Tell me why there is buzz in this recording :)

Hello everyone! So like I said in my other thread I went and bought a bunch of equipment to start recording more music. I've been playing around with it, and just having a mixer is damn cool. I'm definitely gonna look into buying a few more mics to be able to record a lot of stuff simultaneously. We'll see what happens :)

Anyway, so I've been trying to get a pretty good recording, but I keep hearing this sort of buzz I guess in the recording. Just wanted to see where I could narrow down this sound from. Do you think it's the filters on the mixer, the cable, or the mic itself?

Anyway, here's the recording.





If you listen closely, you should hear the buzzing.

The buzzing is the angels cheering when you play!

The guitar playing is great recording and playing.

The buzzing could be many things. I did a quick google and it seems a lot of people in recording forums credited buzzing like that to lower quality cables. However you could probably spend a lot of time and money buying better balanced cables etc trying to hunt down and stop the source of the buzz or.....

I'd try apply a compressor or some form of noise reduction. In vst form as you've already recorded it. Good post production should be able to get rid of the buzzing, I can't tell you much more than that but I'm sure alexB or doz could help you in production.

Well,first,whats you total chain? tell us the equipment/cables etc

here is what you can do to determine your problem,in your DAW,enable a channel for monitor,ok now you can listen to your mic,lower the mic volumen (channel Fader/gain knob) until infinite,if you still hear the buzz,then its not your mic,then its your console/interface thats making the buzz,if you dont hear the buzz anymore,then the problem might be your cables,there are tons of problems with cables,if they are (dont know how to say it wtf) "in spiral like a snake" they might act as an antena,if they are not shielded,they will have noise,also if your electrical connections are not properly grounded,you will get buzz from the console and the mic,the easiest way to go is getting a Noise gate,Waves X Noise is a professional noise reduction VST,it degrades a bit the audio but noise is killed.

Another chance is that your gain is way too high,and the input (guitar/mic) is not getting in Hot,so by pushing the level higher,noise is also hotter,get it?

Yeah, it could be anything. Alex threw some points there already it also could be low quality cables, but I lean to more that the "Noise" is from either from effects or input or output of microphone channel ( I assume you recorded it with microphone )You gotta do some sherlock stuff to figure it out, but dun worry all that inspecting make you wiser about recording and how things work so inspect an think, its best to do homeworks isnt it? :)

Emp

So, I played with some controls and tried to level it out. Here's what I have so far.

Shure SM57 -> Alesis Multimix 8 -> PC via USB

So, I did some reading and went into the driver setup on the USB codec. Found out that I had left the levels there too high. The input was 100%, when it was supposed to be at 4%. Lowered that, and turned down the gain knob a ways by Alex's suggestion, and now most of that buzzing is gone. I think a little more tweaking and I can get it perfect :)

I think the buzzing is there just cause I'm a newb and don't really know what I'm doing

Thanks everyone for their input.

Jeff,
On that alesis there is a gain control for each of the four mic jacks. (just below the white hpf buttons). I have found that those need to be turned up almost all the way. give that a try.
Phip

The gain control was what was giving me that buzz in the recording. When I lowered it and cranked up the volume knobs a bit, it came out clearer. I have to sit and listen a bit longer.

Hmmmmmmmm Fascinating Captain!




Seemed to be the opposite for me.
Spock

I didn't even realize though, I can use my field recorder as a mic on the mixer, as well as my electric, a keyboard, and the mic for my acoustic guitar.

I'm happy :)

Excellent man, cool that you got it workin. Also remember that two things affect to volume level, your input channel (alesis) and channel in a Host (sequencer software). tweaking and finding balance with these two, get you an different tone. More the input from mixer, that is more the clear (without buzzing and noise) you get it the better. imo.

also mess with the Equalization, from your mixer or find a software, there a plenty of free good eq's out there. Remember the golden rules

1. If it sounds muddy, cut some at 250Hz.

2. If it sounds honky, cut some at 500Hz.

3. Cut if you’re trying to make things sound
better.

4. Boost if you’re trying to make things sound
different.

5. You can’t boost something that’s not there
in the first place.

On my EQ, I have the 80Hz cutoff HPF on, so I think that should help with getting rid of some of that low bass that screws up my recording. As well, I have my highs turned up to about the 2oclock position, and the mid's I set to 1.2khz to boost for tone.

