adjust the microphone recording level for the Shure to be louder or softer, but not eliminate the hum. There is no microphone boost option, only a basic microphone levels.
When I click on the Controller Information properties, the driver details appear to be Microsoft 6.1.7600.16385 and saved in a Window systems 32 drivers folder.
There is an internal Realtek high definition audio microphone, but the microphone input is a 3.5mm Jack.
I have searched this forum and found the suggestion to try reducing hum using Audacity. I tried this at several different noise reduction levels, but it reduced the quality of the vocals at any level I tried.
Anyway I find it devastating that with all the expensive (to me) gear that this problem should be happening and would be most indebted for any suggestions.
Many thanks!
Try it using the lappy on battery. If this works Radio Shack sells a device to specifically deal with this.Got a link for that X2U thing? Never heard of it.
Found it. That's a pricey little devil.
Dear John
Thank you very much for your advice. I did give it a go with and without mains power and it didn't seem to make a difference. However, I must apologise and should recharacterise the noise being recorded as really more a "shhhhhhhhh" type sound rather than a "hum" per se. With the USB mic combo plugged in, but resting idle, there is one green bar on the VU Meter Input bar in Realband. Any other thoughts?
Thank you for your time.
Regards
Zoë
...Also, regarding Radio Shack, did you mean a ground loop isolator? (wasn't quite sure what to look for as we don't have Radio Shacks in the UK)
Thanks again,
Zoë
What happens if you sing at full volume? Do you peg those meters into the red?Sounds like a VERY hot signal.Turn down the input gain on the thing until signing at full volume just gets into the yellow a bit. report back.
BTW yes ground isolation device. That's not it though.
You likely don't have a Ground Loop problem at all.
From description, the "SHHHH" sounds like thermal noise from electronic circuits.
It could be that your X2U USB audio adaptor might be defective.
Might also simply be a bad mic cable in which the shield has become disconnected. Try substituting another
"known good" mic cable.
Also -- it could be that you have things turned up in the playback software mixer that are adding noise. If you are using the speakers to monitor the mic at the same time, that could do it. Headphones when attempting to monitor the live mic while recording, and be sure to turn all other faders in the playback mixer off so that noise from CD or whatever isn't mixing in at the same time.
--Mac
John and Mac,
Thank you very much for your suggestions.
I can hear the shhh noise through the USB adapter's built-in headphone monitor. When the mic gain on the adapter is turned all the way down, there is the one green bar in the VU meter, and the shhh sound is reduced to a higher pitched soft sounding whistle. As the mic gain is turned up (whereby singing would hit the yellow and red levels) the sound turns into a broader shh sound with that high pitch still there but more in the background.
As an aside, the adapter has a monitor dial to allow one to hear sound through RealBand and the mic input at the same time, the balance of which can be adjusted. I've used both an in-ear headphone and a regular headphone to ensure no spillage from the instrumental tracks - but anyway this shhh noise is happening even when the other tracks are not playing or I am not singing/speaking into the mic and the environmental noise is silent.
On the basis that either the adapter, or the supplied cable used to connect the adapter to the USB port, could be defective, I've now contacted both the dealer and the UK Shure distributor, and await a response.
I'm dying to record vocals using the tracks I've created via the splendid BIAB (and the Shure mic itself is wonderful too). So if this issue isn't solved, perhaps I need to move to something like the ART USB Dual Pre Two-Channel Preamplifier/Computer Interface (whose advertising claims it is "low noise")? Although the cost for it here in the UK is a big ouch.
Anyway, thanks again and I appreciate your help.
Zoë
With this new information, I'm thinking that you do indeee have a defective USB device there and contacting the dealer or mfr for repair or replacement is the thing to do.
Shure does not market junk, to put it mildly, I would expect any of their products to exhibit reaonably low noise levels.
--Mac
I think something is defective here!
I've been using the Shure X2U adapter (with a shure sm86 condenser mic) for almost a year and it's worked flawlessly. The only noise I ever hear is sometimes the mic will pick up the sound of the computer fan, but then that's just a proximity issue.
I do have a bit of a latency problem when recording with it in RB, (mostly on up-tempo songs) but no problems with that when I use it to record in Reaper.
Greg
I personally have never been a fan of USB mikes, they tend to act like a second sound card, and that causes timing issues especially when coupled with a built in laptop sound card that does have as good of drivers and options.
This could be a sample rate issue as well.
Does other software have this 'feature', ie 'hum'?
Audacity is free, I use it to record using a usb solution (Bose).
Until you figure it out you can at least practice recording.
