JPF Home Page Forums Musician Gear and Techniques General Technical Forum hum in audacity recording

I recently loaded Audacity. Whenever I record with my little microphone, I get this low tone hum on the recording. I used the mic on another computer with Audacity and the hum wasn't there.

Any ideas?

Are you just plugging the mic right into the computer?
Hate to say it but I think it's just that computer putting hum on. The mic inputs on computers are really just for voice headsets and such; they're not high quality.

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Later,

Pat

I too use audacity try adjusting recording level and sound levels on your computer check that you have selected the correct imput from list in box next to mic level it has stereo mix as default you should set it to microphone.

EB,

This happened to me when I first used Audacity. We have one older computer which we've upgraded through the years. Never did upgrade the soundcard though. Recently we bought another desktop. The soundcard made all the difference in the world. Just a thought. Might not be the case for you. But, sound cards do have a big impact on the sound you get out of your recording device.

Vanessa

Just in case you don't know, if you record couple of seconds of that hum in front of the work being recorded then select that piece in front of the work and in effects click sound removal/get sample, then select the whole piece and go to effects again and hit noise removal/remove noise, it will take the hum out right through the record.
.
keybards with transformers on them sometime emit a bit of a hum too.
Or if you aren't using the line in, or the mike, mute whichever one you are not using helps somethimes too.
Graham

eb, make life easy. Get a Samson CO1U. It's a usb mic that windows sp2 recognises as soon as you plug it in. Has it's own A/D converter. Bypasses your soundcard, which is probably your problem.

It's 80 bucks, which is cheaper than upgrading to a decent soundcard, and it's a large diaphram condensor mic made for guitar/vocal applications. Works fine with audacity. It's powered by the usb cable it comes with. If you get one, I'd suggest booting your pc BEFORE plugging it in, and unplugging it before shutting your pc down. This will protect it from the power surge as the pc boots up. A friend of mine has blown his twice by leaving it plugged in when not in use.

My life got easy after I bought mine, and no more hum or hiss from my soundcard.

tony