static & high pitch hiss -Sound Forge - PC - MAGIX Community Forums Archive

Subject:static & high pitch hiss Posted by: bsilcox Date:8/19/2002 3:17:58 PM I just purchased Sound Forge and am using it for the first time. I am recording at 16 bit, mono and am getting major background noise, hight pitched hissing, and static in the background. What can I do?
Subject:RE: static & high pitch hiss Reply by: Chienworks Date:8/19/2002 3:54:27 PM What sample rate are you using? Also, what level are you using for recording? Are the meters peaking up in the yellow/red area or are they way down near the bottom? If you're not getting enough signal then you will have a lot of noise-to-signal ratio. After cranking up the volume to compensate for a low signal what you will hear is a lot of the background noise from the mic/pickup, amplifiers, cabling, soundcard, computer, etc.
Subject:RE: static & high pitch hiss Reply by: bsilcox Date:8/19/2002 4:01:54 PM I am using 44,100 Hx sample rate. I do not not know where to look to answer your nswer your question on where the meters are peaking. The waves remain blue and very small hugging the middle line. The bar of the right hand side of the window moves between a value of 20 and 30. I've set my microphone volume high and low and setting it low, helped the noise. But then when I increase the percentage of volume from within Sound Forge to hear the voice, the static is still present.
Subject:RE: static & high pitch hiss Reply by: Chienworks Date:8/19/2002 4:30:07 PM Having the signal too low is most probably your problem then. A good recording level will have the waveform pretty much half-filling the display with the loudest peaks going most of the way to 0dB. The problem you're having is that you aren't recording enough of your voice to "drown out" the noise that will always be present. When you increase the volume after recording you're making that noise louder too. First thing to check ... do you have the microphone plugged into the Mic input on your sound card? If you have it plugged into the line input you'll never get enough volume unless you use some sort of amplifier or mixer between the mic and the sound card. How are you adjusting the recording volume level? You should probably be double-clicking on the little yellow speaker icon in the lower right corner of the screen, then clicking Options / Properties / Recording / OK. Select the Mic input and use that slider to adjust the volume. In the SoundForge recording window you can watch the meters as you adjust. For startes, you probably want to hit the yellow area quite a bit, but rarely the red.
Subject:RE: static & high pitch hiss Reply by: Ted_H Date:8/19/2002 4:49:58 PM It may also be worth a shot to update your sound card drivers. It certainly couldn't hurt :-) Ted
Subject:RE: static & high pitch hiss Reply by: bsilcox Date:8/19/2002 5:00:19 PM I am using a laptop with a docking station and am plugging the mic into the back where there is a picture of a microphone. How do I plug directly into the sound card?

Subject:static & high pitch hiss

Posted by: bsilcox

Date:8/19/2002 3:17:58 PM

I just purchased Sound Forge and am using it for the first time. I am recording at 16 bit, mono and am getting major background noise, hight pitched hissing, and static in the background. What can I do?