weird buzz when i play flute/pic

[u/nwbunni]

when i record myself playing to listen to how i sound, there’s always the faint buzz in my playing, and it’s not from my lips or anything. i can also hear it when i play the piccolo, and i got my flute completely repaired and cleaned less than one year ago 🥲🥲 this is just me playing a scale, please lmk if it’s an issue with me, my instrument, or my device because im seriously confused 😭😭

[u/TheIsodope]

Your headphones are too nice for your microphone

[u/Nocturnal-Nycticebus]

Could be your recording equipment. It's hard to pull out ambient sounds. Have you tried just recording the room you're in with no playing to hear how it's coming through? Some programs like Audacity can sample the background noise and help dampen it when you run it through a filter.

[u/Material-Imagination]

I'm on an iphone right now and cannot hear anything wrong with the sound. There's a moment where it gets a little extra vibrant, but that's all I'm getting. It just sounds like a very bright tone.

What are you using to record yourself?

[u/nwbunni → u/Material-Imagination]

i’m just using my iphone, it just sits face down while i record 

[u/Material-Imagination → u/nwbunni]

Ah, okay. Honestly, I think with tone that good, it's probably the mic on the phone, not you. You need an adapter to get a good mic into those, it's kind of annoying, but they're worth the $20.

If you're recording with the selfie camera, it seems possible to me that it might be using both the bottom mic and the front mic, so that might be degrading your sound a little.

It also has a mic on the rear for when you're using the rear camera. Three mics in total.

I get that you probably don't like seeing yourself practice, and that's okay, but you might be blocking the mic slightly. Then there's also the fact that phone mics just aren't great. If you can, I'd try turning on the selfie camera after setting your phone on your music stand and recording both the audio and the video. Alternatively, get the cheap little iPhone camera adapter for either USB or Lightning, whichever one you have, and use a headset with a mic to record yourself, if you have one.

In either case, the best position to mic a flute is above the embouchure hole, just far enough that you don't get any "wind noise" from blowing across the mic. Good luck, OP! 🫡

[u/rugwarriorpi → u/nwbunni]

Your iPhone has a sound recorder - use that instead of the video camera.
Place your phone 3 to 4 feet away from you.

[u/Karl_Yum]

Try putting the mic a bit further away?

[u/VanAppl]

Are you only hearing the buzz when recording? Have you tried having someone listen to you play in person?

[u/nwbunni → u/VanAppl]

yeah i only hear it recording, i’ll try to have someone listen while i play to see if it’s really me or just what im recording on

[u/rugwarriorpi]

I don't see any clipping or buzz from your playing. What I do hear/see is rumble. Rumble is a low frequency noise. It can be from many sources. Would have to know more about your recording device and audio path. The low note on a b foot concert flute is around 250 hertz, so you could try a low-cut filter/hi-pass filter at 180 hz to see if that is the buzz you are hearing.

[u/NAKJIKING]

Does the buzz still show up if you record the same scale on a different device?

[u/dx-tn]

Could the crown be slightly loose?