Cheap USB sound card to avoid PC input noise?

M. Gilden

M. Gilden

Canon DSLR Moderator
I have a client who wants to record his own narration for some projects I'm working on.
He has a good mic (I actually set him up with one of my old XLRs and an appropriate adapter), but the problem is his desktop PC's input is SO. NOISY. At first it seemed really odd, I was getting distorted digital effects even in uncompressed recording, until I realized his PC's sound settings had some sort of active noise reduction enabled, which was really mucking things up. I turned that off and the digital compression sound is gone, but now I know what it was enabled by default... the noise floor on this thing is ridiculous! I tried turning the gain down to zero while boosting the mic so the signal comes in a little hotter, but it still seems less than ideal. I know it isn't the mic setup because the static exists even when there is nothing connected to the jack at all.

I just have to conclude what I was afraid of all along- built-in desktop sound cards are not designed to accept clean audio input. So I'm guessing at this point, the easiest thing might be to just get him a new sound card- or perhaps a USB one so it will be easier to plug-and-play. I'd imagine a USB one would be more immune to ground feedback or what not that may be happening inside the PC's box?

Are there any cheap USB sound cards worth considering for this task? It doesn't have to be broadcast quality sound, it just has to sound good enough that it doesn't seem like there's a TV on playing static right next to him. Hoping there's something semi-decent that won't cost as much as another mic.
 
Cary Knoop said:
A cheap USB sound card won't avoid this problem.
You get what you pay for!
Click to expand...

Duh, I know you get what you pay for. Perhaps I wasn't clear in what I'm trying to do. I'm not paying for studio quality and not expecting it. I've had other clients record directly into their sound card (usually a laptop we can plug a half decent powered mic into) and it did NOT have this awful noise. There's something wrong with this computer. Maybe its ground loop from the PSU or other components inside causing interference. I'm guessing the manufacturer was aware of the noisy input and that's why noise reduction is on by default. The aggressive noise reduction is what initially caused digital compression artifacts that I wasn't expecting, and it actually too me almost a week to figure out why it was doing that. I just want it to sound like other plain ol' humdrum mic inputs found on average computers. From an audio signal-to-noise, etc, perspective, why would a USB sound card not avoid whatever is making the internal card noisy on this one?

The solutions presented right now are get him a new computer that doesn't have this, or use an interface that gets around whatever is wrong with this one. If you're going to suggest a crazy expensive multitrack mixer designed for professional recording, I think you misunderstand the scope of the problem we're trying to solve.
 
Thanks for the advice. For now I'm lending him a laptop, hope it works out better. Will look into that one.
 
Another vote for Focusrite. I have a first-gem Scarlett 2i4...works quite well. There are other decent choices, but I haven't felt compelled to upgrade. Alex's suggestion of the Solo model is good choice if you just need on XLR input. $100 at lots of places.
 
Thanks everyone!
For now, the laptop I lent him is lightyears cleaner than the desktop input was. I'm thinking along the same lines as Alex was, that the desktop's internal card isn't properly shielded against the ground noise and I wonder if all desktops are like this in some way or another. The laptop, especially when unplugged from the wall, is workable. Not pro quality, obviously, but with a good mic and a very light noise reduction pass in post, it should do just fine for today's recording.
I think a simple USB connected audio input for the future would make sense, $100 is fair for something like that.
 
M. Gilden said:
I'm thinking along the same lines as Alex was, that the desktop's internal card isn't properly shielded against the ground noise and I wonder if all desktops are like this in some way or another.
Click to expand...

In my experience, yes. There's just so much going on in there between the data ports, the mother board, auxiliary boards, hard drive, bluetooth, Wi-Fi... and that input is meant for crappy mics for Internet phone and gaming. I've not been impressed with most laptops, either, and as you noted there's a nasty ground loop when the power supply is connected.
 
+1
And works well as soundcard with Davinci.

The 2i4 is also usb powered you can use it with your laptop. And has 2 XLR/jack inputs.
 
You can get something decent in the $100-150 range these days. I'm not a fan of Behringer gear but the U-PHORIA UMC204HD would be a lot better than plugging into the typical computer integrated sound card. Shure also makes an small inline XLR-to-USB adapter/ preamp (with HP out) that's decent for well under $100. Doesn't have Phantom Power though.
 
Whole package right here:

https://www.dvestore.com/focusrite-scarlett-solo-studio-pack-2nd-generation/

Or if you just want the interface:
https://www.dvestore.com/focusrite-scarlett-solo-usb-audio-interface/

When I'm not using my MixPre-6 as an interface, this is what I use.

If you want to simplify things, you can go with a USB mic:
https://www.dvestore.com/rode-nt-usb-usb-microphone/

In my experience, though, having "cheap" as the first or second priority doesn't always lead to the best results. The real thing that needs to be considered is "what's the most appropriate piece of equipment for this particular job", and then budget accordingly.

If I had a nickel for every time someone bought something from me because it was cheap, and went against the advice I gave, and then they came back to me 3 to 6 months later and bought the original thing I recommended...well...I could retire on a private island somewhere.
 
I think the OP was confusing the issue by asking for a "USB Sound Card". Sound Cards, that are not $$$, are often almost as noisy as the built in audio jacks because they are built for playing sound and gaming and the inside of a computer is a playground for RF and all sorts of electronic "noise". But he said USB and a "sound card" is not normally going to have a USB port, an interface box will have a USB port (or some other connection to the computer).

Cheap is still cheap but an interface box at least won't be picking up electronic noise from the computer since all the analog parts are separate from the computer.

Personally I would probably use a portable recorder.
 
Slick deals seem to go stale pretty quickly but they seem to start a cascade of deals across the usual suspects. Google (in this case) is truly your friend !
 
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