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It's the strangest thing and I have no idea what's causing it.. It happens with my headset and with my laptop mic. I have upped the mic boost and mic levels to amplify it but it is always there, albeit quieter when the levels are normal.

I've tried turning off skype and any other program that could be tapping into my mic and causing some kind of interference but it's still there.

You can hear it here: http://youtu.be/Po0wjDcwkZE and this is without me saying anything or any actual background noise in the environment around me. I swear my leading theory right now is that Aliens are trying to contact me

Thanks!

PS - headset is: http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-audio/razer-chimaera-51 Running windows 7 64bit

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    Not your typical humm at all. Not even a humm, but do you have a 2 or 3 prong grounding cord? You tried turning off all wireless in the vicinity? Boot your machine into BIOS or with a LiveCD/LiveUSB and see if noise is still there.
    – rjt
    Feb 5, 2014 at 1:34
  • This doesn't sound like any sort of hardware-based interference. My bet is on some sort of background/resident program or malware. I second the suggestion to test in BIOS or with a LiveCD/DVD/USB. If the background/resident program theory is correct, you should not hear the background sound in those scenarios.
    – user294732
    Feb 5, 2014 at 1:49
  • What is the operating system? what are the recording settings set for ? What is the model of the headset/mic? Do they have any form of DNR (digital noise reduction) ? Any software employed that attempts to do DNR or "noise cancelling" ? How was this recording done?
    – Psycogeek
    Feb 5, 2014 at 3:58
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    Mic/Headset: razerzone.com/gaming-audio/razer-chimaera-51 Windows 7 64 Recording settings have been tried on all quality settings iwth all options on and off DNr has been switched on and off Recording was done in Bandicam but I hear it in every other program as well
    – unc0nnected
    Feb 5, 2014 at 13:10

3 Answers 3

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This sounds like a mix between Larsen effect (microphone picking up your own speaker) and a not working echo cancellation algorithm.

What you can do is check your sound mixer and disable the playback of the microphone (you don't need it to record something).

That should fix most of the problems.

You may also check if your microphone and/or recording software has an echo cancelling option and disable it.

Also if you have a fancy sound management software, be sure no "fun special effect" is activated.

Keep in mind that built in microphones aren't very good so you won't be able to get a clear HiFi recording anyways... (But you should be able to record human voice in a good enough quality and without alien sound fx :-) )

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  • Hey LeFauve, great suggestions, thanks so much for takign the time. So this effect is happening with and without echo cancellation, with and without playback of microphone being on, and it's happening with the internal mic as well as my headset (razerzone.com/gaming-audio/razer-chimaera-51)
    – unc0nnected
    Feb 5, 2014 at 13:08
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What is happening is the sound from your speakers is being picked up by your mic and it is being put on this constant loop until it is loud and distorted enough to make weird sounds like this. It happened to me before just change the mic sensitivity, or use a external mic. If still a problem persists :aliens:

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  • Hey Crowlands, thanks for the suggestion. This sound is actually happening both with the internal and external mic. I have tried plugging in just the mic but leaving the speakers and plugging in just the headphones but leaving the mic unplugged and the result is the same
    – unc0nnected
    Feb 5, 2014 at 13:06
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From what I can tell with the pattern of the noise it seems to be picking up the vibrations of my internal hard drive and feeding them into the mic. So moral of the story is that if you care about the quality of your recordings stay clear of Gateway laptops :(

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  • Or get an SSD. After upgrading the SSD this noise problem has been eliminated
    – unc0nnected
    Oct 11, 2014 at 12:03

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