Mystery soundcard hiss and noises

I've been having the same problem with my work machine recently (luckily not the one at home) - but this is on a built in sound card. I expect there's some advice out there, not necessarily on guitar or electro-music sites either. If you haven't already, expand your search to gaming sites - gamers can be pretty fussy about their systems and tend to know a lot, having a high proportion of users building their own machines to spec.

A lot has to do with the location of the "add-on" sound card.

If you have an additional sound card as well as on board, you must ensure that the onboard sound card is completely disabled. Easiest way it to go into the bios of your motherboard and disable on board sound.

Second, if you've installed an "add-on" card you MUST make sure that it is in the slot furtherest from your power supply.

Lastly, you could have a less than high-grade quality power supply that is bleeding current flow into your audio. Also, if you open your computer, make sure all your data and power cables are draped so as not to be twisted and tied around each other.

Other than that, I would be sure that you are using high quality connecting cables from all your devices, especially from guitar to amp and from amp to sound card.

Hope this helps.

thanks, I didnt realise that the soundcard would be so sensitive to on board noises. My powersupply is an upgraded model so hopefully it isnt the culprit, but my cables are all tied together and the card is in the slot closest to the processor so.... thanks for the tips!

It has a background hiss and little whisperings that corespond with any activvity on the computer, like opening programs, and when i run audacity its teribble. I reverted back to my onboard soundcard and thats ok so I am guessing that it is either a set up problem or a bung card. Has anyone else come across this problem?
Thanks
Does the on-board card audio get routed through the same speakers as the SoundBlaster?

Have you tested the speakers?

Have you tried re-installing the drivers for the soundblaster card?

Have you ever whacked your elbow so hard your arm goes numb?

Have you told your guitar(s) you love them today?

That and more at 11.................

Flintstone wrote: I have a soundblaster audigy soundcard that is driving me crazy. It has a background hiss and little whisperings that corespond with any activvity on the computer, like opening programs, and when i run audacity its teribble.
I have this same noise problem, only it is with an onboard Realtek AC97 soundcard. There are hisses and background noises that correspond with onscreen activities and a significant, constant level of background noise in Audacity, which I'm trying to eliminate to record my part for a GN Collaboration.
Mike wrote: Have you tried re-installing the drivers for the soundblaster card?
[EDIT: I went into the Control Panel, clicked the Update Driver button, and it said that no more recent driver was located, so do I still need to try re-installing the driver?]
Went searching online to see if I could find a driver to reinstall for the Realtek card, and found this: http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=23&PFid=23&Level=4&Conn=3&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false#AC
Can anyone tell me whether I want to download the Execution File or the ZIP file? (We have Windows XP)
Bish wrote: you could have a less than high-grade quality power supply that is bleeding current flow into your audio
What constitutes a high-grade or low-grade power supply? The computer and components are all plugged into a powerstrip/surge protector bar. No other option, as outlets are very limited in the room.
Bish wrote: if you open your computer, make sure all your data and power cables are draped so as not to be twisted and tied around each other.
I don't have the know-how to open the computer up, so this idea is on the back burner for now.

Anybody have any advice for me as I continue trying to eliminate this annoying noise?

Flintstone, did you get your noise eliminated?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give!

Margaret

Update---I downloaded a new driver for the Realtek AC97 soundcard and significantly reduced the noise I'm hearing through the headphones, but it didn't reduce the background noise that Audacity is picking up when recording.

Margaret

Hi Margaret
warning; This wil be a bit technical

A soundcard has two main parts:
The Recording part with input (line and mic) amplifiers and analog to digital (A/D) converters
and
the Playback part with digital to analog(D/A) converters and output (line or headphone) amplifiers.

When you listen with headphones and not activate recording, you will only hear the noise in the playback part of the soundcard.
But when you are recording and listen , you will hear the noise in the recording part of the soundcard.
And it is normally the input amplifiers(especially the Mic amp) and A/D converters that is the most noisy parts in a low cost soundcard.

You can check that by just using windows sound controls (Volume Control, Recording Control). Double click on the speaker symbol in lower right corner and open the sound controls.

