How to Fix High Pitch Noise from Microphone? Causes and Solutions

Have you ever turned on your microphone and noticed some strange noises popping out of it, ruining your whole mood and audio quality?

Many of you think that your expensive microphone has been damaged, and the only way to fix the problem is to change the microphone.

But before you throw away our precious microphone and waste a handsome amount of money. Let me how to fix high pitch noise from microphone, its causes, and possible solutions.

The problem is actually with the high pitch of our microphones. We can define pitch as the rate at which the production of waves takes place.

In this article, I would be discussing high pitch, its causes, and effects on our microphones, and of course, I would be suggesting some ways to resolve the problem.

What is a High-Pitched Sound?

Starting with the basics, you need to understand what is a high pitch sound.

Sound is fundamentally composed of vibrations. The distance between these vibrations makes the pitch of the sound. Closer the vibrations, higher the pitch, and far vibrations contribute to lower pitch.

The pitch of the sound also contributes to the highness and lowness of our audio.

High Pitch sound means produced sound is high. But you should note that the highness of the sound should not be confused with the loudness of the sound. These are two different things.

Causes of High Pitch Sound with Possible Solutions

High pitch sound is often unavoidable but knowing the causes of origin can help in eliminating the factor effectively.

Some of the common causes of the problem are:

1- Use Of Old and Defective Microphones

The first thing you need to examine when you face any such issues is the condition of our microphone.

If a microphone is damaged or wears and tears have excessively occurred in our microphone, the preferred solution is to replace our microphone.

In such cases, the gear of the microphone is defective, which may be replaceable, or in some cases. The damage is irreversible, so treated accordingly.

Taking good care of our microphone can minimize the chances of the high pitch to a great extent.

2- Plugging in Microphone Too Close to the Mouse Port

How and where you should plug in your microphones, to play an integral part in defining the pitch of your microphones.

Plugging in a microphone close to your mouse port can elevate the pitch of you microphone to a great extent. Check for the defects in the microphone.

If it is defect-free, unplug the mouse or try using the microphone in a different port. By practicing this remedy, our plugin issues should be resolved effectively.

If not, move to the next steps that surely would benefit us.

3- Volume Settings of Device

Sometimes, every piece of equipment of microphone is working fine, but the problem is with the volume settings of the device to which your microphone is connected.

It may be the result of default settings or sometimes fixed by ourselves to enhance the results. But they act opposite to our expectations.

If I set the volume to be remarkably at high magnitude, then it, in turn, results in shrinking the distance between the vibrations, bouncing back like a ball on the floor and eventually leading to a higher pitch.

To adjust the settings, follow the below-given steps

• Open the settings from windows or Mac.
• Find the system settings and then sound settings.
• Go to sound input, Select the microphone.
• Click on fix the sound problems, see if the problem has been resolved.
• If the issue did not resolve manually, open the volume mixer, and adjust the volume.

4- RFI (Radio Frequency Interference) and Ground Looping

Radio Frequency Interference and ground looping can significantly interfere with your microphones, causing, high-pitched noises.

RFI may be, defined as the disturbance in the specific pattern of radio waves that in turn affects the electric circuit of your microphones by different methods, such as conduction, electrostatic coupling, etc, producing unwanted pitching.

Additionally, Diaphragm is also working as an antenna receiving mechanical as well as electromagnetic radiations.

This problem can usually also occur due to an excessive load of residual electricity from other sources of your computer, or another reason that may be causing it is an improper twisting of cables.

Ground Looping is the connection of different devices or wires over the same ground.

Grounding is necessary for the earthing of static charges that usually occur during speech, but if poorly done, ground looping can generate an unwanted noise that in turn affect your audio quality badly.

• To resolve RFI-related issues. The first thing you need to look for is EMC testing.EMC (Electromagnetic combability) is a test performed to investigate the radio interference of the devices, and after the test, the company allows a limit to a device of a particular frequency. We recommend buying a device that is EMC tested.
• Good shielding and the use of covers and filters over the wires can resolve the issue to a greater extent.
• Condenser Microphones should be used to avoid RFI as they do not easily pick up a radio frequency.
• To resolve ground looping issues, we highly recommended using a balanced set of cables, as it can eliminate the chances of disruption to a great extent.
• The use of a DI box also effectively removes the problem occurring as a result of ground looping.
• Mouses, keyboards may also be interrupted with the grounding of our mics. Checking them for the problem is also an interactive approach to solve the issues.
• In case you are using a mediocre quality power supply to feed our system, the grounding problem must be occurring because of it. Changing the power supply according to the needs might help here.

5- Drivers Related Issues

A Driver is a program that controls the functioning and output of a device.

Sometimes, it also happens that the driver you are using is not accurately corresponding to the microphone we are using, and in return damaging the output quality of our audio, producing high-pitched noise in our microphone.

Here are few steps to resolve driver-based problems.

