woodendaze

A few weeks ago I noticed that suddenly I started getting ALOT of background noise in my microphone. This was using KX Drivers 3547 x64 and a CT4780 SB Live Value.

I found no explanation for this, why it appeared suddenly. I made no hardware nor software changes prior to this. Tried lowering the mic volume and made sure it was properly connected with no luck. Decided to try the internal microphone input on the motherboard and voila! The noise was gone.

So I drew the conclusion there must be something wrong with my 11 year old Soundblaster and bought an Audigy2 SB0243 off Ebay cheaply. When installing it I upgraded to the latest KX 3550 as well. And it has the exact same background noise as my old CT4780!

Any ideas how to fix this?

Tyrsonswood

Any chance something happened to the mic? You've changed the card and the drivers so the mic seems to be suspect here. Any system changes right before this started?

I take it from your description that it was working prior to "suddenly" and that everything is okay when not using the mic? Correct?

When the noise started did the volume of the mic go up as well as the noise? I ask because KX has a mic boost (option) that may have been mistakenly turned on.....

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woodendaze

I thought so at first too, but if it was the mic I should be getting the same background noise when recording from the internal mic-in port on the motherboard. I also tried using the mic in the laptop and it works fine recording on that one too with no background noise.

Playback works great using both soundcards and drivers, the only problem is background noise when recording.

Tried mic boost on and off with no improvement.

Tyrsonswood

Right click on the KX icon in the tool tray and select "settings/reset global settings" This will reset everything to default so you will have to go back and check all your settings after but may clear the issue.

Also are you using the default DSP or do you have a custom built DSP?


Is this the system in your specs..... still running Vista 64bit?

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woodendaze

No improvement.

Never touched those settings.


Yep, the specs are still correct.

Tyrsonswood

Okay.... just fishing here as I'm running out of ideas.

Does the background noise change depending on mic position in the room? (Could be picking up stray radio frequency noises)


This noise that shows up in recordings using the mic, is it there if you just broadcast using the mic without recording? Or is it just in the recorded sound?


Is the noise a "hiss", "hum", "buzz", "crackle" ???? May clue some one into an answer better if we know more about the background noise.

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woodendaze

Thank you Tyrsonswood, your effort is very much appreciated!

No, it seems to be an issue that only exists when using an external soundcard. I wish I'd have an external non-Creative card to test with. I don't have this problem using the internal mic in on the motherboard nor when using the one on my laptop, no matter which room I'm in or how the mic is positioned. The background noise when recording only arises when using either my SB Live or Audigy2 cards.

Good point. I'll give it a try recording with mute on and see if I get the same noise.

I'll post a sample.

I also did try Creative's official drivers now that it's an actual option (didn't even bother to try with an old SB Live Value in an x64 environment) and I get the same background noise when recording, so it's obviously a hardware and not a software problem.

Once again, thank you very much for your help!

Tyrsonswood

Are you doing any over clocking that would effect the speed of the PCI buss?

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woodendaze

AFAIK, the PCI-bus is locked to 133 MHz.

Tyrsonswood

Just the way you said that only plug in cards are doing this made me ask that question.... Sound cards don't like to be overclocked by the pci buss. You have tried different slots, haven't you?

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