This was recorded in audacity. The background noise is normal -- that is the sound of my air conditioner when the gain is turned up to max.
The concerning thing is the intermittent crackling noise you can hear in the audio.
My setup is:
Sennheiser MK4 microphone --> Focusrite Scarlett Solo Gen 3 --> windows computer.
The crackling noise is intermittent. Sometimes it's gone for a few minutes (usually after the pc has been off for a few hours), but it always comes back.
I can hear it in my headphones when I turn the "direct monitor" on.
It doesn't appear to be interference as it's still present when my mic cable is completely off the ground and not touching any other cables.
It's also not a loose cable as that sounds different and additionally this crackling is intermittent even when nothing is being moved. Also no amount of moving the cable has any effect on the crackling noise.
This noise hasn't always been there and I have not changed my PC setup in any way. One day it just started.
Could somebody please point me in the right direction? At this point I'm just considering buying a new audio interface.