Topic: Tape Hiss Help?

[runonce]

Sorry, I'm running the h320.

Ok - forget the advice about the optical cable...no dig in on the 320.

When you had you levels on the UA5 cranked...were you getting the peak lights to come on at all...?

You sort of want to get the UA5 levels set a certain way - regardless of what you connect to it...you surely dont want to use it to drive the gain stage on a downstream device...

Are you certain your batteries on the UA5 were up to snuff for the new mics? Starting to wonder about power at this point...

Using digital out, the UA5  (when getting low on power) will just conk out on the optical jack....but running analog might result in a slow decay in sound...and a high noise floor as your phantom faded to nothing...(and no peak lights)

I am running the wally batteries for the UA5 and using the 48V phantom power button.  Is that wrong?  My buddy also had a problem with low levels, too and he ran C4's>UA5>iRiver.  I honestly think it might the iRiver, because I have never had any problems running the c4's with the UA5.  His tape, there were low levels, but he put gain on them and it seemed to be okay.  I'll double check.

No thats fine...what about the peak lights..? were you getting peaks when  you had it "cranked"?

...thats your best indicator as to whats happening on the UA5 side...

[DMBprez]

Yes,

I got the peak light to light up when it was cranked.  It seems everything is fixed though.  I am fairly confident it was the amount of post gain I had to add that made it so hissy. 

I just ran a track with a guitar and the output knob turned up more, I think all is okay =)  I'll find out tomorrow though.

And I'm not blaming anyone but myself.  But, you win some, you lose some.  Thanks for your help.

Again, if anyone is willing to take a whack at those samples on the previous page, I would be forever grateful.  As I said, I was the only working rig that night.


Best,
Chris

[runonce]

Yes,

I got the peak light to light up when it was cranked.  It seems everything is fixed though.  I am fairly confident it was the amount of post gain I had to add that made it so hissy. 



Best,
Chris

Yes and no...you had to have low levels - (and a bad S/N ratio to start with)...that ratio stays the same no matter how much gain you add...so boosting the level boosts EVERYTHING.

No different form the effect of cranking it up on your stereo...you'll hear the same hiss...

Adding gain in post didnt add hiss...it was already there.

You need to find the "unity" gain setting on the 320...set it there, and let the UA5 do the rest.

As far as the UA5 - you want that peak light to come on occasionally...if it isnt coming on...I dont see how you can have any idea what your levels actually are...
If its only coming on at really  high levels...you are recording some really quiet music or something is screwed up elsewhere...

[Brian Skalinder]

A bit more detail on how to run next time...

• Set the UA5 to 24-bit / 96 Hz (or 48 kHz, or whichever sample rate you find sounds best...if you can tell; if you can't tell, just pick one).
• You'll have to set your levels twice:  once on the UA5, once on the iRiver.  This is because both the UA5 and iRiver are performing digital-to-analog conversion, and anytime we perform analog-to-digital conversion we want to maximize our signal:noise ratio by setting levels properly.
• Set your levels on the UA5 using the SENS knobs.  Unfortunately, you can't use the level meters on the iRiver to set the levels on the UA5.  You'll have to use the single PEAK light on the UA5.  If memory serves, the PEAK LED starts lighting up at -3 dBFS.  So if the light flashes, back off enough so that it's no longer flashing.  This will provide sufficient headroom for unexpected peaks.  (Since you're running the UA5's ADC at 24-bit, close counts -- no need to push your levels to as close to 0 dBFS as possible.)
• Set the iRiver to unity gain, as someone mentioned previously.  It might be 0 dB on the iRiver Rockbox scale, but it's been a while since I've used my iRiver for recording.
• Set the iRiver levels using the UA5's OUTPUT knob.  Aim for as close to 0 dBFS as you can get, while preserving enough headroom to prevent clipping.
• You might want to turn the UA5's MONITOR VOLUME knob all the way down...I have a vague recollection this can impact the UA5's analog outputs.

Ideally, you should switch to a recorder (like an iRiver 1xx, or better yet a 24-bit recorder) with a digital input so you can run digital-out from the UA5 (if it's modded to do so).  This will allow you to set levels once, and only once, as well as perform analog-to-digital conversion only once (which is a good thing).

If you have questions about the UA5 and te "digi-mod" required to allow digital-output to a recorder, check the UA5 FAQ in the TS Knowledge Base / Archive | Pre's, A/D's and Processors forum.

[rastasean]

great advice from Brian!

The AT4041s are nice mics but they can't be blamed for the hiss. Better luck next time with the recordings!

[bgreen]

This is a real quick down and dirty mix, see what you think.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=PAPXIT4T

could use some fine tuning with EQ, I only worked on getting the volume up, but you can get the idea.

[DMBprez]

This is a real quick down and dirty mix, see what you think.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=PAPXIT4T

could use some fine tuning with EQ, I only worked on getting the volume up, but you can get the idea.

Sounds great, can you let me know what you did?


Thanks so much, by the way.

[bgreen]

Instead of pushing the gain in one fell swoop, I double tracked your clip multiple times by cloning the track and adding a little gain on each in wavelab montage's.

Not something you want to make a habit of, usually done on guitar tracks to fatten them up, but it also works in a pinch to add some gain without cranking a single plug.

I also used algorithmix noise free to remove the small amount of resulting hiss and UAD's precision  buss compressor to add some of gain on the render.

You can hear how much fatter the sound is, wouldn't hurt to eq a few DB from the bottom range of the lead singers voice to get rid of a little of the boominess and a little off at between 5 and 10k to attentuate the silibance.

edit: looked at plugs, this is what I used.