Connect the sound equipment you use to the soundcard inputs ( a Mic to mic input , guitar or V-Amp to line input) and select the soundcard input you want use and then listen to noise when you select and de-select input or reduce recording volume.

Comment: Audacity should not add more recording noise than your hear when using windows recording settings.

A tip, avoid using the mic input on the soundcard and use the line port with an external pre-amp/Mixer/V-Amp etc.
The Mic input of a low cost soundcard can be very noisy and poor, but the line input is normally good enough.

Thank you for responding, Kalle.
Kalle wrote: A tip, avoid using the mic input on the soundcard and use the line port with an external pre-amp/Mixer/V-Amp etc. The Mic input of a low cost soundcard can be very noisy and poor, but the line input is normally good enough.
Yes, I am only using the Line In. Guitar to V-amp2 to soundcard Line In. Even though I don't have the Mic input selected, would it help any to Mute the Mic input, or is that even possible? (I'm not at home right now to look at it)

I am having better luck using the Noise Remover feature in Audacity now, so that reduces my problem some.

However, now I have a pre-echo thing going on. When I listen back to my Audacity recording, in the silence before the music starts, I can hear the first chord in the background a second or two before the actual chord.

[Edit: At home and trying it out now, and the recording volume fades down and back up in the middle of recording. Obvious through the headphones as it's happening (while recording) and obvious upon playback. No pattern to it, but I can't make it through my 50 second segment without it happening at least twice. One problem seems to lead to another........]
[Edit 2: Think I got it solved. Don't really know HOW :shock: but I think the whole package is better than it was.]

Margaret

Hi Margaret
I know that many members here at GN prefers Audacity as recording SW as it has a very low learn-in treshold. But I have never been able to use Audacity with my low cost soundcards as I have never been able to solve the track to track delay/latency when using Audacity.
My way of solving that was to use the free SW Kristal Audio Engine (KAE) together with the free ASIO 2 driver Asio4All.
It has a user interface that can be more complicated at first sight ( looks more like professional recording SW ), but is very logical when learning to use it.

I don´t know if these SW will solve your problems, but I recommend everyone to learn to use KAE / Asio4All.

Note; ASIO (Audio Streaming Input Output) is a proprietary 'industry standard' for music applications, developed by Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. It provides multi-channel audio I/O (input and output) at very low latencies and high sample rates.

MME (Windows Multimedia Extension) is the standard built-in audio driver architecture of the Windows Operating System. Any audio device can be used with MME: no special driver software is required.
But, Because of its limitation to two-channel stereo audio, and high input-to-output latency, MME is not really the best choice for music applications.

WDM(Windows Driver Model) is a more modern Windows NT/2000/XP audio driver (than MME) that supports plug and play.

Comment; Audacity doesn´t support ASIO drivers, thereby the latency problems with low cost soundcards

Kalle wrote: have never been able to use Audacity with my low cost soundcards as I have never been able to solve the track to track delay/latency when using Audacity.

When I play back my recording in Audacity, I notice that my part is delayed by a hair, sometimes enough to require a "nudge" to the left to make it line up again. Is that what you mean by track to track delay?

Margaret

Yes, that is the normal "latency" delay.
That the second recorded track is delayed compared to the first track.

My problem was also that second track slowly changed speed compared to the first track, wich could not be helped with a little "nudge" to the left.

Kalle wrote: My problem was also that second track slowly changed speed compared to the first track, wich could not be helped with a little "nudge" to the left.

So it's not my imagination. I heard that, too, on mine. Like I was getting slower farther into my segment. I knew my timing wasn't that bad. :lol:

Margaret

Yeah, drove me crazy too.
I don´t know why Audacity does that with some soundcards, but seems more common with low cost soundcards according to users on the Audacity forums.
No such problems with KAE/Asio4All !

I think this soundcard is really poor. As I sit here with headphones on and no sound inputs, I can hear every move I make with the mouse, and even the tick, tick which must be the computer's internal clock.

I'd like to buy an add-on soundcard for about $50 or less, but have no idea what to get. Probably have to order it online, I'm thinking.

Margaret