Recording Voice with Sonar X3 - humming sound in background - how do I set the Noise Gate?

Just installed Sonar X3 using a Samson mic.
 
Recording voice on the audio track. There's a constant light humming sound in the background.
 
I was told that the Noise Gate plugin would remove it. But what setting will do this? The options are countless.
 
Can anyone help please? 

thanks!

Yes. But I need *the settings* for the noise gate to make the background humming go away and still hear my voice.
 
If there's another solution other than the noise gate, I would like to hear it, but when I called CakeWalk tech support, they said use the noise gate. But they couldn't give me any information on what to set it to.
 
Thanks.
 
 
 

Not going to remove the mic from the usb. that's what the mic is for. 
 
Just need the right noise gate settings. that's what it's for. also, what EQ setting should I set it for? 
 
Surely someone has recorded their voice and gotten rid of the humming using an Samson usb mic. Hoping those folks will see this. thanks!
 
 
 

I understand that using a different mic other than a usb is the easy, quick fix.
 
However, I just bought this usb Samson mic and I love the ease of just plugging it into my computer and using the sonar software to record.
 
CakeWalk told me that the noise gate plugin will resolve the background noise; I just need to know what settings to use for the noise gate. 
 
So I've got my fingers crossed that someone here has used the noise gate with voice recordings (or other recordings) and can tell me what to set all the settings to. Thanks.

Agree with everybody here 1000%
Maybe this (rather shakey) video will help? http://youtu.be/QyOBq824K5c although it uses a different DAW you might be able to adapt. I sped through it but basically it looks like he is using notch EQ (Sonar equivalent would be quadcurve in the prochannel).
 
Consider buying an SM7B! :)

I hate to have to tell the OP this, but a noise gate isn't going to help with the hum, because technically "hum" isn't background noise, it's electrical interference. You're either going to have to find the source of it, and kill it (figuratively of course) or you're going to have to become very proficient at notching it out with an EQ and then hope that your notch is narrow enough to leave the remaining audio in decent shape.
 
Edit: Since you seem determined to use a USB mic, have you tried recording to your machine while it is unplugged? Unless of course you're using a desktop...I use a laptop, which can of course run on battery. Most "hums" are caused by AC and aren't as prevalent from DC in my experience.

I started to try the EQ but learned that no matter what I do while recording, it makes no difference. I've put the volume up, the gain up, tested all sorts of options with EQ, but nothing changes. 
 
What am I doing wrong? What do I need to do in order to get these changes to actually work while recording?
 
thanks.

wow. so I can't set the volume levels or gain levels or anything else before recording so that the raw recording is louder?
 
 
 

I can't get a single video for this so I'm supplying two:
 
Please check out this video on Quadcurve EQ:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxFBthlcTfs
 
then here's how to notch with another EQ:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOzqdbyAvyY
 
Please see if this helps with the Quadcurve.

scook
The level is set at the interface. Here is the signal flow diagram http://www.cakewalk.com/D...amp;Req=Mixing.07.html

Right, and is a very important concept. The OP has to consider that Sonar can't control the level before it hits the A/D converter. If its too loud at that point its too late to fix later. You have to adjust the level at the source. 
 
 

I am very sorry if advertising hype, CSI or tech support gave you the wrong impression.  No software can change a noisy mic into a non-noisy one.  You can lessen the effect and if you are lucky enough to have the hum be isolated to a single frequency, perhaps filter out the noise, but you will never create a signal as clean as if you had started with a clean signal to begin with.  Using a USB mic with a program as powerful as Sonar is treading into oxymoron territory.  Would you buy an expensive new home and put plywood doors on it?  Would you buy a BMW and put a $25 generic stereo in it?  I doubt it.  Many USB mics come with entry level software because the primary use of such mics is podcasts and musicians who use such recordings as a scratchpad to be re-recorded later.  I understand that you may not have the budget at the moment to replace the mic, but if you can, it is a good idea.  You have too much money invested in Sonar to ruin your recordings at the source. Sonar is great but no DAW can take a bad signal and make it pristine.
 
With that said, I concur with others that said that EQ or some other form of filtering is likely a better solution than gate if it's a hum. The defining control on a gate is threshold and odds are good that the threshold of the hum is going to overlap some of the signal you actually want.  I would do a classic eq notch sweep first (short explanation, make a narrow notch in the quadcurve EQ and turn gain way up so that any changes are noticable and then go up and down frequencies until you isolate the hum) and then reduce as much of that frequency and harmonics before any attempt at gating.
 
Another option is to try noise reduction plugins.  Try the free one on audacity first.  There are expensive noise reduction plugins like rx3 that will do a great job but it seems insane to me to actually plan to use noise reduction on every recording in advance when you can fix the problem at the source.

Just messing around with R-Mix. If you had X2 you could play with that. Place the shape on the field and move it around to find the hum and pull it out. It's a pretty cool tool. To bad that it's no longer a part of Sonar 3 since it's a Roland thing.