I am using the Panasonic RP-VK21 which is a Dynamic microphone. Every time I record a video tutorial I have to edit the sound to remove the hissing sound (The background noise).
What can I do to remove or drastically lower the noise/hissing sound so I can record in one pass the video tutorial.
The microphone is connected directly to the PC (rear mic connection).
This question came from our site for engineers, producers, editors, and enthusiasts spanning the fields of video, and media creation.
Professional microphones use to be monaural and domestic/computer microphones (like those embedded on laptop's LCD and/or headsets) are stereophonic. In the majority of the cases the sound cards handle these different connections without a hassle but in certain cases the ground cable uses to insert certain harmful noise.
First of all you should consider checking your microphone's cable, and the usage of a balanced stereophonic cable which will take those harmful signals into the ground thus reducing the noise.
But if the noise that your sound device is gathering from the microphone is like a hum or hiss, you must consider amplifying the microphone prior to inserting its signal into the sound card. This is easily done with the usage of an external sound mixer (hardware). The cheapest one will do the trick. This will also allow you to equalize the microphone in order to get the best sound quality for your input.
You must connect the microphone to the mixer, where you will adjust the sound quality, EQ, level and in the computer reduce as much as possible the input level in your sound preferences application/GUI.
Remember:
IMPORTANT: 100% Hardware/Software level is not "good level"
High level source (distorted) in a high level input (software) is never recommended.
The best your source level is, you need less amplification in the software part. This will result in a good qualiy sound.
If you can't afford a mixer, or don't have plans to purchase one, try decreasing the input (software) level. This will need you to speak louder in order to compensate the lack of recording signal.
In my case, I am using a Gemini PDM-14 Stereo Preamp Mixer with dual per-channel EQ and individual microphone valve EQ. This piece of art is worth $100.00 US Dollars but this is a 8 input channel in 4 Lines with Master/Booth/Rec outputs. You can get a cheaper microphone mixer for less money.
Good luck!
The information provided right here doesn't read about the plug type (stereo/mono), but having in consideration that the specs aren't that far from the Shure SM58 we can say that the noise is being inserted in the sound card input. You should consider pre-amplifying the source or even enrich the signal (with pre-process) in order to gain quality at the input step.
You are using a dynamic microphone which has low output voltage (but low impendance) with a godawful preamp (rear mic connection on a PC) intended for electret condenser capsules. If you are doubly unlucky, there will be "plugin power" biasing the dynamic mic and adding additional noise.
The rear mic connection on a PC is for connecting a headset or other equipment for video conferencing or similar applications with low quality requirements. You usually don't want to use it. You usually don't even want to use the line input on the computer. For any non-trivial audio use, you want to use an external audio interface with reasonable quality inputs. Actually, most handheld recorders can also be employed in "audio interface mode" making the best of their internal microphones without you needing to copy material over after the recording. If you suspect that the quality is still not sufficient, you need standalone mics and a good audio interface (which will have XLR inputs and will likely also provide phantom power in case you have a true condenser mic).
That's the way forward to getting reasonable recordings.
ALL sound equipment creates noise..... All equipment! But some equipment has a lot lower noise floor than others .....The trick is to increase the volume of your sound source so that it is way higher than your noise floor but not so loud that it hits your noise ceiling (google sound floor sound ceiling for better detailed definitions).
The sound floor would be the volume at which your:
The desk i use has a signal to noise ratio of about -80db, so if I do a recording of a sound source that is -70db, then the volume between the two is only 10db... that's too close..... Once you amplify the recording to a level that can be heard you also amplify your sound floor, because once you record, the two cannot be separated. So when you do a recording you want to get your sound source as loud as possible without distorting (distortion...that's a whole other conversation) but quickly.... Reduce the distance between the sound source and the microphone, or increase the volume of the sound source so that the recorded signal is well above the noise floor, and does not need as much amplification