Thanks all! The dealer directed me to a section of the Shure customer help website, and apparently the issue has to do with Windows 7 (and Vista) automatically knocking the microphone recording level to the maximum 100. One has to reduce it to a setting of 2, which according to the site "is about the same gain that was offered in Windows XP." This gets rid of the noise, but this does mean the Mic Gain needs to be turned up, and the test recordings all sound somewhat thin and tinny. Still fiddling about with the different levels to try to improve it (and getting good practice as John says) and will follow advice to try out in other packages.
Much appreciated,
Zoë
I read that and don't quite agree with what they are saying or at least implying.Further reading in other articles leads me to believe that you need to turn the gain up on the X2U to achieve proper lighting of the meters on the unit. Then turn up the Windows control that you turned down to 2 until the meters in RB are at slight yellow.
If it were me i would take it back and go get a decent USB computer interface and use a standard microphone. this type of setup is used by most folks and the bugs are out of it. Plus you have other options then.
Quote:
If it were me i would take it back and go get a decent USB computer interface and use a standard microphone. this type of setup is used by most folks and the bugs are out of it. Plus you have other options then.
I've always thought of the X2U as (being) a USB interface, it allows the use of either dynamic or condenser mic's using a standard XLR mic cable and lets you monitor playback through a headphone input. Also works well to record acoustic guitar via a DI box plugged into the X2U.
Shure makes products that are as good as any out there. I've used mine for almost a year (Vista) and find it to be a valuable and reliable piece of recording equipment.
JMHO
YMMV
Greg
Greg i took a look at it and yes it is nice and has both input and output, But for $90 you could add a little cash and get a nice desktop interface that would be easier to use and have other options for attachment of instruments and such. You could get an interface with 4 inputs and have two guitars and two mikes and record with friends.
Just sayin'
OK, with USB audio interfaces - there is sometimes an issue on laptops with the power save settings and how they send power to the screen as a PWM (pulse-width modulated) type of signal - which can cause audible effects on the USB input audio.
I had this issue with HP laptops of about 5 years ago; maybe 6 or 7. Try turning off all powersave features as it pertains to the screen.
This was with an entire line of HP lappys we had at work. We had to ditch using them, and went with some Dell Latitude lappys and the problem was entirely eliminated.
If it is indeed this issue - you can try various different power-save settings for the screen and you will hear the noise change with each setting. I was able to FFT analyze the annoying stuff on those lappys and if I recall correctly, it was very narrow-band response, which manifested itself in the 2kHz-12 kHz range, depending on powersave setting.
Best wishes. Here's hoping that it's not this issue - as there really isn't any user-serviceable solution.
-Scott
Quote:
But for $90 you could add a little cash and get a nice desktop interface that would be easier to use and have other options for attachment of instruments and such. You could get an interface with 4 inputs and have two guitars and two mikes and record with friends.
Just sayin'
You make a good point.
I use my JamVox as a guitar interface so I was only looking for a good mic adapter when I bought the X2U (which it is). Ease of use is not really an issue as I find the X2U very user friendly & easy to use, but If I hadn't had the JamVox to begin with... your suggestion would make more sense. 
Peace Out,
Greg
One possibility is the cable for your mic needing to be magnetically shielded. It could be interference from a high-voltage electricity source (probably the PSU on your computer). Check to see if the mic cable is shielded/balanced if your still having this problem.
Rob and Achordocaster - cable noise really shouldn't be the issue. All USB cables are shielded - there should be no mic cable involved. The Shure X2U device is designed to plug directly into the output of the microphone and convert A/D directly inside the X2U. From that point, any non-shielding issues on the digital audio signal would manifest itself as oddball-digital data corruption noise (think old-school fax transmission squelchy noise), not hum.
Signal chain should look like the following:
Mic-->X2U-->USB cable-->USB port on your computer. No XLR cables should be used unless you simply can't avoid it due to distance between mic location and computer.
Achordocaster - I'm wondering if you tried the powersave setting items I mentioned? Unfortunately, many laptop designs are less caring about audio signal interference inside the laptop as one would imagine. It was quite a surprise to us that the powersave settings and power control on that series of HP laptops (who knows who actually made the laptop - but there's only a few real design/manufacturers for all of the laptop brands) would play such a huge role in the recorded sound quality of the audio.
What was happening is that the PWM control of the power to the screen, created enough audible noise on the power of the USB, that the USB Audio interface picked up and mixed in with the microphone data. Ideally, the USB interface should not have been sensitive to this, but it was. It was somewhat earlier on in the whole practice of sending digitized audio over USB, with a proprietary interface.
I'm very curious to hear about how you resolve this. The X2U is an interesting device that fits in your pocket and would be great to have tossed in the laptop bag along with an SM 57 and a set of in-ear monitors.
-Scott
I have the exact same issue with my Imac 21,,,How did you resolve it?
I have resolved it after doing some reading, I went into my Imac's preferences and turned the input volume down to half.That resolved the issue...Its supposed to be input volume-but it said this device has no controls