Best MLB for audio recording?

[djgarygillespie]

I do a lot of audio recording going through my M-Audio Delta 1010LT sound card.

When I'm recording through my XLR's or any other connection, I believe I'm picking up some electrical noise,
possible mechanical noise from my fans.

With my current setup (built in 2009) with just my gear plugged in, and no sound playing, you can see there is still around -81 to 78db of sound being picked up (see attachment).
(The sound could be coming from my external gear, or noise from inside my computer.)

I watched both of J.J's videos on the Z170-DELUXE & MAXIMUS VIII HERO, and it seems like the ROG is meant for the best sound, but the Deluxe has more audio features on the board.

So my question is which board would I go with MAXIMUS VIII HERO, MAXIMUS VIII HERO ALPHA, Z170-DELUXE,
that is least likely to give off any electrical noise, or has the best noise isolation so my recordings have the best quality?

Thanks Gary.

[Veovis]

Hey, I use Audacity (a free recording program) and what you're getting is ambient noise, usually electrical feedback within the mic or the shape of the room. It's normal during recording and can be fixed during post processing. Usually just before recording audio leave a break (1-2 seconds) of silence to capture this noise that you can use as a sample to cancel out that background buzz.

That said, I'm unaware of any hardware (for a computer) that has this cancelling pre-programmed in or reduces the buzz to begin with.

The boards you've cited are great for sound coming out, but no idea about what they do with input.

[djgarygillespie]

Veovis wrote:
Hey, I use Audacity (a free recording program) and what you're getting is ambient noise, usually electrical feedback within the mic or the shape of the room. It's normal during recording and can be fixed during post processing. Usually just before recording audio leave a break (1-2 seconds) of silence to capture this noise that you can use as a sample to cancel out that background buzz.

That said, I'm unaware of any hardware (for a computer) that has this cancelling pre-programmed in or reduces the buzz to begin with.

The boards you've cited are great for sound coming out, but no idea about what they do with input.

I'm aware of Audacity, I use Sound Forge for recordings. I don't have my mic turned on, only my mixer with no sound playing, and all the volume levels on my mixer are all the way down.
I'm sure my sound card is pickup some signal from my mixer (master outs), even thou there is no sound being played.
So out of these 3 boards, I'm sure one would pick up less noise than the rest.
Has anyone actually test these boards to see how much noise they pick up?
Thanks Gary.

[Veovis]

Hi, me again. I'm working on the other problem you posted about the ambient noise with your current existing setup (so no answer yet on those boards, I'm looking into that) but you may want to look at the following link. The hiss you're describing when things are plugged in rung a few bells and I was reminded on a lecture of balanced cables for noise cancellation. (Also another thread in General discussion describes a similar problem which lead to my conclusion of the commonality of the devices if both events are related.)

Link

I know you're looking for a new board, but I figure if you can cure the hiss on your current board it can help narrow down your selection for what'd be best for your devices. I'd be a shame to get a board for it's ability to fix a problem that you can do yourself and limit the potential you could have had with a different one you were considering.

If it is a hum in the room, consider the option of going Cateroid for reducing the ambient pickup in the room and ffocus on the noise directly in front of it. That or add a pop or wind filter over the mic as that would reduce small noises while still being able to record voices around the mic.

Edit: just talked to a friend in sound editing. He says that 99.9 percent of the time that occurs something isnt properly grounded. The usual curplut is the cable between the board and mic.

[djgarygillespie]

Veovis wrote:
Hi, me again. I'm working on the other problem you posted about the ambient noise with your current existing setup (so no answer yet on those boards, I'm looking into that) but you may want to look at the following link. The hiss you're describing when things are plugged in rung a few bells and I was reminded on a lecture of balanced cables for noise cancellation. (Also another thread in General discussion describes a similar problem which lead to my conclusion of the commonality of the devices if both events are related.)

Link

I know you're looking for a new board, but I figure if you can cure the hiss on your current board it can help narrow down your selection for what'd be best for your devices. I'd be a shame to get a board for it's ability to fix a problem that you can do yourself and limit the potential you could have had with a different one you were considering.

If it is a hum in the room, consider the option of going Cateroid for reducing the ambient pickup in the room and ffocus on the noise directly in front of it. That or add a pop or wind filter over the mic as that would reduce small noises while still being able to record voices around the mic.

Edit: just talked to a friend in sound editing. He says that 99.9 percent of the time that occurs something isnt properly grounded. The usual curplut is the cable between the board and mic.

Thanks for all the info.

I've actually changed from Canare L-4E6S Star Quad XLRM to XLRF Microphone Cables to
Graham Slee Lautus Phono - 3 pin XLR (unbalanced), which did help.

Where you able to find anything else out?
I'm thinking I may have to ask this on an audio forum.

Also a side question:
As far as recording goes, how do you record your tapes?
Just like you said with vinyl, I know you can do this with tapes, but don't know how.
When recording tapes I've read to record the tape at the very begging before the audio starts,
then you can revers engineer the sound, to remove all the sound the tape gives off.
Once that's done the audio should be at it's purist.
I've read you have to revers eq it, or your recording software may have an app to do it, but how do you do that?

[Veovis]

The only other trick I know is to mute the channels (input and output) you're not using, this will lower interference within the board and will lower the "Hum."

As for recording? I didn't mention Vinyl or Tape.

But from what I've used in the past I had a ADC device or a usb output on my recording devices to convert the audio from tapes and Vinyl to WAV, ACC or OGG for lossless recording. Using the record from the beginning. Then either capturing the sound or dropping it into Audacity and using the sample on the starting moments of silence an running it back through the recording to cancel out further ambient noise. The only issue I had with Vinyl was dust, getting that crackle from the needle from time to time was kinda a bummer.