Static Electricity is buzzing my recordings [FIXED]

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lightcrystal
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Post by lightcrystal »

This is in effect a part of two of buzzing noises in my recordings.

In part one it was suggested that I had USB noise. I have come to dismiss this. Nor do I have a ground loop or background noise. I have found by rearranging my XLR cable that I have got rid of most of the buzzing noise. Whether I can improve this even more I don't know. My set up now:

Rode Mic Stand with the XLR cable threading through the Velcro straps and only being on my carpet floor for a few metres before connecting to my focusrite interface.

Possible improvements? Interface not on the floor? XLR cable being further away from other wires that go into my desktop tower [tower also on the carpet floor].

If it's relevant it's early spring and my jumper is also collecting static. If that matters. [it can not be other causes because before I re arranged the XLR cable the buzz noise would get worse of its own accord. ]

Anything else worth getting? Anti static mat? Probably a gimmick.
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InTheDesert
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Post by InTheDesert »

Is there phantom power coming from your interface to a mic that doesn't need it?

Can you post a sample?
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sjmarky
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Post by sjmarky »

Can you post a sample? Preferably just room tone?
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Darvinia
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Post by Darvinia »

lightcrystal wrote: September 25th, 2022, 6:46 am Anything else worth getting? Anti static mat? Probably a gimmick.
Anti-static mats are not gimmicks. In my days of electronic assembly we always worked on an anti-static mat connected to it by a bracelet strap. If nothing else it will eliminate the static in your jumper even if your buzzing noise is not related to static.
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lightcrystal
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Post by lightcrystal »

Here's a recording. A bit of static still in there. But a lot better than the previous thread on this. Passes Checker also.

https://librivox.org/uploads/tests/reducedstatic_test.mp3
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GrayHouse
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Post by GrayHouse »

Unfortunately you haven't provided a very long sample of the actual noise (without any speech).

I'm not sure why you dismissed the previous explanation that it was USB noise. It's exactly what's causing that background chirping, which is probably the most intrusive part of the noise. If you plot the spectrum of that noise you can see a strong 1 kHz component (and its harmonics). That's the main sync frequency in the USB protocol, so that tells you where it's coming from. Pure static doesn't have those narrowband components.

The simple explanation is: Your computer is supplying dirty power to the audio interface.

Noisy USB power was more common in the past. We've seen the problem before on this forum. Most people use a filter in Audacity to clean up the noise.

It's usually caused by a poorly designed ground path inside your computer, so it's not something you can fix at its source.

There are two ways to solve it:
- Hardware solutions: see my posts in your previous thread, or
- Software solutions: filter out the noise in your audio software.

It's not externally induced noise, so changing things like cable routing won't help.

You've also got some extra background hiss which may be the noise you're calling 'static'. Again, it doesn't look or sound like externally induced electrical noise. If all the cable and equipment shielding is working as it should then it would be unusual to pick up external electrical noise. The cause may be as simple as computer fan noise. It certainly looks like it. How close is your mic to the computer? Could you rearrange things so the mic and computer are farther apart and/or pointing in different directions? If you move your mic farther from the computer, what effect does it have? If you make a test recording doing that, and listen to it, it may provide some clues.

The easiest way to clean that sort of noise is using something like Audacity Noise Reduction. It should clean up quite easily, though you need to use a longer sample of the noise (about 10 seconds works well).
lightcrystal
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Post by lightcrystal »

It can not be usb noise or ground loop.

Why?

Because at one point the noise increased enormously without me doing anything. Then I rearranged the cables [put them in the Velcro on the stand instead of being all on the carpet floor] and the noise reduced to the recording above. USB noise does NOT suddenly by itself go from one level to blasting out a recording. Whereas something like static can. Static builds up. As I moved back and forth in my chair on a carpet floor.

Also I did research on those USB noise blockers and they are very very dangerous. They have no building standards and can catch fire.

