Microphone Problems

Hey guys, I have recently gotten (my Skype mate has) completely sick of the interference in my microphone. It features many loud beeps and when they are not loud, they are still very annoying. I have made a few recordings of it (although they are done with the noise suppression and acoustic echo cancellation enhancements turned off) using two different microphones. One was the microphone on the Turtle Beach X12 and the other was on a singstar microphone made for the PS2. Both recordings have the noise, although the noise does get much worse. I have also done the same recordings with the same settings on an Acer Aspire one D270. These recordings do not have the same noises. Due to the poor quality of the microphones, the recordings don't sound too good. Another symptom of this problem appears when I enable the two enhancements mentioned earlier. Basically, what is happening is the software that is filtering out the noises is distorting my voice pretty badly (sometimes it is hard to understand what I'm saying). I have also made a recording of this. Something else which is contributing to the problem is my Microphone boost of 20db. This is necessary because I'm not actually wearing the headset or holding the singstar mic, I have them mounted ~2' from my face. I was thinking about getting a USB microphone but that would mean the signal isn't going through the onboard sound chip and acoustic echo reduction wouldn't work. It would remove the interference though. Anyone got any ideas? If there is a way for usb microphones to not pick up speaker sounds at high volumes, I would really like to know how.
Click here for the sound files (Google Drive)

Is there a lot of background noise (ie fans, stereo, other people, etc)? What playback device are you using, speakers or the headset? If speakers, does selecting the headset as the playback device remove the interference or beeping? I'm not entirely sure what is causing the beeping. Are you using onboard audio or do you have a dedicated sound card?

That was recorded through audacity so the playback device doesn't affect it as far as I know. The interference is actually a lot worse through the headset because it picks up the beeping as well. My speakers (which I normally use) only pick up the beeping if the volume is near max-max volume and even then, it's not too loud. I use onboard audio. I'm actually tossing up whether or not I should go for dedicated audio but I need to be sure it'll remove the interference before I do that.

I would pick up an add-on audio card and disable the on-board audio. My thought there is that a dedicated card would have it's own audio processor so that there's a good chance you will by pass the interference problem. Get one that is full duplex, meaning it gives you the ability to record and playback at the same time.

I had no idea about the full duplex thing. If for some reason I stumble upon a card that isn't full duplex, I'll give it a pass though this isn't really related to my problem. I'm wondering about your theory on the sound card bypassing the interference. Since the interference is most likely being generated by the parts in the case, wouldn't a sound card be subject to the same problem? Unless I go for an external card or an internal one with proper emi shielding, I don't see the sound card helping. You never know though.

You do not know that the interference is being generated by some component other than what's on the motherboard, do you? The cheap Realtek audio chips they put on a lot motherboards have a reputation for being problematic. Having said that, the Corsair CX series PSUs have a reputation for producing coil whine. Do you have another PSU you could try in the rig?

trents said:

You do not know that the interference is being generated by some component other than what's on the motherboard, do you? The cheap Realtek audio chips they put on a lot motherboards have a reputation for being problematic.?

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x2. I'd imagine your issues lie in the onboard chipset.

I do have another PSU but I'm not putting it anywhere near my computer ever again. That said, I had the same problem on that PSU when I was using it. It may have actually been worse. It was the PSU that came with my old CoodMax case. I was terrified every minute that thing was inside my computer. I hope the problem is in the onboard chipset. I don't want to buy a new PSU just yet.

I'm uninstalling and updating drivers now. Hopefully this should help reduce the noise. If that doesn't help, I will buy a sound card and keep my fingers crossed that it will actually help. I am currently looking at the Creative Sound Blaster Z. Does anyone have experience with this card or can suggest a better one?

Yeah, I got around this by going with a cheap $5 usb soundcard which I use just for my microphone. I'm using a BM700 condensor off of eBay as I don't like clipping on Lavalier mics. Total cost of about $40. Turn off all the noise cancellation stuff and just adjust the volume at which TeamSpeak transmits. Easy as.

I used to get similar problems with any internal soundcard I ran in my current rig, and every system I've had for the past 6 years or so. All AMD based systems running various defferent discrete sound cards. The answer was to go to my current setup. Cheap USB sound card for the mic input, and use the onboard optical out to a headphone DAC which also has RCA outputs to connect to a separate amp. Checkout my sig for details.

Mic input soundcard - http://www.ebay.com/itm/USB-2-0-3D-...pt=US_Sound_Card_External&hash=item19ed70d5dc
Microphone - http://www.ebay.com/itm/Condenser-M...=US_Pro_Audio_Microphones&hash=item3a8c0ba53c
External DAC - http://www.ebay.com/itm/SMSL-SD-793..._Audio_Amplifiers_Preamps&hash=item1c4772e630

50W Amp - http://www.ebay.com/itm/SMSL-SA-50-..._Audio_Amplifiers_Preamps&hash=item1e8b7dc979
Bookshelp speakers - http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dayton-Audi...71?pt=Speakers_Subwoofers&hash=item338f3166d3

That setup will be awesome for everything. Of course, you could always get better speakers like my Polks, but you won't get any computer sound system comes close to it.

