The BIGGEST Enemy In Audio Production

I love Neumann... I've used mostly all Neumann mics... I love the silk soft high end.. I've owned U47's U67's, U69's. U87's, TLM 102 and 103's (All matched pairs). And we had bunches more in the studio where I worked... I recognize anything recorded with a Neumann... Congrats on the partnership.. It's a good one!

Congrats on the partnership with Neumann. That's a heavy hitter company.

My noise problem isn’t inside the room, it’s outside, random noises like birds, sirens, motor cars. Condenser mics pick it all up, dynamics I get away with.

Yes, this is ALL very important, especially the avoidance of digital clipping, because especially to an audiophile ear, that sound is extremely harsh and "grating", sometimes even rather painful to listen to, even for a split second! (Not to mention it's also terrible for your speakers, especially the tweeters!) Unfortunately though, many, maybe even most average everyday people, and even some less experienced "sound engineers" don't even REALLY know what digital clipping even sounds like, either because they haven't been taught what exact sound to listen for AND avoid, or else they just simply don't pay enough attention to the overall music or sound to even notice OR care in the first place! It really almost seems like a "lost art" nowadays in many modern recordings, to actually listen for AND AVOID digital distortion and clipping, because I hear it more and more often in many modern recordings, especially any of the ones who have been an unfortunate result of the "loudness wars", especially among more popular and mainstream music!... It's really actually kinda sad, that more recording engineers DON'T seem to pay enough attention to digital distortion and clipping, because it can pretty much totally ruin an otherwise amazing recording and/or music artist in any specific song(s) that have digital clipping in them, songs that, if it wasn't for the extreme levels of distortion, oftentimes even to a level of masking or totally destroying the clarity of the lyrics of the song itself, would otherwise be an absolutely amazing and awesomely beautiful track or song!... One example of that very unfortunate result of extreme distortion in the vocals is on the Billie Eilish album "When we all fall asleep, Where do we go?" I was thoroughly appalled by the audio quality in some of the songs on this album, and IF only it had been mastered better, with more attention to clarity, and watching the levels of extreme bass vs. the vocals, and NOT allowing all of the rather extreme digital clipping distortion to totally destroy her vocals in many spots, this album definitely COULD have been really awesome, because of her raw vocals and lyrics and unique music stylings, however, I personally just remember that album mainly as being one of the absolute WORST SOUND QUALITY albums I've EVER heard in my life, even though in every OTHER way, I really liked it! After hearing that album in it's entirety, I was just thinking to myself; "Damn, what a shame! If only it wasn't for that annoying extreme distortion in certain parts, this would be an absolutely awesome and amazing album!" It almost even makes me think that Finneas and/or Billie decided to make it sound that way ON PURPOSE, JUST to be "extreme" or "different" from the norm... But I still haven't heard about or found any conclusive evidence to that point, one way or another... And I would certainly like to believe that an otherwise quite good artist like her (and especially her brother/producer/Finneas!), knows better than to let the recording get saturated in the way that album experiences, but I'm not sure about that either... I guess IF I ever get to meet her in person then I can and probably will ask her about all that, but otherwise I can just hope for better sound quality from her in any of her future albums she may come out with!

Slightly off topic question here - Recently I have heard of a recording method using two microphones attached to each other, but pointing in opposite directions in order to eliminate all noise coming from more than two feet away or so. It was called differential microphone. I would like to learn about that and I know no way other than intruding here ….

Concise as always thanks!

man i hope streamers and tubers find your video, as a consumer i have experience so much bad audio quality on mainly noticable on voices. your video sounds so much better as the majoirty of video's i watch

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Great video! Timingly, I am exploring in miking my Boss Katana mk2 100 solid state amp. I'm using Shure SM57 and connect it to my Behringer UMC404HD audio interface. I hear the noise when I'm pushing the gain knob of the audio interface at around 3 o'clock. If I back it down to 12nn, the noise isn't there but the signal suffers. Meaning, I'm getting low output from my amplifier to SM57. In this case, I tried gain staging the SM57 at around 1 to 2 o'clock and adjusting the volume of my amp and specific volumes/level of my overdrive pedals, until I can no long hear the noise or if I hear it in the mix, I can onlt hear it on the quiet parts of the track, which can be cut in editing from time to time. Also good to note that my small modest home studio isn't acoustically treated.

