Question / Help Adding Noise Suppression filter to Mic makes it clip when peaking

[Natalie Casanova]

Hey there! So I have an XLR mic connected to a mixer which is connected to my PC via usb. When my voice is loud, there is no peaking or clipping because it has a built-in compressor.

In OBS Studio, when I enable a "noise suppression" filter on my mic to remove a low humming sound, it then makes my mic clip when I am loud and the filter is enabled. It's not peaking since my mixer compresses the mic, but makes an equally awful clipping sound.

I've tried lowering my levels on the mixer and on OBS, I've tried adjusting my mixer's EQ and compression and nothing changes. It still clips ONLY if the "noise suppression" filter is on. Any idea what is up or how to fix this?

 

[shaolin]

I always experienced the same. Glad to hear another person pointing it to Noise suppression.

 

[Joe33345]

Do you happen to be on Windows 7? I had that issue and it fixed itself on Windows 10.

 

[Natalie Casanova]

Do you happen to be on Windows 7? I had that issue and it fixed itself on Windows 10.

I am on Windows 10.

 

[Simes]

Do you have make-up gain on the compressor, or is it purely squashing the loud parts?

 

[Natalie Casanova]

Do you have make-up gain on the compressor, or is it purely squashing the loud parts?

I have the gain turned all the way down on my mixer as well. Here are my specs:

AT4040 xlr mic
Behringer Xenyx q802 USB mixer

The clipping only happens when I have the noise suppression filter on my mic in OBS studio though, nothing on the mixer itself stops it from clipping when that filter is on.

 

[Simes]

The reason I ask is that make-up gain on a compressor makes the quiet parts -- including any noise -- louder, which would mean the noise suppression would have to modify the signal more in order to get rid of the noise. Single-knob compressors like the Q802 has often include make-up gain automatically, which would be the case if the quiet parts of your signal got louder as you turned the compression level up. As I don't have access to a Q802 I can't confirm this for myself.

In any case, if it clips when you're loud, it's obviously still overloading something. I don't know enough about the noise suppression filter to be able to say what that might be, unfortunately. Sorry my idea looks like a dead end.

 

[Natalie Casanova]

The reason I ask is that make-up gain on a compressor makes the quiet parts -- including any noise -- louder, which would mean the noise suppression would have to modify the signal more in order to get rid of the noise. Single-knob compressors like the Q802 has often include make-up gain automatically, which would be the case if the quiet parts of your signal got louder as you turned the compression level up. As I don't have access to a Q802 I can't confirm this for myself.

In any case, if it clips when you're loud, it's obviously still overloading something. I don't know enough about the noise suppression filter to be able to say what that might be, unfortunately. Sorry my idea looks like a dead end.

Thanks for the explanation. If it helps, the noise suppression filter still causes clipping when the compression on the mixer is turned down to 0. I'm not sure if the compression knob is turned down if the make-up gain is still active.