Bubowski

Mic Recording And Hiss

I'm curious about people's experience with mic recording and hiss (high frequency noise...I guess this is the "noise floor" of the mic?), especially for classical guitar. I recently got a Sampson C03u USB/Condenser mic (Christmas present), and have noticed a certain amount of hiss in the recording which is easily removed with a little noise reduction with Soudsoap. Since I don't know squat about recording with a mic I just wanted to get a little feedback from those more knowledgeable than myself:

1) Who's using a USB mic and do you get any noticeable hiss in the basic recording setup. What kind of a mic are you using?

2) If you are using a regular mic, do you get any kind of hiss with your setup (firewire or usb interface?).

3) Do you regularly apply some noise reduction to your audio recordings?

4) Any other helpful hints...especially if you're using either the Sampson C01u or C03u (or even the C03 with a mic-pre/interface).

Thanks! Any info is appreciated...it's nothing critical here, just trying to figure out how best to use the mic and to make sure it's working right.