• Update your existing drivers through settings.
• If it did not work, try uninstalling and reinstalling drivers on your device.

Outdated drivers are unable to properly process the information and eventually output and, as a result, causing trouble in the form of high-pitched noise.

6- Phantom Power Related Issues

XLR microphones use phantom power as a power supply.

Sometimes defective phantom powers cause the issue. They may not be providing adequate supply for the need of the microphone or, there is a defect in the wiring of phantom power causing the issue.

An interactive approach to solve the problem is to try using a different phantom power. In case the problem has been solved.

It means our phantom power was facing an issue.

If the problem of high pitching persists, then it represents another root cause that requires further and deeper investigations to resolve the problem.

USB microphones, such as blue Yeti and other USB microphones never face such an issue as they do not use phantom power.

7- Hardware Problems

Another root cause of our high pitching microphone is defective hardware.

If your microphone is constantly making high-pitched noises despite all the measures taken to resolve the problem, then, it is a warning sign that the hardware of the microphone is finishing out.

If you are roughly using your microphone and not taking adequate care of it, You may end up destroying the hardware of your microphone.

If your microphone is still under warranty, sending it to the customer support center may get me a new device.

8- Isolation Issues with DAC (Digital to Analog Converter) and ADC (Analog to Digital Converter)

As we know, the input signals that we send are stored by the microphone on our devices are in the form of analog signals.

(USB mic is an exception, they process the signals in the form of digital signals.). DAC and ADC both can be used, for input and output, respectively.

They perform functions contradictory to each other. If they are not well isolated from each other, such a problem may occur as a result of the interruption of signals with each other.

The most common cause which creates such circumstances is the use of the same power supply for both the convertors. So, it is always advisable not to use the same power supply to avoid high-pitch noise.

9- Cables Related Issues

Microphones use various cables to function. In case any cable is undergoing damage. It results in issues like high-pitching to warn the user.

We should check our microphone cables too. If cables are passing by touching each other, it significantly contributes to the problem.

Or if any cable is exposed to the outside environment listed issues are caused. Broken cables are another cause of such issues. Such types of issues would be resolved by changing the cables or their pathways.

Conclusions on High Pitched Noise in Microphone 

High pitching a microphone is a challenge that every microphone user faces at least once.

If I talk about high pitching microphones, the causes of microphones are as common as the problem itself is.

Been a regular user of the microphone demands proper knowledge and an interactive approach to solve the occurring problems. Once you have targeted the problem solving becomes easy.

I would further advise if the problem is not sought out even after the multiple tries without losing heart or wasting any further time buy a new microphone.

Your voice notes are more precious than the microphone.

Do not let them fade because of a microphone.

If you have an XLR mic, the best thing is that we do not need to purchase new accessories as most of our old ones, if in good condition, would work!

FAQs on Microphone High Pitched Noise 

Why does my mic make a whistling noise?

The whistling sound is the most common yet most undesirable sound you will experience during an audio recording session. It will leave you questioning that from where it arises and why. The whistling sound is a process of audio feedback. It happens when your microphone enters into the infinite loop with your speaker. It picks up the audio from the speaker and sends the same audio back to the mic for amplification and so on. You can correct it by turning the face of your mic away from the speaker, lowering the mic volume, and using unidirectional microphones.

How do I get rid of the screeching sound on my mic?

If you are facing screeching sounds on your mic, try to use these tricks to get a fix:

• Position your microphone away from the speaker. Because screeching sounds are usually the result of an endless loop created between mic and speakers.
• Use a unidirectional microphone. So, it does not pick unnecessary audio from the surrounding.
• Make sure to switch off your microphone after use.
• Work on the equalizer settings to fix the frequencies.
• Try using a filter or noise gate with your mic.
• Use the direct injecting method in place of a microphone when recording instruments.
• Do not fix your microphone on reflexive surfaces such as walls or doors.
• Use test headphones in place of test speakers for effective results.
• You can also take help from audio editing software.

How do I get rid of static sound on my mic?

You can get rid of static noises on your mic by doing the following steps:

• Adjust the microphone and speaker distance to a decent level where they are not facing each other.
• Adjust the audio and microphone settings on the device.
• Try using a USB headset instead of the traditional one.
• Try unplugging and replugging the microphone. Also, try a different slot for the connection.
• Choose a quiet environment for recording.

Why is my microphone emitting a high pitch noise?

Volume settings on your microphone are the definite cause of high pitch noises that your mic is emitting. When the volume of your mic is raised high above the suitable level, it causes high pitch noises by bouncing the input back. Try following the above-mentioned steps to get rid of high pitch noises.

What causes a high-pitched whistle?

High pitched whistles in your mic are caused by one of the following causes:

• A high volume of your microphone.
• The minimum distance between speaker and microphone
• A faulty wire either of your mic or speaker
• The reflexive surface on which your speaker is fixed
• Background noises

Try adjusting the factors, and high pitch whistling will significantly reduce.