Hissing noise on speech recordings

[ManicMatt]

Don't know if anyone can help me here...

All my speech recordings have a faint hissing on them. I don't know if it's my microphone picking up the fans on my computer or my microphone isn't up to the job!

My microphone IS a PS2 USB mic that I use for Music 3000. (It's what it was made for)

What you could tell me though, is if your recordings you do yourself have background noises or not, when using a proper pc microphone. I record using the microsoft sound recorder.

I do have a proper microphone actually, one that is a proper thing for singing with, and has the fat jack. I do have an adaptor that will fit it into my computer, but windows doesn't seem to detect a mic.

Any feedback is appreciated!

[Nikolas]

Maybe try to take the noise out of the recording.

Here are some methods:

Use a de-noiser.
Use the EQ
Use a band pass

All of these, even combined, can take the hissing out. All you have to do is find out in which area is the hissing sound and remove it.

I hope I was helpfull.

[Gregjazz]

I never use EQ or a bandpass to try to eliminate a fuzz because it usually degrades to much from the sound for the hiss it removes. However, if the hiss (or hum) is nowhere near in frequency to the main frequencies of the instrument, use EQ by all means.

Denoisers are great, they can do a good job without affecting the sound too much if you use them right. Also using a gate can help a lot.

Best of all use a good microphone. The microphones I use for speech recording have a nice range, so they don't pick up computer fans or stuff. I think you'll find that a lot of the noise in your recordings comes from the quality of microphone.

Also remember to use a proper microphone stand. If you hold the microphone you'll usually get all sorts of handling noises (unless you're using one of those special stage mics meant to take handling noises). And never rest the microphone on something in place of a mic stand. A few years back I thought it was a good idea to rest the microphone on a music stand because I didn't have a proper mic stand. Of course that just increased the noise so much... all those resonations through the metal music stand.

[EldKatt]

Geoffkhan's and Nikolas' advice is excellent, and should get you far. I'll add, though, that you might want to get a better program than Microsoft Sound Recorder. It doesn't have to cost you a fortune; as long as it actually lets you see what you're trying to work with, it's a big improvment.

That said, most problems with noise can be solved with a reasonable microphone. My Shure SM-something gives me practically no unwanted noise (well, by amateur recording standards) despite a quite noisy computer. My best suggestion for now is probably that you try to get your other microphone working. You'll want to take a look at the volume control (Programs/Accessories/Entertainment in your start menu). Click 'Properties' in the Options menu, choose 'Recording' and click OK. That should show you which inputs are enabled and their volume level. (Everything Microsoft on my computer is in Swedish, so some of the menu names and stuff might be somewhat off.)

[InCreator]

Setting sound volume correctly may avoid lots of noise.
And it isn't as simple as it sounds.

[ManicMatt]

Good advice amigos!

I'll copy and paste what you've all said on notepad!

I turned the volume down but there is still some hissing...

If my big microphone don't work (It's a good one too, i use it for my music I make, and it's got it's own pop cap) then I'll either look up ways to get it to work, or try the de-noiser etc stuff!

Actually, I do rest my big microphone on a hollow box, and it's alright with it.

My usb mic is very small with a clip so you can attach it to things. It didn't hiss on the music ps2 program, in fact it was mint, but I guess there is either a compatibility problem, or it just picks everything up too well.

Not only is it annoying to have hiss on my own game, but I see people here have a need for voice actors, and I enjoy that very much! (Whether I THINK I'm good or I am actually good is unknown...)

Thanks again!

[Paper Carnival]

Goldwave does a good job at removing hiss noise and more (its pitch correction sucks though, but I don't suppose you'll need that)

[Gregjazz]

That said, most problems with noise can be solved with a reasonable microphone. My Shure SM-something gives me practically no unwanted noise (well, by amateur recording standards) despite a quite noisy computer. My best suggestion for now is probably that you try to get your other microphone working. You'll want to take a look at the volume control (Programs/Accessories/Entertainment in your start menu). Click 'Properties' in the Options menu, choose 'Recording' and click OK. That should show you which inputs are enabled and their volume level. (Everything Microsoft on my computer is in Swedish, so some of the menu names and stuff might be somewhat off.)

Speaking of Shure...

Get a Shure SM57... that's pretty much the record-anything mic. Good quality, too. It'll get you started.

[ManicMatt]

It's alright about having a decent microphone, my "Optimus" (who?)

It's better quality than some of the mics I've heard in use on x-factor type programs!

Right, I'll try out my microphone now! Let you know what occurs..

(Whoops I've already done 85 megs worth of speech... Gonna be fun doing it all over again!)

[EldKatt]

Speaking of Shure...

Get a Shure SM57... that's pretty much the record-anything mic. Good quality, too. It'll get you started.

That's the one I have, I see now. Of course, I agree with you.

[ManicMatt]

Hmmm my normal microphone works alright, but it's got hissing still..

afterwards I lowered the mic volume for the usb one and downloaded a free recorder called Audacity, which, those two combined has reduced hissing quite a bit, there is still a tiny bit of hissing (Like a bit less than on a cassette tape) so i emailed a wav file to EldKatt (I think) so you can hopefully see if that would pass quality inspection!

