Cutting low frequencies on Mic

[jjj]

As you might know, I am a whistler-musician, using Toshiba Satellite L850 laptop and Create Sound Blaster X-Fi Go! USB sound card for recording music together with my whistling. The setup is almost perfect, except that the Mic captures much of my breathing noises.

I paralleled two good electret Mics, which just connect to the sound card w/o a Pre-amp. If I channel the Mic's output via two electrolytics (in reverse), it sacrifices its volume.
Albeit I hate the idea of adding noise via a Preamp, I suppose there's no other solution. I will have to do it in order to increase the Mic's volume and then just filter its output via a right sized capacitor. - So much to my hobby electronic knowledge.
I trust, you electronics experts know far better to solve this problem and I thank you in advance for your good advice.

Watch me "blowing up" here: "Try whistling this slow, easy tune..." - YouTube

[g1]

I hope you like Alessandro Alessandroni, I think he's the best whistler ever.
Some things you may want to check out: pop filter, high pass filter, noise gate.

[jjj]

I hope you like Alessandro Alessandroni, I think he's the best whistler ever.
Some things you may want to check out: pop filter, high pass filter, noise gate.

Yes, this man has his whistling style and I have mine. I respect your opinion... that "he's the best whistler ever".
But actually, I was more interested in solving my problem electronically, the simplest way. So, I am sad to say that your
advice is unfortunately not "the best ever... I was hoping for".

I just looked through my old circuit I used to built on my busking equipment and found this electret Mic Preamp.
Maybe one or the other would be suitable to solve my problem:

[Bruce / Mission Amps]

Jeeze, Johannes, unless tongue in cheek, your attitude kinda sucks.

[DrGonz78]

I think my Grandpa was the best whistler ever!! I can still hear Blue River right now in my mind's ear!

[The Dude]

A few ideas/tips from recording whistling in my own studio.

1)Use a pop filter and possibly even a windscreen if there's a lot of air movement.
2) Do not whistle straight into the mic. Place the mic above or below your mouth and angle it towards your mouth so the air does not blow directly at the mic element.
3) It's almost impossible to get good results with a gate, but your welcome to try.
4) The absolute best way?......Whistle while sucking in instead of blowing out. It's actually easier than it sounds. I realize those who primarily whistle ONLY are not going to go for this, but if it's just a part of a song in the studio, it's much easier to get a good/clean recording.

P.S. I listened to your clip and it sounds very good. I didn't hear anything I'd consider problematic. Maybe you are just being extra critical of yourself. Some breath sound is to be expected and part of the sound of whistling.

[John_H]

Yes, this man has his whistling style and I have mine. I respect your opinion... that "he's the best whistler ever".
But actually, I was more interested in solving my problem electronically, the simplest way. So, I am sad to say that your
advice is unfortunately not "the best ever... I was hoping for".

I just looked through my old circuit I used to built on my busking equipment and found this electret Mic Preamp.
Maybe one or the other would be suitable to solve my problem:

You need to try some real recording gear. The setup that you're using will never give results you can be proud of. It's not necessary to spend much.

[The Dude]

To elaborate further. If you learn to whistle using a combination of (sorry) "sucking and blowing", it becomes unnecessary to take deep breaths during longer passages. You'll have to try it to see what I mean, but it does work. In other words, you are breathing WHILE whistling instead of the need to pause and take a deep breath.

[jjj]

Thank you for the lesson... but I still need to somewhat filter out the dominant breathing noises. In the recording I provided actually cleaned the breathing noises in the melody up after whistling the melody. I think the easier way is to minimize them in the fist place via a hi-pass filter.

[dai h.]

might try to ask on yahoo micbuilders group also (you have to join to participate). There a number of expert-level (ex-console maker employees, ex-Shure, etc.) people that participate.

[jjj]

Jeeze, Johannes, unless tongue in cheek, your attitude kinda sucks.

Yes, you are quite right, I'm using my tongue, cheeks as well as sucking and blowing to make it sound like that...
So, you reckon a "mission Amp" would help me to cut the breathing noises?

[jjj]

You need to try some real recording gear. The setup that you're using will never give results you can be proud of. It's not necessary to spend much.

Well, I have no clue on what it really would take? Why don't you spell it out? Then I'll have a look at it. Since I'm on old age pension, it would be great not to spend too much.

[jjj]

I think my Grandpa was the best whistler ever!! I can still hear Blue River right now in my mind's ear!

Yes, there seems to be a competition going on... but I was never much interested in musical competitions and just went by the opinion of some great musicians.
See my website for more on that: The Whistling Philosopher...

[jjj]

A few ideas/tips from recording whistling in my own studio.

1)Use a pop filter and possibly even a windscreen if there's a lot of air movement.
2) Do not whistle straight into the mic. Place the mic above or below your mouth and angle it towards your mouth so the air does not blow directly at the mic element.
3) It's almost impossible to get good results with a gate, but your welcome to try.
4) The absolute best way?......Whistle while sucking in instead of blowing out. It's actually easier than it sounds. I realize those who primarily whistle ONLY are not going to go for this, but if it's just a part of a song in the studio, it's much easier to get a good/clean recording.

P.S. I listened to your clip and it sounds very good. I didn't hear anything I'd consider problematic. Maybe you are just being extra critical of yourself. Some breath sound is to be expected and part of the sound of whistling.

Thank you for the good advice.
I only added my whistling activity, to inform on what I am doing.

1) I use lady's stockings strapped over cloth hook wire
2) I use this technique already more than 25 years and am pretty good at it.
3) Gating I don't like, because it makes the melody sound unnaturally...
4) I guess I'm too old to change my whistling technique to suit the Mic.

For my basking equipment I built a 4-stage frequency shifter, which allows for much higher whistling volume (w/o running into feedback).

In my clip I used Snd-Blaster Audigy4 Pro and tried to clean up the whistling after recording it. Now, that I only have the laptop and USB Snd-Blaster sound card, only the music can be EQ adjusted, but not the whistle tune, which make these undesirable breathing noises audible.
Thus, I guess I have to solder this Preamp, which allows me to filter out the low frequencies.
From experimenting with EQ adjustments I learned that low frequencies lift the breathing noises and when I cut all the lower frequencies
the breathing noises become totally inaudible!! Actually, all I need is a reduction in excessive breathing noises only in the whistle tune.

My hope was... to get some good advice on a simple circuit schematic for that purpose, but it looks I'm only getting help on how to whistle.

[Jazz P Bass]

How about a sqaure of plexiglass (acrylic) in front of the mic?