Of course, it you don't use speakers, you don't need the amp or the bookshelf speakers either. Very very cheap then. Having said that, its not exactly what I'd call expensive all up anyway.

My problem is I need to use Skype which doesn't have a feature for transmitting at a certain volume level. That limits me to using echo cancellation or a directional microphone (or the beam forming one that comes with the sound card I mentioned). Those options will not remove that damned noise though. What should definitely remove the noise is an external sound card (as you mentioned you did). This external sound card would need to be of decent quality though because I don't really want my speakers to sound awful. Speaking about my speakers, I'm perfectly happy with the ones I have at the moment. I'm not looking to upgrade them as they are actually a recent upgrade of the speakers I had previously.

Simply use an external DAC for outputting audio and a separate external sound card for recording. Maybe look into something like this: http://www.andreaelectronics.com/audiocommander.html

My experience is that regular consumer grade audio equipment completely sucks for what you're trying to do. I've long since turned to semi pro audio equipment which funnily enough works out better sounding and cheaper than stuff made specifically for computers. I'd be researching noise cancelling microphonesas well.

Something like this might be a good option for you: http://www.ebay.com/itm/SAMSON-Go-M...rs_Headphones_Microphones&hash=item462a696591

I'm downloading that program now though I'm not entirely sure of what it does. I'm also not sure that noise cancelling microphones would be of any real use in this situation as the signal is being corrupted within the computer somewhere. I will look into that dac/external sound card solution though.

If the issue is the one I think it is, then I think you'll find the noise goes away when your CPU is at close to full load. Try running IntelBurnTest at the same time and see if it goes away. If it does, then it will definitely work.

The fault is electronic noise generated by the CPU clocks, it interferes with the analog inputs and outputs of any internal sound card. It definitely affect integrated and PCI Express cards though I'm unaware of whether the legacy PCI slots are affected. They mey not be.

A USB microphone will not suffer from this issue as it has no analog in or out, it has its own digital interface to the mic itself and will not suffer from interference. Likewaise, the SMSL DAC I listed as an output will also not suffer from the same issues. It recieves digital signal from the computer via a fibre optic Toslink connection and hence also escapes being affected in this way. I am confident that this will resolve your issue.

The only reason for my listing that particular Samson mic is that it has noise cancellation built in. For myself I prefer to use a decent condensor mic instead however that's not suitable for your use.

I struggled with the same issue you're having for years before figuring out the solution. Standard stereo equipment, not computer gear. Better sounding, better value. It actually works as it should. On the other hand, you want positional/3D effects for games, you need a Creative sound card with EAX or something like an Asus Xonar. The downside is you then have to put up with the electronic noise. The choice is yours.

Alright, I've made a new recording and ran a few different stress tests (not IntelBurnTest as I already have stress testing programs installed) and your assumption about the issue is correct. I also discovered a new, weird noise generated during OCCT's PSU stress test. The recording is here if you want it. It goes for ~4 mins. I just thought of another option. What if I just use an external sound card for the mic and the speakers? Not a cheap little one as that would probable wreck the sound quality of the speakers and not feature the positional effects you stated would be of interest to me as a gamer, but a proper one from creative, asus or some other brand I haven't come across yet. That should eliminate all of that disastrous noise and retain echo and noise cancellation enhancements. What do you reckon? Oh, I just thought I'd mention that the main thing that I do with my computer that needs all this isn't gaming, it's actually watching movies with mates in synch using Skype.

Hippy Lemonz said:

Alright, I've made a new recording and ran a few different stress tests (not IntelBurnTest as I already have stress testing programs installed) and your assumption about the issue is correct. I also discovered a new, weird noise generated during OCCT's PSU stress test. The recording is here if you want it. It goes for ~4 mins. I just thought of another option. What if I just use an external sound card for the mic and the speakers? Not a cheap little one as that would probable wreck the sound quality of the speakers and not feature the positional effects you stated would be of interest to me as a gamer, but a proper one from creative, asus or some other brand I haven't come across yet. That should eliminate all of that disastrous noise and retain echo and noise cancellation enhancements. What do you reckon? Oh, I just thought I'd mention that the main thing that I do with my computer that needs all this isn't gaming, it's actually watching movies with mates in synch using Skype.

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The sound quality of the SMSL SD-793II will beat pretty much any sound card out there unless you're looking at pro audio equipment made for musicians, stuff made by ART, Behringer, DBX etc etc.

