All my direct voiceover recording on my PC pops and crackles

[Chris Rieman]

Im wanting to develop some voiceovers and every recording I make on my PC, the audio pops and crackles over my voice to no end. You can tell that its picking up my voice ok, but theres just endless garbage throw in too.

Ive tied swapping lavalier mike for wireless senn G2 and MD46 ahndheld, but no difference. Tried using ACID and Vegas and Windows sound recorder and no difference.

I dont understand what the problem is. I will say I have a Voodoo PC and the fans are loud. But I cant imagine thats the issue.

This really stinks.

[Steve House]

Need a lot more info ... Is there any noticable pattern to those pops and crackles, like they get worse when your voice gets louder? You're not trying to record while eating Rice Krispies so there's also snaps, are you? (Couldn't resist!)

What is your exact setup? You said you "tried swapping lavalier for Senn G2 and MD46" - do you mean you tried a lav by itself, and your G2 wireless, and your MD46 or just the '46 and the wireless with a lav? How did you connect to the computer? Are you using an integrated soundcard on the mother board, an internal soundcard like a Soundblaster, an external audio interface connecting with Firewire or USB? What input are you plugging into, mic or line? Are you using any cable adapters at the computer's input? Are you using a mixer between the mic and the computer? Are you using WDM or ASIO drivers for your soundcard and are you sure you have the latest versions of them? How fast is your computer and what OS? What other programs are running as you try to make your recordings?

[Chris Rieman]

[QUOTE=Steve House;694367]Need a lot more info ... Is there any noticable pattern to those pops and crackles, like they get worse when your voice gets louder? You're not trying to record while eating Rice Krispies so there's also snaps, are you? (Couldn't resist!)

What is your exact setup? You said you "tried swapping lavalier for Senn G2 and MD46" - do you mean you tried a lav by itself, and your G2 wireless, and your MD46 or just the '46 and the wireless with a lav?

1. lavalier into soundblaster micke port
2. senn into soundbaster mike port with md46 connecting wireless
3. senn into soundblaster mike port with senn transmitter lavalier wireless

How did you connect to the computer? Are you using an integrated soundcard on the mother board, an internal soundcard like a Soundblaster, an external audio interface connecting with Firewire or USB?

soundblaster audigy. disabled on board motherboard audio. no firewire/usb.

What input are you plugging into, mic or line?

mike. i believe ive tried both tho.

Are you using any cable adapters at the computer's input?

no

[quote]Are you using a mixer between the mic and the computer?/quote]
no

Are you using WDM or ASIO drivers for your soundcard and are you sure you have the latest versions of them?

not sure. using soubdblaster drivers I would assume. tried ininstalling them and reinstaling and for 8hrs couldnt get any sound out of PC. tried on board audio. no go. disabled o nboard in bios, then reinstalled soundblaster again and now i do get audio.

How fast is your computer and what OS? What other programs are running as you try to make your recordings?

3.06gz, 2gb ram. xp pro. Tried acid, soundblaster recorder, vegas, win recorder.

As it stands now, I have audio working again on PC, but the microphone only comes through mono on the speakers and when recording with anything, its only mono left channel and almost so faint you cannot hear it or not hear it at all. volume is all the way up.

youd think recording into your pc would be pretty simple. im plugging directly into the port on the SB that has the microphone logo. things are actually worse now. before the sound was perfectly audible, just with pops and cracks in random places no matter the volume. now the recordings are nearly inaudible and only left channel.

[Steve House]

Well, left channel only is to be expected since the Senn receivers are unbalanced outputs which means the signal is going to the tip and sleeve of the connector only. In a stereo input, the tip is left channel, ring is right channel, and sleeve is ground. The Senn 1/8" TRS connector's ring is connected to the sleeve and goes to ground so signal goes to tip and thus left channel only when plugged into a normal stereo jack.

The Soundblaster card mic connector also has a +5 volt mic bias voltage, I think applied to the connector tip, that powers the cheap computer store mics and headsets but it can interfere with higher quality mics and can actually damage a dynamic mic like your MD46 if you try to plug it in directly using an XLR-to-mini adapter cable.

I haven't been able to find the actual wiring of the inputs on the Audigy card so it's hard to know exactly what's going on. I sure wish these people would publish schematics!

My advice for the best fix without spending much money is to get a super cheap mixer such as a Behringer Xenix 502 ($55) or 802 ($80) and a dual RCA to 1/8" mini stereo cable from Radio Shack. Plug your MD46 into the XLR mic input on the mixer. Take the "tape out" connection from the mixer and send it to the line input on the Soundblaster card. If you want to record the voiceover in stereo (actually not a good idea if you're going to be mixing it with production sound in your editor - recording in mono is better even though the output in the final video will end up going to stereo), setup the mixer so the mic input channel is panned to the centre. Plug a set of headphones into the headphone out of the mixer to monitor yourself as you record. Use the mixer to set and ride levels as you're recording.