Unwanted Background noise through Mic Input

Question

Hey Guys, I'm new here maybe someone can help me with my problem.
I have the X-Fi Xtreme Music sound card which I just purchased in the last couple of weeks, operating on Windows XP Home, Intel Duo-Core-whatsit. The PC is also well-powerful enough to handle the sound card.
I have my microphone plugged straight into the mic jack in the soundcard. The mic is a Shure PG58, the cable came with the mic and they're both brand new. I'm running Sonar Producer Edition to record my music, the computer, software, mic and soundcard are all new, bought specifically for the purpose of recording a project.
OK. I have this really bad background hiss going through my mic channel. The noise is there whether the mic is switched on or off, I even unplugged the mic from the cable and it was still there. I removed both my USB midi cable and also a network cable I had plugged in the back which wasn't being used, I thought that maybe there was some interference from the cables. Nothing changed, the hiss is still there as long as mic input is enabled. The only way I can get rid of it is either muting the mic channel or lowering the mic faders in the mixer console, but this means that the input signal also goes way down and then I'm unable to record anything because the levels are too low. So basically, if I have the mic levels high enough to record, the hiss is very obvious.
I listened very carefully to the sound of the hiss and found out that there's not only a constant hiss, but also a kind of 'pulsing' scratchy noise too, which I have discovered is in sync with the blink of my cursor. As it happens, there is also very faint extra hiss and noise when I move my mouse/cursor around the screen, and also when I drag to enlarge of minimize a window, I get little noises which reflect this movement. I also get faint pops and whirring noises when the computer is doing something like opening a program or closing one, also when I shut down the computer or start it up, it's like the inner workings of the computer are being amplified greatly and then fed back through my mic channel. It doesn't happen through any other channel other than the mic, for instance if I change the input from mic to line, it stops. It's only when I have mic input enabled.
So my problem is that if I have the mic up enough to record anything I get all this background hiss and this noise also gets recorded to my audio track in my music project. In quiet moments on the track you can also clearly hear this noise which is totally unnacceptable. I have tried changing everything I can within the console settings but with no change to this hiss, as long as the mic input is of any strength, the hiss is there. Lastly, I initially thought that it might be the adaptor I am using to change the mic plug down from large to small (for the soundcard) but after I went and got another adaptor nothing had changed with the hiss, so it's not the plug either.
Has anyone else had this problem? I'm sure the answer may be very simple, but I'm completely frustrated and can't work out what's causing it. It just shouldn't be happening. Is it a setting somewhere?
If anyone knows what might be the cause of this, please help me out. I would really appreciate it as I want to move on past this issue and continue with my project.
Taurus

Answer 1

Hi HeadSty, I'll share with you what happened to me after I posted here about that interference problem I had with my Creative X-Fi soundcard, it might help you.
After numerous emails sent to Creative Support and getting no help except for them to advise me to uninstall and then reinstall all the software (which is obviously not the problem, the problem is one of physical interference from somewhere) I finally got some help from the Cakewalk forums I belong to. Someone there told me that the issue is often one that the soundcard itself is too close to the rest of the computer, ie; it's inside the computer and it's often best if it's an external unit, also someone else there told me that it could be due to the soundcard sharing an IRQ resource with the graphics card, which sure enough, when I checked, it was. I was about to take my PC back to the place where I got the card installed to begin with and have them move the card to another slot, I was told that this may solve the IRQ-sharing issue, and if you feel like you want to try this it may be worth a shot.
In my case, things sort of took a turn in another direction due to the total lack of help from Creative's sales department. I was totally unhappy with the jacks on the X-Fi card, I needed something besides what was at the back of my PC, I needed something close to hand for both mics and headphones. I had tried to find the Creative Upgrade Console everywhere and had no luck at all. I emailed Creative sales and asked them where I could buy one, I originally had wanted it included with the card as Elite Pro and the dealer told me it wasn't available from his supplier so I thought I could find it somewhere else after I got the card installed (wrong). When I asked Creative Sales where I could buy one (I'm in Melbourne, Australia) they just sent me an outdated list of retailers, all of which told me they no longer stocked Creative products, only the MP3 players. I went everywhere to find that console and couldn't find it. I finally found one wholesale dealer that had only one Upgrade console left, and they wanted nearly $400AUS for it. I had already paid $179AUS for the card. I checked around and found that I could get a Tascam US-122L for just over $300AUS, it has a soundcard built into it, jacks, a phantom power switch for condenser mics, the lot, and zero latency. It just plugs into the USB of my PC. I bought that and have had absolutely no problems with it, it's a professional unit and I was able to get back into creating my music immediately with excellent results. Better than the Creative card could ever offer.
Listen, try moving the card to another slot and see if that helps, providing that you check and see if the card is sharing an IRQ with your graphics card, or with anything else. I was told that this can often be one of the causes of sound interference. But to be honest, I am so happy with the Tascam unit, I would tell you that if you're not happy with the Creative card and like me, you want to have all the relevant jacks right in front of you and you haven't already got the Soundblaster console, then consider getting the Tascam or something similar, which has the actual soundcard outside the PC. Because the Tascam has phantom power for condenser mics (the Creative card didn't have that), I now don't have to settle for the thick sound I was getting from the mic I had already, I can now go out and get a high quality studio mic which needs phantom power to run and just plug it into the Tascam.
I was told by several of the pros on the Cakewalk site that cards such as the Creative one aren't really up to scratch and that if you're really serious about your music then you really need to have a card that sits outside the PC (though one or two people told me that they did fine with onboard sound cards). As I needed the console anyway, when I found that the Tascam unit was actually cheaper than the upgrade console and had everything I needed with phantom power to boot, there really was no choice for me to make. Like I said, I'm totally happy with the Tascam US-122L and only use the Creative card now for watching DVD's or listening to MP3's. The surround sound and crystaliser are both really good functions, but for professional music creation you can do a lot better if you need the extras like mic and headphone jacks etc. The conclusion I came to after all the screwing around I had to go through was that even though Creative tout their soundcards as being suitable for professional music creation they are more suited to gaming and music listening.
Hope that helps a bit.
Taurus
Message Edited by taurusthecat on 08-13-200710:34 AM