First go into the BIOS and turn off the mainboard sound chip.

Also belay the notion of getting an SB USB -- if the VXi doesn't work then its unlikely the latter will either.

Make sure you select the USB sound device when you run the Audio Wizard.

If the Shuttle rig has rear/other USB ports, try them out. You can also try re-routing the wiring for the front ports. I've had PCI card USB ports whose operation depended on what slot the card was in, although never a problem to date with mainboard ports.

Bruce

Tad,

First, in the audio setup wizard, Quality Check screen, when you are looking at the graph there are a few things that you need to keep in mind.

1. The height of the green bars is not anything you should worry about. Some microphones will show higher initial registering of green than others. This is not based on noise. This is based on the initial bias voltage of the microphone element. Some microphones have higher bias voltages than others. Therefore you will see some microphones with a very low green bar graphic display, and others will be, as you have noted, about a quarter of an inch at initialization. The Sennheiser ME-3 connected to and running through a USB pod will typically initialize at this level. This is normal and it is OK because it doesn't mean anything with regard to your signal to noise ratio, or, as it is referred to in this screen, Quality Check Ratio.

2. The Quality Check Ratio, or, more technically correct--the Speech-to-noise ratio, is simply a measure. This part of the audio setup wizard does not make any changes or adjustments to the initial microphone adjustment done in the previous screen. It simply shows you how your speech is impacted by that setting. It is a measure only of the output from the digital signal processor (whether that be the soundcard or the USB device).

3. What you need to be concerned about is the relationship between the green section of the graph and the yellow section of the graph as you speak during the measurement of the Speech-to-noise ratio (Quality Check Ratio). The greater the difference between the green and yellow, and the lower the level of the yellow, combined with the Speech-to-noise ratio that is calculated at the end of this dialog is what tells you a lot about what is going on with the sound quality in your system. If the graph is mostly green, and the yellow is very low, then regardless of the actual Quality Check Ratio, or Speech-to-noise ratio, it is showing you that the quality of your speech is high or good. If the height of the bars in yellow is significant (i.e. greater than and 8 to a quarter of an inch) and the measured distance between the bottom of the green and the top of the yellow is small (i.e., relatively speaking) then the ability of Dragon NaturallySpeaking® clearly distinguish between your speech and what is being represented by the yellow as noise will be less than optimal. For example, with the Audigy 2 ZS soundcard, the Sennheiser ME-3, and the Andrea USB pod will typically produce an initialization level approximately 1/8 to 1 quarter of an inch in height virtually all green. After measuring the Quality Check Ratio, the height of the yellow bars, although variable, is only approximately 1/16 to 1/8 of an inch, while the green, less the yellow, is about 1 to 1 & 1/4 inches. The Quality Check Ratio (Speech-to-noise ratio) for the Sennheiser ME-3 under this set up ranges between 26 and 30, and the quality of speech when dictating and playing back is excellent with no extraneous background noise. This is how you should view these last 2 screens of the audio setup wizard.

4. The graph in the Quality Check screen of the Audio Setup Wizard represents the various sampled frequencies. The far left side represents the lower frequencies and the far right side represents the higher frequencies. If you see yellow spikes in the first 2 or 3 bars at the far left, you are likely getting low-frequency electromagnetic interference (EMI) from somewhere. This can come from the microphone, from the soundcard, or because the cabling that you're using for the microphone and/or the USB pod is not shielded. Or, it is possible that your cabling is running through an area I in the vicinity of some EMI/EMF source. I have had this happen for all of these reasons from time to time. If you are getting spikes in any of the other areas, depending upon where the spikes occur along this graph from left to right is any indication of the frequency of that noise interference. As the spikes are located further and further to the right, they are generally coming from higher frequency noise interference sources. For example, wireless microphones very often suffer a significant high-frequency EMF interference from large bank fluorescent lighting. Although this is very uncommon with close talk microphones, this is the type of source that produces the higher frequency noise distortions. Most of the spikes tend to occur are between the center of the graph and the far left. As they show up further and further to the right between these 2 basic measurement points, the noise becomes more and more audible. This is where I think your hissing, buzzing, etc. sounds are coming from. These are generally due to the amplification of the input signal which is amplifying some type of electrical interference at these frequencies. However, keep in mind that the spikes in this range are being caused by saying is that you are identifying as “static” and are not generally low level EMI/EMF. The lower level spikes at the first 2 bars in the graph are generally inaudible because they generally occur at a frequency level below the normal level of hearing. These can be caused by shorts in your microphone cable, a bad microphone element (or in some cases a poor one), or a low level electromagnetic hum. Regardless, if you see spikes in these first 2 bars at the far left, you are not likely to hear anything during playback because of the nature of this type of noise source. However, and oscilloscope would pick these up and would show you specifically at what frequency they are occurring. Generally, this is usually from 20 to somewhere below 100 kHz. In other words, this is typically electrical noise, like the hum of a transformer. I won't go into great technical detail on what causes these types of things because that would entail a discussion of electronic theory and concepts well beyond the scope of the average user. Suffice it to say that when electrons flow through a device with a specific type of impedance or resistance, the electrons that are flowing create friction. The greater the friction, the greater the electrical interference that can be noticed in audio circuitry. This can take many forms.

I hope that this gives you some basic idea of how to evaluate how well your microphone/soundcard combination, or microphone/USB combination, is working. Again, it is more important to understand the relationships in the grass part of the quality check screen in the audio setup wizard, then it is to place too great an emphasis on the actual Speech-to-noise ratio (Quality Check Ratio).

Chuck Runquist
Former SDK and technical solutions product/project manager for Dragon NaturallySpeaking® (L&H 1998 to 2002.

It's been a long time since I've gotten this techie, so it may not be 100% accurate and I could be way off-base as well. What you are hearing is there because the built-in sound chip lives on the cpu/memory buss. Those are normal digital sounds, however one would think they would be bypassed to prevent the noise.

The problem really could be one of three places - the motherboard is improperly bypassed, the power supply has insufficient filtering or the motherboard has a poor grounding system.

One of those is probably why it's giving the noise. It will be there no matter what you do or what you use if it's one of those.

Perhaps you could call the factory to see if this is a normal occurence on that mobo/chipset/case combo?

Also, have you tried the "Record at CD quality using Windoze Sound Recorder" then listening to it? You can do this with a microphone in and with nothing plugged in. It could tell a lot.