What in microphone causes high frequencies souns like hiss?

[Maxim Didur]

Hello! I recieved recently a couple of vocal recording and I was suprised and questening my self what cause such bad sounding high frequencys, treble sounds like a hiss. However I become very curious, why microphone make it sound like this, I mean are there any explanation why it sounds like this from microphone making side? Could it be due audiointerface? I also wonder what microphone could it be?
Here are raw recordings: Raw Recording. I will be very pleased for any kind of help.

UPDATED: THE Microphone model is Akg p220.

 

[Khron]

What microphone is it?

 

[Maxim Didur]

What microphone is it?

Unfortunetly I dont know..

 

[MicUlli]

You dont know what microphone is used?
What kind of help do you expect then?

 

[Khron]

Hello! I recieved recently a couple of vocal recording and I was suprised and questening my self what cause such bad sounding high frequencys, treble sounds like a hiss. However I become very curious, why microphone make it sound like this, I mean are there any explanation why it sounds like this from microphone making side?

What microphone is it?

Unfortunetly I dont know..

"How long is a piece of string?.."

 

[RuudNL]

What bothers me most is a poorly set noise gate...

 

[Maxim Didur]

"How long is a piece of string?.."

How can i know what microphone were used if it was just sended to me by mail?! I recieved it with no informationation about microphone used since it was send to me for mixing. I was just quirious why is it sounds like this.

 

[Khron]

You're making it sound (no pun intended) like you have absolutely no way to contact whoever recorded that piece of audio, and you have no choice but to go ahead and use substandard "raw materials".

How and why is that?

 

[Maxim Didur]

You're making it sound (no pun intended) like you have absolutely no way to contact whoever recorded that piece of audio, and you have no choice but to go ahead and use substandard "raw materials".

How and why is that?

Well I linked an audiofile and thought that people gonna listen to it and push some thoughts about it, if you want I can ask what microphone were used but It was about 2 months ago

 

[dmp]

However I become very curious, why microphone make it sound like this, I mean are there any explanation why it sounds like this from microphone making side? Could it be due audiointerface? I also wonder what microphone could it be?

There are many things that can cause a microphone to have noise and hiss. Different causes happen for different microphone types.
A few examples would be contamination at the high impedance area near the capsule (solder flux or even skin oil from careless handling), a noisy tube or semiconductor, or a capsule that has been contaminated.
Also poor use / gain staging can cause the final recording to have a high amount of noise. Like poor mic placement requiring a ton of gain.
Or a instrument can have a lot of noise and it could have nothing to do with the microphone. Sometimes it is a compromise between tone, capturing the performance in the moment, and a perfect fidelity recording. For example, a steel player is playing a great performance, but the single coil pickup is generating a lot of noise/buzz. Do you stop the great performance to get the perfect fidelity recording that loses the magic of the moment? Or accept the flaws in the fidelity of the recording? If a track were sent to you with high noise, it should have an explanation I would think. Then in mixing (with someone that knows what they are doing) a pro level noise reduction can usually do a pretty good job. A good noise reduction tool with profile the noise spectrum from a moment when the instrument is not playing, and remove that. Not the same as a 'noise' gate, as in a pedal. I would rather have the raw track with the full noise, than a noise gate pedal be added on in the studio.

 

[Maxim Didur]

There are many things that can cause a microphone to have noise and hiss. Different causes happen for different microphone types.
A few examples would be contamination at the high impedance area near the capsule (solder flux or even skin oil from careless handling), a noisy tube or semiconductor, or a capsule that has been contaminated.
Also poor use / gain staging can cause the final recording to have a high amount of noise. Like poor mic placement requiring a ton of gain.
Or a instrument can have a lot of noise and it could have nothing to do with the microphone. Sometimes it is a compromise between tone, capturing the performance in the moment, and a perfect fidelity recording. For example, a steel player is playing a great performance, but the single coil pickup is generating a lot of noise/buzz. Do you stop the great performance to get the perfect fidelity recording that loses the magic of the moment? Or accept the flaws in the fidelity of the recording? If a track were sent to you with high noise, it should have an explanation I would think. Then in mixing (with someone that knows what they are doing) a pro level noise reduction can usually do a pretty good job. A good noise reduction tool with profile the noise spectrum from a moment when the instrument is not playing, and remove that. Not the same as a 'noise' gate, as in a pedal. I would rather have the raw track with the full noise, than a noise gate pedal be added on in the studio.

It is not really background noise it is just poor sounded high frequencies in audiofile i linked

 

[dmp]

It could be a badly designed microphone circuit or capsule that accentuates high frequencies and then clips them. It could also be the gain staging from the mic to preamp to interface is causing some clipping.
You could read about sibilance and de-essers

 

[micolas]

Could it be radio frequency interference from radio transmitters, TV, professional communications stations or jamming, electronic warfare?
Or just a bad microphone, bad audio interface or too hot gain setting, transients reach 0dB digital, AD converters end up distorting

 

[Tim Campbell]

Why blame the microphone? It could have been eq'ed, compressed, poorly gain staged, bad cables. Your basic question assumes too much responsibility on the mic especially since you don't seem to know how this was recorded.

 

[gswan]

Most likely Johnson noise in gain stages.

 

[Maxim Didur]

You're making it sound (no pun intended) like you have absolutely no way to contact whoever recorded that piece of audio, and you have no choice but to go ahead and use substandard "raw materials".

How and why is that?

UPDATED: THE Microphone model is Akg p220. But in that situation it very confuses me, since I have diffrent recording recieved from another client on this microphone but it sounds comepletly diffrent. It could be due audio interface they used but I dont think it could cause such a diffrence, since both of them are budget. If u would like to listen I attached to audiofiles of the same microphones to compare. Still cannot figure out what phenomen I faced to with hissy top end on first one....
View attachment p220 with hissing high frequencies.mp3
View attachment p220 (another one to compare).mp3
...

 

[Delta Sigma]

I think what you are asking about may be the bad sibilance in the recording. I can hear it on the second one too. Probably bad in the first one because of mic placement. I think it's likely a sibilant mic. Unpleasant rise in the high end. May not be an issue on some sources.