Yes, I could having my microphone and tower further apart; I have them fairly apart as it is. Thank you for your help.
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sjmarky
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Post by sjmarky »

It definitely sounds like an electrical noise. However, it is very consistent, which makes me think it isn't static, but something systemic. The good news is, since it is a constant noise, a noise filter does remove it. I tried the one in in TwistedWave and it removed the noise very nicely. Of course, the better solution is to eliminate the source. You are using a desktop, otherwise I'd suggest using a laptop on battery power to see if eliminating the power source had any effect, but that doesn't apply in your case. It seems you have already done the obvious things, such as keeping your XLR cable away from any power cables or transformers. Didn't you previously say you had problems plugging your XLR into the mic (or am I confusing you with someone else)? It may just be a bad cable. It's also possible you have a defective mic (it's happened to me). Can you get your hands on another mic and see if it has the same issue?
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lightcrystal
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Post by lightcrystal »

I am very close to giving up on using a XLR Microphone. I did another chapter of Yorkshire Battles. This time I used EQ and Gate to almost get rid of the noise . To my ears. But it sounded even worse to my DPL. [not critiquing the DPL]

Worth a call to Rode? I am no closer to knowing what is going on than I am to finding the Loch Ness Monster. If I were not also a DPL for other people I would have just given up on LibriVox.

Note: sometimes the noise starts at a barely hearable level BEFORE I TURN MY PHANTOM POWER ON. Then I am at 75 dB. So I have to turn the volume up in Reaper. As I turn the volume up the noise that was there before phanton power becomes a buzzing monstrosity. What all that means I don't know.

I wish that I knew someone who understands all this. I don't. I hear a lot of foolish suggestions here that I should get a USB noise blocker. No absolutely not. They are a fire hazard built to no standards. How is it USB noise anyway if it's there before phantom power is on?

I just want to narrate. I am fed up with all this.
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sjmarky
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Post by sjmarky »

Call Rode. It may be a defective mic. It happens. I got a defective Audio-Technica mic once.
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Post by philchenevert »

LightCrystal.. i feel your frustration and remember my own fierce and long drawn out battle to find where the noise/hum/hiss/whatever was coming from. Like you I just wanted to record. I bought a lot of stuff and watched a lot of videos. Nothing helped. So in desperation I put all that fancy stuff (Rode microphone, expensive new shielded cables, multiple in line filters and everything else I tried including the XLR interface on a shelf until I could understand how get it to work. Then, as a temporary fix, (Just until i could get the real equipment figured out you understand) plugged my old Blue Yeti in with the USB directly to the computer. I found that the sound was fine and nothing to fiddle with. That was two years and many recording ago so this is where I stay.

I'm not recommending this, just saying that it worked for me considering my deep ignorance about more professional audio recording equipment. "Just plug it in, Phil, and start talking" is my level of difficult desired.
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lightcrystal
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Post by lightcrystal »

sjmarky wrote: October 7th, 2022, 1:45 pm Call Rode. It may be a defective mic. It happens. I got a defective Audio-Technica mic once.
Today I called Rode. I spent about 30 minutes with them. I got someone who was good and knew about microphones.

Yesterday for fun I tried my Rode NT1 on my Raspberry Pi. [Most people here won't know what it is. A Pi is a single board mini computer that is the size of a credit card. ] I had no problems. No buzz sound. The only difference is the tinny sound but that's the Pi specs because to make a mini board that small it uses its onboard audio. That suggests to me and Rode seemed to agree that the Mic is probably not defective. He gave me some tests to run through.

But for me the second issue is that I would like to keep narrating in the meantime. I must like to narrate to still want to after all this. I need what I call an "in between" option. I hate taking stuff on and off an on stands. I am not a hardware person. Mention the screwdriver and I will run to the next suburb. I do not want to ever go back to the Yeti; it bust my microphone stand. The Golden Compass went flying into bits when I took the Yeti off. The force that a microphone that massive makes with the slightest pull is nuclear. Now I use the Rode stand which I like and no Yeti is going to break that.

People might suggest a mobile phone as an option. No. Never had one. Don't want one. Then I get sent garbage spam from Clive Palmer. Surprise surprise who is immune from all spam laws? Political hacks like Clive Palmer. The intent of a mobile phone is to waste your time. The more time you waste on it the more juicy data Google, Apple etc get to sell to axe murderers. That isn't hyperbole. Your data is sold to criminal shady outfits by these megacorps.

I don't use Ipads or anything like that. I use Linux. All that needs to be said.

I was thinking of some kind of field recorder as an in between option. Even if I didn't put it on a stand. If it could export into my DAW [Reaper] in the way that I want. I want to get back to narrating. Does anyone here use a field recorder/zoom whatever to narrate? Might need a different thread. It doesn't have to sound great. I am not looking for something as good as the Rode.
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