Well explained. Most of my recordings are outside a studio (like audio for my videos) and since I normally want to record accurately what's heard in real life as possible - background "noise" isn't a problem in most cases. But the importance of the noise floor of the recording device it self (the last step) shouldn't be underestimated for such recordings For highly dynamic sounds like fireworks, hammer strikes in a quiet environment or for example just a loud vehicle in a quiet environment where it start out close, then is recorded until it's so far away that the sound falls below the environment (where the gain is set low enough for the peaks to not clip while still getting all the quiet echoes and sounds from the environment without getting bothered by hiss from the AD-converter and/or analog circuitry of the recoding device it self), just the difference between a noise floor at for example -100 dB and -110 dB can be significant. Same applies for 16 bit vs 24 bit. Also electrical noise has been quite a bit of a challange as many of my recordings are in environements, such as close to power lines (mostly railway power lines when filming trains), high magnetic fields and (what have given me most head ache) somewhere with a cell phone base station nearby. Balanced inputs doesn't help very well against noise caused by pulsating microwaves from those either - it do help against relatively low frequency electric and magnetic noise, such as that coming from power lines - but for microwave problems (usually in the GHz range) the cable just act as the antenna and the part where it get modulated into unwanted audio, is in the microphone capsulea or audio circuitry it self (which act as a reciever). For example the small FET transistor used in condenser mics tend to modulate pulsating microwave signals into an audio signal. The only thing that helps angainst this, is heavy shielding of particularly the contacts and where the cables enter the microphone capsule/casing. Lucky for me, I have also built both my microphones my self (using Proimo EM273 capsules) and my preamp (I using the ADA4004-2 and a custom built DC/DC-converter to get dual voltage - so I can run it on just a 9 V battery) I finally managed to get rid of the problem using copper tape and aluminium foil in the right places. Thise one is pretty much impossible to get rid of, if not building or modifying the recording gear your self and I have heard that characteristic noise many times on other peoples recordings and even on stuff they record on TV

Well, I think for this information about noise. I am saving this to listen again. I truly understand why using cables of a quality cost is important. Have a great day.

We have a pair of KH310's and we love every moment we work with them !

Excellent thank you!

great content!

The part of the article you didn’t read says:buy the microphone that fits your budget!! Unless we’re talking harmonic distortion in for example a ribbon mic ; The electrical self noise (aka noise floor) produced by both condenser and dynamic mics will be no where near the volume level of the source material and the room noise combined. If the self noise is louder you either have a lemon or you’re recording a lemon. And if you’re trying to capture room tone, don’t. what’s in the box will sound 10 times better and cost 11 times less than the room tone you’re going to record in. If you gain the mic up to the source and you can see room tone in the waveform, the source is too quiet, probably get the mic closer . If you gain the mic up to the source and hear the noise floor, someone sold you a faulty mic, get your money back

you always be helping the most bro 💪🏼💪🏼💪🏼

I have the SM7DB with a Mogami platinum cable and a solid-state logic audio interface. The preamps on that audio interface are OK. I love the platinum mogami cable because it has literally no noise at all. Just got the cable today and I was so shocked when I listened to the recording and there was no hissing at all at least not from the cable.

That same form of common mode protection is used in automotive communication circuits. Modules talk to each other on two wires, typically wound together, with opposite polarity. Interestingly they have a 120 ohm resistor at each end, so you can check circuit integrity with an ohmeter by showing the parallel resistance between lines is 60 ohms.

Great video as always. Like that you touched on dynamic range being one of the factors that determine the quality of a converter. Assessing the quality of different converters is very mysterious to me. I would love to see a video where you explain all the factors that go into what makes one converter better than another and how to read and interpret those specs, e.g. why is Lynx's conversion better than an Apollo's and an Apollo' better than a Scarlett's? PS Everyone get off his back about the Neumann sponsorship! It's still super thorough, high quality, and reliable free information and he deserves to make a living from the benefit he is providing to so many people! No other channel I am aware of that has this high quality of information. Neumann is a great company and he wouldnt be saying that stuff about their mics and interface if it wasnt true

Very informative! Thank you! Here’s a quandary I’ve been wondering lately, why do some boards have unbalanced ports? Shouldn’t everything be balanced? Is it just a cost thing? Is there any advantage to unbalanced besides saving a buck?