Newbie Question on Adobe 1.5

Hello,

I'm in dire need of help and I don't know how exactly to ask for it, so I'll try explaining the question the best I can. I don't know much about audio, so please excuse my ignorance and rant.

I'm in the process of learning Audition 1.5 from recorded episodes by Bruce Williams @ Audio2u.com 

My objective - to record myself reading a book, something like an audiobook, nothing fancy.

My equipment - Pentium 4 PC with a Creative Sound Blaster Sound Card and a Samson Q1U USB mic.

My problem - For some reason there seems to be a lot of noise in the recording. I dont want to call it background noise, because I'm not sure if thats what it is. It's a constant noise throughout the recording, whether I'm saying something or not. I did the noise reduction thing, which partly ends up distorting the voice, but the noise even though less, is still there. I thought it was the mic, and I tried changing recording levels through the sound card. But then I used another (inferior) software and I don't get any noise!

I'm thinking it's something to do with my settings of Audition, something I might have done. I know there's a lot of variables, but I don't know what to do, and I'd hate myself to go for the 'cheaper' software. I even tried moving the mic away from the PC, thinking it was the fan that was doing this, but all in vain.

Plese help

It can be a bit hard to diagnose but have you tried reducing the mic volume within your Creative software, as this may be too high and possibly you may need to go into "Windows Sounds" and turn this off as well. I know when I had a soundblaster, the levels were always at -40dB,  BEFORE I even started recording. Just remember to jot down your settings so you can revert back.

I'm thinking it's something to do with my settings of Audition, something I might have done. I know there's a lot of variables, but I don't know what to do, and I'd hate myself to go for the 'cheaper' software. I even tried moving the mic away from the PC, thinking it was the fan that was doing this, but all in vain.

Hmm... it's got nothing to do with Audition, because the version you are using uses components from the OS to do the recording, and takes no part in this other than to display the results. And if you are using a USB mic, then the soundcard (poor as it is) is also playing no part in the recording either - you will be using the USB utilities to provide the data stream, and just using the soundcard for monitoring.

You have two choices as far as the Q1U is concerned - you either use the Samson applet that comes with it to control the mic - and this is a good idea - or you use the Windows record mixer, which isn't. Unfortunately the range of control available appears to be massive, and there's a fair chance that you haven't optimised the setting at all.

Using the applet, you should be able to adjust the slider so that the level meter next to it is peaking at about -6 or -9, and make a good recording. Being a dynamic mic, it should be quite forgiving, I think, but you still need a quiet background noise level, and to get between 6 and 9 inches between the mic and your mouth if you are to achieve an acceptable result. Audition won't add or subtract anything from the recording at all - it's quite transparent. Any difficulties you have will be entirely related to the mic, I think.

It can be a bit hard to diagnose but have you tried reducing the mic volume within your Creative software, as this may be too high and possibly you may need to go into "Windows Sounds" and turn this off as well. I know when I had a soundblaster, the levels were always at -40dB,  BEFORE I even started recording. Just remember to jot down your settings so you can revert back.

As noted above, the USB mic doesn't use the soundcard for recording at all.

Wow!.. so the sound card I went and bought specifically for this job has no effect on the recording, coz its a USB mic? Ah well, atleast I'm glad I didnt go with a more expensive one!

I think you're right about the applet that I downloaded for the mic. I think I'm doing something wrong there, because as I was recording I tried changing the the levels and it didn't work. I'll try and look into that part and see if I can work it out. I'm hoping also that Audition 1.5 is compatible with this applet.

Are there recording levels that I could try and look at in Audition settings that might be through the roof right now? Sorry, I don't know much about this stuff, but I am learning as I go along.

In any case thanks for the help you've given me, I'll go home today and try some tweaking, and hopefully it helps.

 

Are there recording levels that I could try and look at in Audition settings that might be through the roof right now? Sorry, I don't know much about this stuff, but I am learning as I go along.

Perhaps I should have been clearer - Audition doesn't actually do the recording at all - the OS does. Audition can't affect the levels, or anything about the recording, in fact. All it does is find out from the sound device what outputs it can offer, and you then choose one (in your mic's case 48k is the only option, I believe) and it tells the OS to make a recording into a temporary file in a place that Audition can specify. This applies to all versions up to Audition 2.0 incidentally - that works differently, at least as far as multitrack recording is concerned.

The only things that you can alter about the way the recording is made happen in that applet - that's where you control it from.

zenje, when you begin your recording are you using the basic waveform view, or the multitrack view?  If the former, you should see a dialog box that sets the waveform properties for the recording.  Be sure to select at least "16 bit" as the resolution.  An 8-bit recording will be much noiser throughout the entire recording.  If you're recording directly into multi-track, then I'm not sure what else to offer that hasn't been suggested already.

Perhaps I should have been clearer - Audition doesn't actually do the recording at all - the OS does. Audition can't affect the levels, or anything about the recording, in fact.

Well, I just put my dunce hat on.   But seriously, thank you for the advice and information you've given me, it's valuable and I'll try my best to put it to good use.

zenje, when you begin your recording are you using the basic waveform view, or the multitrack view?  If the former, you should see a dialog box that sets the waveform properties for the recording.  Be sure to select at least "16 bit" as the resolution.  An 8-bit recording will be much noiser throughout the entire recording.  If you're recording directly into multi-track, then I'm not sure what else to offer that hasn't been suggested already.

I use the basic waveform view (not multitrack). I also choose Mono, 16 bit, sample rate I think is 44100... something like that.

Again, I appreciate your help, and hopefully I get it worked out. I'll keep you informed.

Just as a check have you tried recording in stereo? I have found with some drivers that if you choose to record mono in edit view it doesn't pick up the correct audio channel and only records nothing. However when you choose to record to a stereo file your mono source then appears on just the one channel but is recorded OK. It is easy enough to just save which ever channel has worked as mono when you stop recording.

I haven't tried that, I'll give it a shot.   

Well, just wanted to give an update to the "problem".

As it turns out, I had a logitech webcam with a mic in it that was also installed, and that was the culprit! The interesting thing was I had set the device properties and sound properties to the Q1U. Long story short, I had to change a bunch of stuff in my PC, in terms of settings, and actually remove Audition and re-install it again for it to work. It works fine now.

Thank you guys for all your help, I learnt a lot.