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Thread hissssssssss!

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1 hissssssssss!
Hi all,
i am trying to record some vocals for the first time but i am getting a lot of noise. the noise is the kind of noise you hear from an fm radio when it is not tuned to a station.

the signal flow looks like this

sm58 mic ---> Behringer tube ultragain mic100 pre-amp ---> line input on my m-audio 24/96 soundcard.

The noise comes from the pre-amp, i just bought it an know it is a cheap one but i did not expect it to be more noisy than the stock mic pre-amp on my computer's motherboard!

any way i have 3 questions;

Have i made a mistake seting up?

If not does any one know if this is normal for this pre-amp or if mine is defrective in some way?

If my pre-amp is not broken, then it should not be advertised as a mic pre-amp!!!!:mad: . I will need to get a different one if this is the case so can anyone point me towards an alternative cheap pre-amp wich won't hiss a lot when used with a mic wich is not that sensitive?

Thanks
2
Assuming you don't have a bad cable, and assuming that you don't hace the gains cranked up unreasonably high, then I would think your unit is defective, in which case I'd get a replacement of the same thing. I know several people who really like this unit, in both recording and live DI settings.
The Axeman (##(===> Cuts From My New Blues CD
3

%1$s a écrit assuming that you don't hace the gains cranked up unreasonably high, then I would think your unit is defective, .


hi axeman,
thanx for the reply

what is considered unreasonably high gain? i need to have the gain set to nearly full on both dials to get a decent level a decent level from the sm58. but if i turned the gain down at the pre amp i would just have to add gain somewhere else in the system wich would add the same/more noise to the signal....wouldnt it?

i thought the main point of a pre amp was to amplyfy a tiny signal without introducing noise but if i turned the gain down on the pre amp and added it else where, wouldnt that kind of defeat the point of buying a pre amp?


i am confused lol :)
4
Again, assuming nothing is broken (you have tried different cables, right?), you have a gain staging problem. You should not have to turn the Behringer all the way up. That's where the hiss is coming from.

What is the fader for the input on the MAudio mixer control set at? it should be unmuted and set to max.
The Axeman (##(===> Cuts From My New Blues CD
5

%1$s a écrit Again, assuming nothing is broken (you have tried different cables, right?), you have a gain staging problem. You should not have to turn the Behringer all the way up. That's where the hiss is coming from.

What is the fader for the input on the MAudio mixer control set at? it should be unmuted and set to max.


Yep, ok im now sure the pre amp is faulty, i have tried different cables and mics and the faders in the soundcard's mixer are turned up to max and ofcourse unmuted. the only way to get rid of the noise is to turn it off or remove it from the signal path.

i am going to get a refund to give me some time to think about what i will buy to replace it as i rushed into this purchase with out thinking.

once again thanks Axeman... youve been a great help.




Any suggestions on a cheap, low noise pre amp for recording vocals?

does any one know of a buying guide i can read on the net?

any suggestions are appreciated.

this may be just be me jumping to conclusions but from customer reviews i have read on the pre amp i have noticed a pattern- about 9 out of 10 people found this was brill, some even described it as quiet. but the 10th review allways describes a problem similar to mine!! From this i guess that behringer have some quality controll problems or the cheap price means they cant afford to reject ones wich have this problem.

this is a shame really 'cos most people like behinger and im sure most of their products are good. but this being my first experience with them has put me right off. :mad:
6
Before you take anything back, i would try a balance XLR mic lead. I found that if I use a regular unbalance I get a lot of hiss out of my phonic Mixer, whether going into the Laptop via USB Audio interface or into my Tascam DP-01. If I use a balanced XLR Mic Cable I get zero hiss.


Worth a try first. I have also discovered other little secrets like this that can catch us beginners out, for example I bought a Phonic Tube Multistage compressor and it produced a huge amount of hiss when I tried to hook it between effects send and return on the mixer. I didn't have any insert cables at the time. When I used insert cables as show in the manual, all the hiss disappeared.

This is all caused by impedance mis-matching, to long to go into here.

Andrew

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