White noise problem. Please advise!

[averiguar]

Okay ladies and gentlemen,  I need help here.
My digital handheld recorder (Tascam 004) is recording a hiss from my input sources.
I haven't been able to determine whether it's because im setting the recording levels too high or what.
Tonight I recorded a drum loop from Cubase using an output RCA cable on one track and vocals from my amplifier's line out.
The vocals seemed low volume and are the culprit for the hiss.
Is there any guides or advice on getting good recording levels from your instruments?
Would compression help, for example?
Im very much new at recording digitally.
The white noise isnt supposed to be there, right?
Anybody help?

[Greeny]

The only time I've had any digital white noise is because of external interference on single-coil pick ups (I had an old strat that would even pick up radio signals...). Sometimes a nearby electronic source will also create interference. Might be worth moving any lamps / TV's etc around to check.

There are some smart people and experts on here, so others may be able to offer more solutions / help.

[Flash Harry]

Do you hear the hiss when using the on board microphones, or on line in using an external mic or is it when using a line in signal? 

[averiguar]

The culprit is my line in signal. I was using a mono RCA output line ported from my computer's speakers. The other half of the line in is transmitting sound from my computer audially. It produces a noisy white sound when input to the recorder.
I've noticed the same thing when I'm porting audio from my phone. It'll be noisy until I actually initialize the sound source, which makes it a pain to cue up beforehand, because I have to initialize the source and the recording simultaneously to avoid the noise.
Any idea how to fix that? Am I doing something wrong?
Im going to eliminate any lamps, etc., next time to see if that helps...

[Flash Harry]

is there an automatic gain control on the input of the recorder?

[averiguar]

No automatic gain control. Its a tascam dp 004 Portastudio.
it has an input pot for each of the two input channels separately, and of course individual pots for each of the four tracks and pans as well.
There is a switch on the side which allows guitar/line input vs. mic recording input levels, but neither of these seem to be the problem.

[64Guitars]

My digital handheld recorder (Tascam 004) is recording a hiss from my input sources.
I haven't been able to determine whether it's because im setting the recording levels too high or what.

Recording with the levels too high will result in clipping distortion, not hiss. Hiss is usually caused by setting the recording levels too low.

Is there any guides or advice on getting good recording levels from your instruments?

While recording individual tracks or track pairs, the recording level is determined by the Input A and Input B Level controls. Adjust these as high as possible without making the "_" overload indicator appear above the A or B level meters in the display.

While bouncing or mastering, the recording level is determined by the Track 1 - 4 Level controls, pan controls and the Master Level control. Adjust the four track level and pan controls for the desired mix while watching the 1 2 3 4 level meters in the display to avoid overloads. Then adjust the Master Level as high as possible without overloading according to the L R meters at the right of the display.

[IanR]

You may have a ground loop issue. Try recording using only battery power to see if the noise is still occurring and then plug the units into mains power one by one to see what unit creates the noise.  If it comes back once all the units are plugged into the mains, then you have a ground loop issue. They are hard to eliminate.  I recently ordered a Behringer HD40 (hum destroyer) for this purpose.  I'll put it between my recorder and powered monitors.  Hopefully it will fix things up.  Up until now, I have had to ensure that my laptop has been fully charged before using it in my recording set up or else it creates "white noise" squelchy sound which is impossible to tolerate.

Ian

[IanR]

Problem solved!!

I just received a Behringer MicroHD 400 in the post and have plugged it into my recording set up.

It has killed all of the noise created by the ground loop that had been a great pain in the arse.

Previously, I had to run something on batteries (ie my laptop computer usually) to eliminate the noise.

It is a cheap and very effective  solution.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN0AkzcgDCY

cheers,

Ian