How to KILL background NOISE (hiss)

Unknown

I am talking about equipment noise: microphones, preamps, mixers, etc....not your refrigerator or fan noise etc.

I see people asking: 'where do I get an app to cancel noise' ? Well, you CANNOT cancel noise, you can only cut it's frequencies, which will make your recorded voice sounding.....weirder. The best thing to do is to make sure the noise doesn't get in there in the first place!

Here's one of the secrets.....make SURE your microphone is NOT a dynamic microphone. I just changed mine for a CONDENSER microphone (which requires phantom power) and now my speech is TWICE as loud without changing my speech at all, which means the noise floor is pretty much non existent. With a dynamic microphone the noise floor was MUCH higher because these microphones are WEAK and not very sensitive (they are made for LOUD sounds, like loud vocalists, drumkits, or loud guitars. They are intentionally weaker because loud sounds would otherwise make them distort. ) But they are a terrible choice for SPEECH. Instead, condenser microphones are WAY more sensitive, which means they 'amplify' your voice a lot more powerfully, so the signal-to-noise ratio improves TREMENDOUSLY.

One of these little 'secrets' that make a HUGE difference. I am sure someone has created courses with a dynamic mic and wondered why there's all the hiss underneath. Took me two days to learn all this, so this should save someone else's time now. I changed my dynamic Behringer XM8500 (an excellent, and cheap, pro DYNAMIC microphone) for a Behringer C-2 (an excellent, and cheap, pro CONDENSER microphone). With the latter, I solved the annoying hiss problem. The dynamic mic is not 'worse', it is simply the WRONG mic for speech, that's what I am saying here.

RamsaiDupati025

Well,u can't completely remove the baground noise but surely u can decrease the baground noise by using AUDACITY or FILMORA editing softwares.I would like to tell u that u record with a good MIC and record it in a silent room or record it during night times that would be better:)

Unknown

Actually, it's well known that dynamic mics are superior for voicovers, especially in "non-professional" areas (ie. basement, bedroom, closet, etc). Whatever you save in eliminating mic hiss, you are going to pickup up in "other" background noises. Your opinion is certainly in the minority, as virtually every voiceover artist I've spoken with recommends a dynamic mic, especially when working from my home office. If it works for, great, but I wouldn't say dynamic mics are wrong for speech.

RajGupta

You can remove most background noise with a cardioid microphone.

LiamDavin1

Hi, I've worked as a sound engineer for 27 years and run my own commercial recording studio, so I'm spoiled for choice when it comes to microphones.

First I'll say if your set up works for you that's great. However it may not suit everyone.

The Behringer mics mentioned are $20 mics and are not Pro mics, they are what we call pro-sumer. You're right, the Behringer dynamic mic was producing unwanted hiss, but better quality dynamic mics won't have this problem, and if you are recording in less than ideal recording conditions (ie: kitchen, bedroom etc), then a dynamic mic may be a good choice. The thing with dynamic mics is you have to be very close to them, less than an inch or so.

A good choice here would be the Shure SM58 dynamic mic. This will set you back around $100 or so. It has what we call a cardioid polar response, this has the added benefit of the proximity effect which is the raising of lower frequencies, which makes your voice sound fuller.

I would also recommend an audio interface to plug it into, the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 will set you back approx $120. This plugs into your computer via USB and comes with instructions for installing it. This is by no means a top set, up but it should provide anyone with decent results, certainly good enough for Udemy videos.

As far as Noise Reduction goes, you will find instructional videos all over internet (and onUdemy!) on how to use, say Audacity or other cheap or free software effectively, without making the voice sound 'weird'.

Hope this makes sense and helps in some way.

Cheers

Liam

CarlosDeLeon

I've recorded voice with dynamic mics for a long time, with no hiss at all.

Saying that dynamic mics are wrong for speech is a generalization.

DavidBookbinder

I've had good results so far using a Rode shotgun mic placed just above my head. It picks up my voice but not room noise and has no detectable hiss.

PranavP

found recently a nice AI based tool named Krisp ,which helps cancel all types of background noise with its advanced algorithms,including of keyboard typing,etc.

Give it a try,would be surely helpful.