I followed this guide.

http://www.behindthemixer.com/content/eq-acoustic-guitar

I also found out I have to unplug my computer and use battery power when I'm using the mixer, otherwise I get a lot of noise from the power supply. This could of been what that buzzing was before.

I'm working on one of the more technical songs I know since the higher quality recording should help make it sound so much better, but I'm quickly realizing how much I suck :( Now that I have a better mic, the smallest mistake is pissing me off :(

I suggest not to record with an EQ,but rather apply it after recording,unless its a HPF

How's this sound?

^^^HORRIBLE!!!! J/K it was pretty good dude.

\M/(*-+)
gs2112

Really, I just care about the quality... does it still need some tweaking? Does it sound balanced? Should I add some reverb/chorus/effects/etc?

no verb,maybe a pich of of chorus fatten it up.Lil less treble.

sounds great! 2 things

-The room the we hear is actually taking rather than adding to the record,i dont know it your mic got the reverb or if it was added later,but i hear bluff in there

also are you recording with 2 mics? if so,pan the brightest one hard right and the other one hard left,it will add so much more to your sound,this actually sounds a lot MONO,its not expanded.

When you hear your guitar,some hits sound louder than the actual guitar sound,a compressor or working on your hit dynamics will help a lot!

I only have one mic, so it is slightly mono. I don't know if I can get that stereo sound from a single mic. I did just notice that i have my soundcard set to 1 channel, 44100Hz instead of 2 channel... don't know if that will make any difference.

The room I'm recording in has a bit of echo, there is no reverb added to the recording... so that has to be the room, maybe I shouldn't record in there? Or maybe I can pad the room to reduce the echo.

I'll have to look into a compressor. Probably just work with a software compressor... don't know how hard that will be. I guess most of the reason towards the fading in and out of the sound is because I move around quite a bit when I play, and it's hard to stay in one place for the mic.

I'm getting there... I do appreciate all the insight and help from all of you! And thanks Alex for also being patient with me.

When using compressor especially when speaking of acoustic guitar recording, be careful with that. Use tiny sends because using much compression, you lose dynamic that is essential in acoustic guitar atleast imo.

that stereo mono thing, you can have stereo mic or mono mic, it depends on the plug...




you notice a little black rings on conductors, in mono there one, stereo there are two 2 and 3 if we count those tiny ones XD. I assume you know it, but just incase.

if its mono, you can still record it stereo depends the channel of your sequencer. But I suggest you to record it mono, because effects make it stereo sound anyway.

Gl, that recording sound promising m8.
Emp

So last bump. Found a sort of compression type filter on my audio program... took an HD video, and put it all together. This is what I got.

Sound quality is very good. Highs and lows is nice balance imo and also overall record is clear and definately not cut over anywhere. Perfect job I could say. Ofcourse there are so much different styles and ears they could mix stuff otherwise, but its just taste... basics are always same. Gj m8

Emp

ps. Now you might want to do some mastering? :)

Thats really very good :) congrats mate

Sounds good to me. Good job Jeff.

I like it! How do you sync it up?

By tedious adjustments on the audio track. I just keep moving the start point by a few ms until it lines up right...

yes, I really did that.

Sounds great! another 2 things :)

1.- Now the sound is over compressed! i can "feel" when the compressor hits and releases,that kills any dynamics in your playing,not an easy tool eh?

and


2.- It needs a bit more of treble to my taste,but thats me i like trebly things,oh and still lacks stereo image but you cant solve that right now

Great improvement!

@Alex:

I see what you were saying with the compression. The difference in sound is incredible, but I do see you rpoint in how I overused it... sorta like when I first found chorus and delay... I blew it up so high that I destroyed my sound. I'll have to experiment a lot more with it. Thanks again!!

I'll definitely think about investing in another mic. Do you think it's always good to get the same mic? Or should I get two different mics?