There's no point in going that far overboard for a difference that will likely be unnoticeable to you. I'd go with S.M.S.L. SD-793II + S.M.S.L. SA-50 + Dayton Audio B652 Bookshelf Speakers + a USB Noise Cancelling mike. You will be amazed at the sound quality you get from this setup and it won't break the bank.

I use most of this stuff myself, and even bought a pair of those Dayton speakers for a mate. Speakers that I think are really worth 3x the asking price.

The whole setup would cost around $270. Hifi quality rather than computer level sound quality. It's a larger difference than you might think

I'm very fussy when it comes to sound quality. My lounge sound system currently comprises a "78 JVC QL-7 turntable + Denon DL103 cart, modded Cambridge Audio 651P Phono Pre, Yaqin MC10T valve amp with '59 production Raytheon 12AX7 Black Plates, '57 production Raytheon 6414 Black Plates and current prod JJ 6CA7 power tubes, '81 manufacture Bowers & Wilkins DM-16 speakers. I used a S.M.S.L. Sanskrit SD-1955+ for all digital sources. I need to swap out the OP Amps in this sucker for something better at some point. Anyway, my point is that the sound quality of the stuff I've suggested is likely far better than you'll ever need.

Yeah, that recording is the noise I had.


EDIT: I don't think I read your post correctly about the gaming bit. Maybe check out an external sound card from Creative. The Sound Blaster Play! would do the trick: http://au.creative.com/p/sound-blaster/sound-blaster-play

I'd still go with a USB microphone of some sort with noise cancelling tech though. Gaming cards are great at garbling your recordings in the name of noise cancelling. So long as your words are understandable its ok with them, they're just targetting gamers so recorded sound quality tends not to be a high priority.

Sorry about the details prior to my edit. It's easy to forget that most people don't place the same emphasis on audio quality as I do.... Mind you, in Battlefield 4 I miss the 3D effects from my old Asus Xonar DX, just not the electronic noises. Since I run the DAC to a T-Amp + Polk Audio speakers for music and movies though a DAC is a better choice for me. Better sound quality, I just had to sacrifice gaming effects.

I don't really feel buying a sound card is too far overboard. I'm not looking for any 120db SNR sound card or anything. I was actually just looking at the ASUS Xonar U7 and the Creative Soundblaster X-Fi
After buying my Corsair SP2500 literally one week ago, I'm not prepared to replace them just yet.
I just searched google for those speakers you mentioned. Are you sure they are any good? All of the reviews I can find are horrific.

Out of those two I'd go with the Asus Xonar U7. It'd be a great card for audio out. For mic input I'd avoid either of these though, I've had too may issues with gaming cards adjusting input sound levels etc.

Yeah, those speakers are awesome. Dayton had an initial set of speakers which were even better, then they brought out a second revision which was apparently quite bad. They've apparently fixed it. The speakers I listened to were really very good. Nothing like my Polk's or B&W's but incredible good considerig they're only $40. And yes, they'll kill and 2.1 computer sound system when paired with at least a 40W RMS T-Amp + DAC. On the other hand, I didn't know you'd just gotten a new sound system. Just enjoy what you've got with that.

I didn't realise you were here in Australia. I was looking for links on the US eBay and stuff. Not too many of us Aussies on the forums usually.

Where in te country are you?

Would you mind telling me why you'd go with the Xonar U7? Not saying I disagree, in fact I was leaning towards it as well, I'd just like to know your reasoning. I'm leaning towards it mainly because of the higher SNR. As for the mic input, as long as the awful noise is removed I think I'll be fine with either of these cards to be honest.

I am a little bit disappointed with my sound system but I still feel it's worth the price. The mids and highs are definitely clearer than the speakers I had before and I'm loving the sub now that I got past the obligatory 'turn the sub all the way up coz bass' stage.

I'm from down south in Victoria. In an area where the Internet is barely fast enough for 1080p (if no one else is using it) and you can fit multiple midgets in the holes in the roads (no offence to midgets).

I'm going to update my profile now. I didn't realise it doesn't show my location.

Yeah, same reason: SNR.

Next time you're looking for a sound system don't bother with a 2.1 gaming system. Look at hifi components instead. You can get far better sound quality at pretty much the same price. If you wanted even better sound quality than the Daytons, you'd look at the Pioneer SP-BS22-LR. Even better sound for just slightly more. Me, I was happy to spend a bit over $200 for a pair of Polk Audio TSi100's. Once burned in they're in a completely different league.

S.M.S.L. are one of the Chinese brand of gear that are nicely made, and not completely crap. Very worthwhile if you put entertainment ahead of gaming in your priorities. Either way, you could always go the Asus Xonar U7 + S.M.S.L. SA-50 + Pioneer SP-BS22-LR. I'm sure that'd be pretty kick arse too

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=597650

I tend to haunt Audiokarma a bit. Plenty of folk on there with way more knowledge of audio systems than myself.