Annoying "ringing/hiss" when recording

Dethrats · #1 08-11-2011, 10:50 AM

A friend of mine asked me to record him playing drums yesterday. but when i hit record and was waiting for him to play, i got this annoying, kinda loud hiss or ringing. :/
my setup is 7pc CAD drum mics, into a Peavey PV14 mixer. RCA L/R out of the tape out into my laptop via 1/8 running SONAR 8 Producer Edition, ill link everything that i can below.

now for the audio:
drum tracks, Track 1, Rec (44).wav - 4shared.com - music and mp3 sharing - download

CAD PRO-7 7-Piece Drum Microphone Pack: Shop Pro Audio & Other Musical Instruments | Musician's Friend
Peavey PV14 Mixer: Shop Pro Audio & Other Musical Instruments | Musician's Friend

dalahorse · #2 08-11-2011, 11:07 AM

I'm guessing it's coming from your computer's onboard audio. I've had that problem before with my old Mac's onboard audio. When certain activities happened (hard disk access, for instance), quiet little bleeps and hisses could be heard if you really listened. They sounded very similar to the audio you linked. I solved the problem by using an external mic/line/instrument input to USB output box. They come in all price ranges. These little one and two channel boxes from M-Audio are inexpensive and work well. A two channel box should be enough to accept your mixer's stereo outputs.

Dethrats · #3 08-11-2011, 11:11 AM

would something like this work?
interface Results | Musician's Friend

dalahorse · #4 08-11-2011, 11:21 AM

Yep. I have the older, single channel version of this little box. It works quite well for my simple mono needs: M-Audio MobilePre mk II: Shop Pro Audio & Other Musical Instruments | Musician's Friend

The issue was that my onboard A/D converter was picking up interference from nearby circuitry inside the computer. That may be the issue you're having too. My solution was to have external hardware perform the A/D conversion and feed a digital signal into the computer.

I'd wait for a couple more folks to chime in before pulling the trigger on additional hardware. I'm certainly no electrical engineer!

dalahorse · #5 08-11-2011, 11:25 AM

Also - If you have a tape deck, mp3 recorder, etc. you can take straight off the mixer, give that a try. If the noise is coming from the mixer, you'll hear it on the recorder. If it's coming from the computer, the recorder's playback should sound clean. It's not a solution, of course. But it can help in the diagnostic process.

bassbrad · #6 08-11-2011, 11:57 AM

Yes you need some sort of Audio to digital converter, you are most likely overloading the sound card on your laptop with the output from the mixer.

Dethrats · #7 08-11-2011, 12:40 PM

the sound card i have is:
Amazon.com: Creative ExpressCard Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio Notebook-70SB071000000: Electronics

however, when i tried recording with my old software (Sony Acid Pro 6) it lagged, so i used the onboard sound card. i will try to see if my Sound blaster sound card doesn't lag with SONAR 8, and hopefully it get rid of that nasty hum/hiss.