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Topic: noise in WAV recording (Read 11813 times) previous topic - next topic

noise in WAV recording

Hi.

I've been trying to record my MIDI compositions to WAV using the OUT-to-IN method talked about on this forum, but I'm getting a lot of background noise. It seems like this method of recording is extremely sensitive. I have to lower the mixer volume to almost nil or I get distortion, and even at the lowest possible setting I'm getting the noise. Is there something I could be doing wrong, or is it likely because of my sound card (Yamaha OPL3 SAX), or is noise normal for this type of recording?

-T

Re: noise in WAV recording

Reply #1 –
It looks as if you are connecting the high level loudspeaker out to the low level microphone in. This can only result in a very noisy recording. Use line in and if possible line out. But why are you recording this way? See thread # 1003 in the off-line forum.

Re: noise in WAV recording

Reply #2 –
Yes, I was using the microphone-IN. That didn't seem right to me either, but it was the only way I was able to get anything at all. For some reason, Line-IN isn't recording anything. I hope I'm identifying these connections right (I'm pretty clueless about this stuff). Basically, I've got the green, blue, and red connectors on the sound card, and it's my non-educated guess that green is OUT, blue is IN, and red is microphone. There are only 3.

I read the offline thread about MIDI to WAV before I started, and it appeared to me that connecting IN to OUT, starting a WAV recorder recording, and then starting the MIDI player playing was the best (in fact, only) way to get faithful recordings of Yamaha XG MIDI. All of the MIDI2WAV programs out there rely on their own sound fonts, which is not going to give me the results I'm looking for.

Thanks for your help!

-Tom

Re: noise in WAV recording

Reply #3 –
I suspect that your problem may perhaps have to do with your mixer settings. Check it out if your sound card has its own mixer applet. If not, it may hook into the native Windows Volume Control; bring up sndvol32.exe (on some systems it's a little icon in the system tray). When it comes up, it typically defaults to "playback volume" mode. To change to "Record Volume", select Options --> Properties --> and click on Recording. Make sure the available checkboxes are all enabled and click OK.

Unless your soundcard is really unusual, you shouldn't have to muck about with cables at all. For instance, on mine (a SB clone with a Yamaha daughterboard) the volume control for the midi signal output is shared with the CD player (under the perfectly valid assumption that you'd rarely, if ever, want to play midis at the same time as your CD player). On others it might be shared with the Line level volume control.

You can experiment with this as follows: if using CoolEdit, select Options --> Display Monitor VU level. This way you can see if the signal is getting to the wave input port. Then play a midi, and muck about with the various playback and recording volume controls.

Hope that something in this ramble points you in the right direction.

Re: noise in WAV recording

Reply #4 –
Ahhhh ... I didn't know about the Options->Properties for changing to recording volume. Yes, Line-IN was in fact turned off. I haven't tried it yet but I have a hunch in should work now. I'll try it without cables first.

Thanks a billion!

-Tom
 

Re: noise in WAV recording

Reply #5 –
Make sure your computer chasis is grounded corectly. Touch your hand to chasis and record a wave file. Did this reduce noise? Thats what I thought. check your computer ground path, and as a last resort attatch a wire from your computers chasis to a water pipe.