Microphone Hiss

Hello Again,
 
I'm working on a project and I want a kind of lo-fi sound.
After doing a quick audition I found that the good old SM58 was giving me a better sound than my Rode cardoid.
 
The problem I've noticed now though is that I'm getting some pretty serious hiss from it when I apply some effects.
 
It gets really bad when I use the Alias Factor plugin with a variation on the Woolly Mammoth preset.
 
Floorfish is helping to clear up the hiss to an extent, but I was wondering what else I could do.
 
Cheers guys,
 
Ed
 

Hey, Ed,
 
Not quite sure from your post if the hiss is actually from the mic itself and being boosted by the effects you're using, or if it's actually being caused by the effects.  Either way, as scook mentioned above, if deep, narrow eq cuts won't clear it up, maybe try using a noise gate after the effects chain to see if that alleviates the problem.  There are also a few free and paid noise reduction/audio cleanup vsts that I've read about a while back up in the software forum.
 
Hope this helps!
Bob

If you haven't downloaded it yet, Voxengo Span (or other spectrum analyzers) can help you identify the offending frequency.... hopefully it's a narrow band.
http://www.voxengo.com/product/span/ 

i would try to identify the source of the hiss - there are many possibilities, but here are the basic areas:

1. environment. this can be your computer (especially a laptop), HVAC, or some other equipment that has some noise output. point the mic away from them, and deaden the area behind the source if possible.

2. gain staging (external). you need to get as big a difference between the signal and the noise in the analog part of your chain. get the mic as close to the source as you can. if you are recording vocals, then use good mic and singing technique (use your diaphragm!) to increase volume without adding plosives, breath sounds or changing the tone of your voice.

3. gain staging (internal). as bit said, you are using a bitcrusher effect so one way to look at it is that you are making the noise louder. stage 1, use a noise gate + expander. the noise gate will eliminate noise when the source is silent, and the expander increases the volume of the signal you want while keeping the noise floor low. stage 2, EQ the signal, concentrating on dipping frequencies you aren't interested in. stage 3, apply the compression/limiter/etc. effect. 

also realize that noise is part of any "lo-fi" sound, so you aren't looking to eliminate it entirely, just make it part of the background to your tracks. the most distracting thing isn't necessarily noise, it's unexpected noise. i've listened to plenty of commercial songs where i've heard a bit of noise come in when a certain track (breathy vocals, finger-picked guitar) is on and then disappear when it's quiet again.

if you still get hiss after all that, you might want to switch back to a more sensitive mic and "fake" the lo-fi with tape/EQ/tube/saturation effects. you can definitely use a pinpoint EQ to try to eliminate the hiss, or create a copy of the hiss on its own and reverse phase it against your tracks, but i've never had lots of luck with that.

so.... you could create a vocal buss..... send the vox track to it and then make another buss for the rest of the tracks..... place your Alias Factor plugin with a variation on the Woolly Mammoth preset in the music buss and that allows you to keep the mic and the hiss at bay.

Just a suggestion. 

I found that some plugs just have an inherent noise level in them that make them difficult to work with in some situations..... so if you really like them, you have to find ways around the problems.....   doing that ^^^^^^  might allow the vox to stay clean enough to work.

What are you plugging the SM58 into?

Dynamic mics are " inherently " quieter than condenser mics. I'd think that your problem lies in your interface / preamp and not the mic.