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I am trying to record using and audio interface into my PC. When the mic gain, on the interface, is turned up beyond half way I get this irritating white noise, even if there's no mic plugged in. There is another input for an instrument, which doesn't produce white noise.
I tried to plug it into my laptop with no electricity in my house at all, still white noise.
Sounds like a problem with the audio interface? Any suggestions?
Thanks
You are raising the noise floor by boosting the gain. When you have input into the mic you should only use as much gain as you reasonably need and there should be negligible noise heard during silent sections of the recording. A noise gate will also help eliminate and noise coming into your recordings when the input level is low.
Sounds like you might be working with a low-quality interface, but in any rate, you shouldn't be judging the input when there is no signal source. Make sure you have a mic plugged in before you start worrying about input preamp self-noise. If the noise level is still too high with a mic plugged in, then I suggest you may have a fault with the interface and that you should be talking to the manufacturer to resolve this.
