Recording And Mixing Vocals Questions

There's no good reason why you should be getting high levels of hiss on the FireBox. Probably the first thing you should be doing is sorting out that problem.#

Firstly, you say:

    "hiss" noise(room noise)

... these are really two different things. It's probably best if you can upload a sample of the vocal recording somewhere and we can hear what's actually going on.

The other day I found that the XLR cable I was using was the culprit for some annoying hiss that I could not isolate (using an AKG414 clone).

Try swapping out the mic cable.

As others have said, it is probably the mic.  Check the cable first, but the Presonus preamps are OK, but low gain (55 dB or so on my old FirePod).  That is the problem w/ most interface preamps.  Those can make it hard to find a happy medium of drive and noise unless you are recording drums or amped guitars, etc.

The cheapest solution is to get a decent mic.  Here at home I have a small locker but varied - sm 57, 2 Crown pzms (much more useful than one would think), and a pair of Oktave Small Condensor Diaphram and a 319 Large Condenser Diaphram (bought when they were dirt cheap).  Those covers most bases, tho I need to add a ribbon.

For male vocals an LCD is a good all around choice (and is nice on a lot of instruments).  There are too many choices to make a recommendation here but there are lots of threads if you search.  For female vox a SCD is often the winner.  Same for acoustic guitars and a lot of string stuff.  Again, since the Chinese invasion there are plenty of cheap and good alternatives.  I suppose you are male, if you are doing voice stuff for yourself mainly look for an an LCD.  Unless you are lucky or have +$500 to spend most of the mics are similiar on the lower end.  Different but small.

If your mic is OK then get an external preamp, something w/ more gain.  Transformer coupled are exceptionally nice for digital and give a different flavor from the IC stuff in interfaces.  These are the GaP Pre 73, ISA One, which start at $350.  If too much, the M-Audio DMP comes in at 2 for -$200.  They don't have transformer but give you more gain (from the specs and what people say).  There are other cheap mic preamps - electro harmonix has a tube, but basically you need to spend a little more to get a better preamp than what you have in the FB.  Or sing louder.

@

Some inexpensive mics that try to look expensive often have harsh and exaggerated high ends.  A Rode NT2-A is a good compromise of price and quality.  It is under $350.  (It has a little more top than I like on female vocals, but that is an easy EQ fix.)

I don't know your equipment so I can't comment on the preamp question, but that could be the issue.

A compromise? The Rode NT2 is frickin' awesome!

That said, I agree with what someone said above about IDing the noise properly. Room noise is totally different than a gain hiss from electronics. Try minimizing the amount of items in your signal chain. I used to run a preamp into the Firebox and had all sorts of headaches. 

Doublecheck with a test recording that the hiss isn't coming from the OUTPUT of your rig into whatever you're monitoring on. At the very least you could be falsely doubling your system noise.

It doesn't sound like a ground loop, but it could be that too. Record some silence and bring up your freq analyzer of choice and take a peek. This will at least help you know what freqs are mucking up your signal. 

If you have a hiss w/o cables attached it must be noise from the headphones.  There might be some residual noise in the FB that the headphones accentuate.  Do you have noise only when the FB's input is turned up all the way?

You are doing a good job tracking down the noise - just continue to isolate the problem.  Then you can work on a fix.

@

First of all I hope you're recording the vocals to a seperate track and not on top of an existing track? Hiss can be many things, room noise can sound like hiss. Sounds like you've isolated the problem to a secondary part of the chain rather than an input source but once you clear that up you may hear room noise that the hiss obscured. It may have been part of the hiss. Listening with the monitors with the Mic disconnected is deceptive. You're not going to have the monitors on when recording the vocal with a hot Mic if they're in the same room. You're going to have to do several tests. Start with gain staging from your preamp to your FB. Set Sonars sliders at 0 when you do this.
The hiss could be a ground loop, bad cable, too much gain at one stage, and more. Of course look for clipping in all stages.

Hey, Wicked, I guess I called the Rode mic a compromise because some people don't respect mics that cost less than a car!

I personally use the Rode for almost everything, with an RE-20 thrown in for special cases (some guitar amps, deep male baritones, narration, etc.).

A lot of people like the Shure KSMs and they are in the $500-600 range.

Link Fixed in my post above.
here it is again anyway:
http://www.soundclick.com/player/single_player.cfm?q=hi&songID=10802404


I also noticed something wierd: the SoftMixer of the firebox(yeah, it got one) doesn't affect my input volume/gain at all