Bizarre

[Philx123]

Recently been trying to set up my PC to record music again. Got a cheap dynamic mic going through an equally cheap Behringer xenyx mixer, going into an even cheaper Creative xfi extreme audio soundcard. The soundcard was a replacement for an Audigy 2 which I leant to a friend. Thing is, I used to record accoustic, and it came out okay, if a little hissy, through the mixer. Before I'd got the mixer, naiively, I'd tried puttling the mic straight in the soundcard, but the voulme was way low, and the sound terrible, even with mic boost on. That's why I got he mixer in the first place.
I try and set it up again, just like I used to, and the mic through the mixer is loud, though very noisy - his and a low buz. I try everthing, XRL cable rather than the mic's 1/4 jack, but to no avail. Then, just on the off chance, I put the bare mic, no mixer, old jack lead, into the line in on the soundcard, and it's clear as a bell. There's a little hiss, but nothing compared to the mixer, and I can clean it out easily in Reaper.
Same with a guitar taken into the line in.
Other things is, the soundcard wouldn't even load the stock drivers, I had to trawl the internet to find some hacked ones, and they were absolutely the only ones that would evdn load, and weren't even designed for tat card.
Don't get me wrong, it's only demo quality, but it'll do for what I want.
Bizarre, or what?

 

[Doctor Varney]

I wish I had an answer which helped, but I haven't. I put it down to the quirks of the platform, which is populated by too many different companies - and the only time they sit down to talk to each other is inside your tower. I'm glad it's working for you but I think it's one of those things we have to accept (along with the advantages of owning a PC). My sound card worked perfectly in another system and when moved to the new tower, suddenly stopped working. A few days later, it suddenly started working again - then stopped. Today's performance is a unique moment in time... tomorrow your PC could start behaving entirely differently...

Bizzarre? Certainly! Though not as bizzarre as some of the er... 'theories'... which abound when my computer exhibits symptoms of 'strange phenomena'...

 

[mjbphotos]

My limited experience with a Behr Xenyx mixer - the preamps sucked. Noisy and not loud at all. Combine that with a cheap microphone and soundcard not made for music, its no surprise you are getting bad sound.
Do yourself a favor and get a USB audio interface specifically made for music work. There are many choices in the $150 and less price range.