Now, my only other problem is file size, the file I sent them is about 1 and a half megs for 10 seconds! Does anyone know of a freeware program that will shrink the size, without decreasing quality too much?

I'm not too impressed with Shure mics, my dad once bought one (around 80 pounds) and it was crap. Maybe a one off? I HAVE always heard good stuff about them elsewhere!

[EldKatt]

There's nothing in my inbox, doubtlessly because one and a half megs is too big for hotmail. I'm PMing you another address you can use that shouldn't have any limits.

For compression, you'll probably want to turn it into mp3 or ogg (I recommend ogg, because--unlike mp3--you don't have to pay anything to anyone if you use it for commercial purposes, plus I've been told it's actually a better compression algorithm). Here is a list of software for ogg compression.

[Nikolas]

Just note that anyway, if you're making a game, having a gmae of 10 MB and the Voice.vox another 100 Mb is a bad idea.

In these cases people always convert the WAV files to MP3 or OGG. Actually as far as I'm awar OGG is actually a little better, and since you are dealing with voice you won't have any significant loss of quality.

But just a note, MP3 as well as OGG cut off anything that normally the human ear does not hear. This is how they work. And generally an MP3 of 196 Kbits or less can be idenitfied as an MP3. The quality degrades a lot. But this again is for good production music and not for voice. Voice will probably remain unaltered even if you go to 96 Kbits, which I would recomend doing.

I haven't checked Eldkatts list, but I'm sure that there are alot of programms that convert WAV files to MP3 or OGG. If you don't find what you want through Eldkatts list try googling audio converter, or MP3 converter,  or OGG convereter.

Good luck.

[ManicMatt]

Sorry eldkatt, I actually sent it to Gheoffkhan! Stupid me! Still, two opinions are always better than one!

I sent you the file.

No, really!

I'll check out that list, and look into ogg!

"...that normally the human ear does not hear"

oh you mean the shaving of those zeroes and ones!?

Converter... maybe that will save me re-doing all my files, unless I want to do them all again. it's only fifteen minutes into the game, but there is speech understandably for anything that is said, like looking at stuff.

While we're on the subject, my mp3 music consists of 5 tracks so far at 15.6 mbs. Is this okay? I want to add more.... You must have played adventure games where they play the same dam track throughout almost the whole game?

[Nikolas]

Well first of all I would imagine that 15 Mb would be around 15' of music (minutes). depending on the compression.

Well, it depends on the adventure game. I've played an adventure with more than 50 tracks! That's a bit a lot in my opinion, but there is so much going on the game that it can be justified (and I didn't write all the music). It really comes down to how many rooms/locations/scenes/cutscenes/maybe motives for characters you have.

Certainly 5 is not little (and if it is 15' of music is not bad). BTW I'm playing Oni right now, not an adventure game but a 1st person beat-them-all-up-and-fuck-them-if-you-can kidn of game but I think that it only has 5-6 tracks of MP3. And it is a commercial game. So for now simp[ly don't worry.

We actually don't know (I'm not sure if I've seen your game in the production forums), how far along you are with the game.

[ManicMatt]

That's because I've not actually plugged my own game yet!

While I'm dying to post everything about it, I don't want any pressure or expectancies.

But at a guess I'm about 25% complete. (Forgetting about the speech problem)

[ManicMatt]

WOAH!!!

Wow you guys rock!

BEFORE:

Wav AGS vox size: 85.1mb (Estimate 270 lines)

AFTER:

Ogg AGS vox size: 5.02mb

I used a converter called "switch"

[Nikolas]

But at a guess I'm about 25% complete. (Forgetting about the speech problem)

Well from what I've seen you certainly qualify for posting in the produvction forums. If you have the two screenshots.

Noone is going to slap you.

If you're dying to do it, go ahead do it.

[TheYak]

Get a Shure SM57... that's pretty much the record-anything mic. Good quality, too. It'll get you started.

And what about someone like me who knows jack about recording?  Between the $85 mic and a $50 pre-amp with an XLR input, XLR/RCA output, it seems like a costly option (not to mention complicated for a single peripheral).  What's about the minimum you'd need for spoken word recording (like with the Shure SM48 ~$50-$60) to a PC? 

I was considering an SM48, Beringer Tube Pre-Amp (aforementioned $50) with an RCA-SPDIF out to my Audigy 2ZS front panel.  Is there anything there that would severely compromise sound quality? 

I was also wondering about the Samson USB studio condenser Mic.  It's got many of the same features of the Shure, but a simple USB-powered/USB input microphone sounds too easy to be true.  Any experience with these?

[ManicMatt]

UPDATE!

I went and bought a proper PC USB microphone and just tried it out one minute ago! There be no hissing background sound!

I got a Logitech USB mic.

So... will I do the 200 odd voices again??? Perhaps. but not now, it will slow down production time on the game proper! But anyway I'm sure acegamer will be pleased to know my voices won't have hissing sh*t on them!

(Is swearing allowed on here?)