Winshield or Pop screen?

Frankly, the Yamaha is a better mixer than the Behringer, but as Turnitdown says, your hiss issue is most likely a gain staging problem. You have multiple level controls in your signal chain, and if any one of them is turned up too high, the noise produced by the preamps becomes annoyingly audible. In other words, your "noise floor" is too high. This is very easy to do with a dynamic microphone, as its weaker signal requires a lot of gain, making it easier to turn something up too high. I think Turnitdown gave you good advice. And no, the preamps in a Behringer are not quiet. But- proper gain staging should help a lot.-Richie
 
I agree with all of you that if either the Level (grey/white nob you mentioned Turnitdown) of Gain are up too high or if the HI and MID are too high the hissing is louder. However, when I turn it down to minimize the hissing I either have to get too close to the mic or speak louder.

What about the MAIN MIX LEVEL (output to soundcard), will that affect the hissing too?

Since I'm talking in a low soft voice and I am using a dynamic mic, I'm not sure what else can I do to minimize the hissing unless I turn up something or get closer than 1" on the mic.

I did read the manual, and it really does not give you much information. The guy at Guitar World told me it could be my soundcard. It's really not that big of an issue, but since I'd read on several forums that the Behringer adds noise to the line. I thought I could remove it by getting the Yamaha.
 
Hey noise dude good article. I do have a question when he mentions turning up the sensitivity on the input and turn it down on the output.

Translated to mine, is the input the gain on the mic line and the output the MAIN MIX level? I also realized that I had my Line-in volume on the soundcard turned up all the way. I have not tested if this could have been causing my problem either.

Oh! something I forgot my Y cable has an orange & grey 1/4" plugs labeled Ring and Tip. Does it matter which one goes to which (L or R)? I figured since it's all going into the same input that it really did not make a difference.
Am I wrong in this?
 
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Latest result

Hey Folks

You may have just saved me $50. I know this discussion has gone way beyond the scope of this forum but I took the Behringer out the box again, plugged it back in and performed the following test

1. Turned down my monitors (just in case I was recording the line sound comming from my monitor). - Nothing
2. Turned my HI & MID all the way down - Nothing.
3. Turned the LEVEL MIC One 1/4 turn down - Nothing.
4. Tunred the MIC ONE Gain 1/4 turn down - Nothing.
5. Both Gain & Level 1/4 turn down - Nothing.
6. Pan MIC ONE all the way to the left - Nothing
7. Everything turn down (Gain, EQ, LEVEL MIC, LEVEL MAIN MIX) - Nothing.
9. Switched the 1/4" plugs from Left to Right - Nothing.
10. Plugged the Left 1/4" plug only - Nothing.
11. Plugged the right 1/4" plug only - Nothing.
12. Unplugged the Y Cable from the Sound card - Nothing.

Okay! By now I knew it was none of my cables, nor the mixer. It either was the soundcard or some line noise comming from somewher inside my computer.

13. Turned the Soundcard Line-in 3/4 way down - Yes, Sucess.!

I also discovered that it was hissing and a high frequency sound. Okay, now that I had turned down the Recording line-in from my soundcard could I even record. Well, after some tweaking with Gain, Input LEVEL, Output LEVEL, and EQ. I've got it where I can record not have any hissing, nor high freqs.

The best part is that if it weren't for you guys I would have spent another $50. In addition, you guys helped me get plosive sounds as well as the proximity (clipping) issues solved.

One last note - When I made my pop shield I used the top of the nylon (thicker part) and I used it double. I wasn't sure if the top or the leg part of the Nylons needed to be used. Nor was I sure if I needed to have just one Nylon thickness or two. I also found Tule (you know the stuff they use on the bride's head covering) and it's made of Nylon. Just wondering how that works in comparison to Nylons or if anyone has used it?

I bought some cheap Nylons, but I was wondering if better brands work better or if it's the same. Not that I've had bad results just wondering if anyone has done these studies.
 
turnitdown said:
Never mind.... I didn't read your post carefully... my bad... :(
Click to expand...

Actually there is an line-in controller, and the noise was comming from my soundcard. I ended up turning it almost all the way down. I know it seems odd that an integrated card may actually have some software features but since I bought my computer so that I can do some gaming I had to make sure that it had a decent soundcard (integrated or not).

My Integrated card is a SoundMAX Integrated Digitial Audio (made by Analog Devices, Inc.). It has Audio Devices, MIDI Devices and Instruments, and Mixer Devices. The MIDI devices is a WDM-based Device which means nothing to me.

Anyway, thanks for the information and helping me out.
 
I bought some cheap Nylons, but I was wondering if better brands work better or if it's the same. Not that I've had bad results just wondering if anyone has done these studies
Click to expand...
.The reason Pop screens and filters work is they break up the air leaving your mouth and make that air disperse in a wide pattern instead of a tight directed pattern. Sort of like the difference between the a shot gun (pop filter) and a rifle bullet (no pop filter) That being said just use what works that does not hinder sound waves too badly, good nylons versus cheap won't matter. If the material used gets too dense it can muffle sound. Sometimes I set up 2 pop filters, one right after the other if the singer is severely plosive.
 
Dracon - trust me man, you gotta trust me ;)

If you have more money to drop on this it should be on an M-Audio Audiophile 2496 soundcard. You soundcard is by far your weakest link at this point. The Behringer, yeah it's not the greatest sound, but you will see a larger benefit from changing your converters instead IMO. I also agree with Richie, as I previously replaced my Behringer with a Yamaha and now am onto Soundcraft.

I didn't understand your question about that article ... say again?
 
noisedude said:
.....
I didn't understand your question about that article ... say again?
Click to expand...

Hey noisedude

Paul White says the following

"Of course, you may be one of the lucky ones who have audio interfaces with user-adjustable analogue input and output levels. The Digidesign Pro Tools interface that I use includes this feature, and I tend to set the inputs to their most sensitive settings and the outputs to their lowest settings. I find that this gives a far better match with typical analogue gear."

My question was how does the inputs and outputs he talks about translate on my mixer? Is the input in my MIC line the input he is talking about? Is the MAIN MIX output the output he's referring to?
 
I don't think that's what he means. I'm not sure though. Either way, just get the basics right. Set your preamp gain as high as you can (in conjunction with peak light or using PFL on a better mixer), then get your fader up and your mains if you're using them. Then find a meter in your software and make sure you aren't overdriving your input on your soundcard.
 
could also EQ the well recorded vocal to sit better in the mix and also turn up the volume and experiment with panning techniques (especially on the other instruments)
 
I did some EQ'ing and I got some very good results.
I have the gain turn up halfway (anymore and it does not seem to give me more leverage - however I'll test it again and turn down the fader and see what happens).
I have the MIC fader turned up to +10dB
the MAIN OUT fader turned up to +15dB
the MID turned up halfway
the HI turned up a 1/4 way
and the LO at 3/5 of the way

I can hear some hiss (white noise or whatever you want to call it) when I turn up the volume very high (In a scale from 1-10 at 7 I can start hearing the hissing). I figured I can tweak that out with some more EQ'ing and/or working the gain/fader.

I have my soundcard plugged into the MAIN OUT and I used the MAIN OUT fader to control the input into the soundcard. Is this a correct method or should I be using the Control Room Out and control the input into the soundcard from there?
 
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