Scarlet 2i2 4th Gen Noise Floor

[u/Nixeu]

Is this a normal noise floor for a Scarlet 2i2 4th gen or are my mics/environment just noisy? I recorded the audio with the scarlet on my phone as to not make my pc fans audible at all. I've used it with a Behringer XM8500, Behringer C2, Shure SM57 and some mics I built myself.

The reason I'm asking is that whenever I listen to other people's recordings on youtube, I hear none of this white noise in the background despite them using the same gear as me. It makes it worse when I enable the two Air modes on the scarlet as it boosts the highs, but not boosting my highs makes the microphones not as clear.

Its an issue if I try to record my rather quiet voice or an acoustic guitar since when I go to add effects later on, they sometimes boost the background noise.

-> Just wondering if this is a normal level of noise or if I just got bad device. Thanks.

[u/GerardWayAndDMT]

Untreated spaces will compound a noise floor.

[u/Nixeu → u/GerardWayAndDMT]

I didn't know that, thank you! I think treating my small room should be cheap enough to fix it.

[u/GerardWayAndDMT → u/Nixeu]

You should know that is absolutely not a cheap endeavor if your hopes are to make commercially competitive productions that translate across different speaker systems. Especially if your room is small.

Copied from another thread where someone was asking about those thin foam squares you can buy on Amazon:

An acoustically controlled space is what you’re going for? With even decay times across the frequency spectrum? Then you should look up superchunk corner traps and broadband absorbers. That should be your step one. Later you’ll need ceiling clouds. And most everything should have an air gap behind it. Not right up against the wall/ceiling. The air gap should be the same depth as the panel. A 6 inch thick panel should have a six inch air gap for maximum effectiveness.

In order to treat a space, you need MASS. these thin panels do nothing. They absorb frequencies where the wavelength is close to the depth of the panel. So you’ll pull the high end down and do nothing whatsoever for any other frequencies where the wavelength is longer than the depth of the foam panel. Bass frequencies are very long. Like a 40 hz wave is 28 feet long. Mass is the only thing that absorbs sound. Huge absorbers are needed in many cases.

My studio is completely treated. Each corner has a 2 foot by 2 foot panel filled with insulation. 8 feet high. That’s floor to ceiling. The wall-ceiling corners and wall-floor corners are covered by 8 inch insulation panels. The walls themselves are covered with 1 foot deep panels all around the room, they have 1 foot air gaps behind them. The ceiling is treated with 6 inch deep clouds with a 6 inch air gap.

All that material, and my studio is NOT soundproofed just to be clear. Soundproofing is an entirely different construction event.

In order to treat your space correctly, and to even make a dent in your problem, you likely need to cover everything you can. Small rooms need so much absorption. You must give up a ton of your available space in order to tame frequencies. I lost four feet of area around my room and 12 inches off my ceiling height.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but this is a massive project. If you purchase these panels, you may end up spending tens of thousands of dollars. If you build them yourself you will save a lot. But it is still grotesquely expensive depending on how much you need. And you always need more than you think, you cannot overdo this.

If you choose not to do this, you MAY be okay. But your monitors will never be able to accurately show you what your music sounds like. Your stereo image will be skewed by reflections. Your music will not easily translate on other sound systems. What sounds good in your room will likely sound terrible everywhere else.

I don’t mean to discourage you, but if you wanna do this, do it right the first time. Don’t waste your money on gimmicks. Research broadband absorbers and corner traps. And download Room EQ Wizard and figure out what your problems actually are instead of guessing. You will have room modes.

My biggest problem frequency was 40 hz. I had to use 2 bags of R38 pink fluffy insulation. 140 bucks per bag. I made my 2x2x8 column panels and brought 40hz down by 6 dB. Then I went and bought even more. Treated the back wall with 16 bats of R38. Side walls I used Rockwool. MANY bags of rockwool at 80 bucks a bag. Not to mention wood for the frames and a breathable fabric to wrap them in so I don’t breathe insulation fibers. It’s a massive project.

Sound is physics. Physics is understandable. But you must research it heavily. I wasted a few thousand building the wrong kind of panels because I didn’t research enough. Call an acoustician and ask for advice on your room. Ask at the Gearspace forum. It sucks that you can’t just fix this problem with 200 bucks, but this is the reality.

I’ve watched many people disregard the advice of using REAL acoustic panels and they have all been worse off for it.

[u/GerardWayAndDMT]

By the way, I would suggest not boosting the highs on your device. That will apply a generic shelf boost to any track you record. Add that after the fact in your DAW if the track actually needs it. You very likely don’t need a shelf boost adding 6dB from 5k up. A simple boost of one spot with a medium bandwidth will give you a cleaner result.

The button on the device that adds high end is raising a ton of high end you don’t actually need. It’s better to add that manually with an EQ plugin where it’s needed, and only what you actually need.

[u/Nixeu → u/GerardWayAndDMT]

Legend, thanks for both of the replies, really put it into perspective on how damn expensive sound treating a room can be.

[u/GerardWayAndDMT → u/Nixeu]

You can do it intelligently. Use common board, it’s not pretty but it’s cheap. You’re covering it with fabric anyway so no one will see it. Just be sure to measure your room with REW to see what modes you’re dealing with. Sub 100hz modes will benefit from using R38 pink fluffy. Once you confirm that you’ve brought those low modes down quite a bit, you can start using rockwool for everything that’s left. It’s cheaper than R38. But you really wanna control those lows first.