Mixer questions, with game audio and voice software [Q802USB]

C

CFredriksson

New member
Hey everyone,

First post here and really the first post ever when it comes to audio recording. My setup consists of a condenser mic and mixer Xenyx Q802USB and a computer. What I'm recording or streaming is game audio, my mic and possibly voice software such as Teamspeak/Discord/Skype or similar.

The way I have it set up today is the mixer takes the mic on channel 1 and that is pretty much it. I do use headphones out of the mixer, so all I can do right now is control my mic volume and the audio level going to my headphones. Overkill with a mixer perhaps, but I want more now :)

If possible, I would like to be able to control game volume and perhaps voice software volume on the mixer, without it mixing with my microphone input. I just want the audio from my game and voice software to come out of my computer, into the mixer and only go to my headphones while my microphone sound still goes into the computer.

Would this be possible? And if so, how?

My Q802USB have two mic inputs, and two stereo inputs (Channel 3/4 and Channel 5/6).


I'm thinking.. If I can get the game audio out on a separate sound card or in some other way, get it out and plug it into channel 3/4 and do the same for voice software, get it out of the computer somehow and plug that into channel 5/6. Would it be possible to route those two channels to my headphones and be able to control the volume and EQ without those two channels mixing into my microphone audio that goes into my computer? Getting two cheap sound cards won't be a problem for sure, if only I get to listen to the output of them ;)

The output audio of the game and voice software on the computer will be recorded on the computer, so I will have the best quality recorded still. But if I get a little less quality out my headphones, just so I can control the volume on those two audio outputs into my headphones without having to do it in Windows, that would be perfectly fine.


Attaching an image of the mixer so you tech guys, who doesn't have this simple and cheap ;) mixer might get an idea on how to solve my problems, if it at all is possible. :)

Many thanks in advance!

153306.jpeg
 
Are you using a Mac or PC?

Do you have the software that comes with a new Q802USB (or can be downloaded)?
 
I'm using PC with Windows 7 as Windows 10 just can't handle any "old" drivers whatsoever.. So PC and Win7. Well I have the drivers installed for the Q802USB, which software are you referring to?

All in all, the mixer works perfectly and I use it to record my mic, so all that is set. But perhaps you're thinking of some extra features on the mixer through some software?
 
Depending on how kind your system is feeling, you might be able to keep your integrated sound card active and output game audio through that (like you would normally) and plug the Xenyx into the computer via USB to use as a recording device.

In Windows, set your integrated sound card as the default audio device (again, like you would normally). In your recording software, set the Xenyx as the recording device. Run your integrated card's output to a stereo line input channel on the Xenyx (channel 3/4 or 5/6). Plug your mic into a mic preamp channel on the Xenyx (channel 1 or 2). Now you should have both the mic and the game audio running through your mixer. Fire up your recording software, set its input for Xenyx USB Audio Device 1/2, arm a stereo track for recording and have it record the mixed signal. You won't be able to fiddle with the levels after recording, but you can at least mix it on the way into the computer and get levels set there.

No telling if this'll actually work, basically having two concurrent sound devices running at the same time on the same computer. Some computers/interfaces don't like this at all. But some of them will do it happily, as long as they're not both trying to use the ASIO device drivers concurrently. Integrated sound chip will probably just use the Windows WDM or Direct Sound or whatever, and the Xenyx will use ASIO. So it might work.
 
Thanks for the reply! That sounds good for some application, but that's not really what I'm after.

I want to be able to control channel 3/4 and 5/6 without mixing it into channel 1 (mic). I want to have my mic audio recorded on my computer separately. Ultimately I want to have every track separate; mic, game, voice, music. Well that is what I have today without mixing it through the mixer, the only thing I have through the mixer now is the mic and then I have output through the mixer to my headphones as well of course.

But the thing I wonder about, is it possible to have audio input on channel 3/4 and 5/6 without having that audio mixed into my mic channel. I only want to route channel 3/4 and 5/6 to my headphones, would this be possible? Or is there some other of the ports that I could use for this specific task on the mixer? Or is everything I plug into the mixer, automatically going into the computer over the USB sound card? ( As long as the volume level is turned up of course ;) )


I guess this could be a model specific question, but for all I know it could be something that works on all mixers, if you just set it up correctly. That's why I'm wondering :)
 
If you want more than a single stereo track to be recorded, then you're going to need an audio interface with at least that many output channels. USB mixers in general are only capable of outputting 2 channels (a single stereo channel, which is L + R). There may be some exceptions but I can't think of any USB mixers that will output multiple channels. It is, after all, a mixer...it mixes sounds together :)

So what you're wanting is mic (mono), game (stereo), voice (mono), music (stereo). So that's 6 channels (assuming that mic and voice are two different things?). So you'll need an audio interface with at least 6 output channels.
 
Alright, sounds fair! However, I do not want to mix anything with my mic channel. So with the Q802USB I can only mix together every input into that 2 channel (single stereo channel) input to my computer?

So, I can't have my mic input going into my computer separate from channel 3/4 and 5/6 that only goes to my headphones?
I mean, no matter what kind of sources I have except the mic.. I want the mic to go into my computer over USB and channel 3/4 and 5/6 to my headphones, that's not possible with this product?



Even if its not, I'm still happy with it for what I use it for, and it still offers me expansion when I need it over what I use it for today, so overall I'm happy no matter if I can do the above or not :D
 
Hmmm, I'll have to think about that and take a look at the manual for the Xenyx. There is probably a way to get a signal to the headphones but not the 2-channel USB output. With these little single-bus mixers, you have to get creative sometimes. Larger mixers with multiple buses make it easy to do such things, but it should be possible with this little guy. Maybe by either using the channel inserts or the aux send/return in a creative manner.

I'll see what I can come up with when I have time this afternoon.
 
Oh that is very kind of you if you'd have time for that!

I see, well I watched some videos of mix minus for using it with for example skype and such. I haven't really figured that out, haven't tried connecting anything yet or so, but that should work.. well at least for one audio source through the FX Send port.

Then if I don't turn up the FX knob on my mic channel, it wouldn't go into the computer again and only to the headphones.. Or something like that, I have to rewatch the videos today and see if I can figure it out completely.

That however is only for one audio source, it would be nice with two as I have those two "extra" channels 3/4 and 5/6. Of course, If that is possible. As you say, it is a mixer.. so it should mix all sources together, but perhaps there is a way to not mix 3/4 and 5/6 into channel 1 and only have 1 into the computer and 3/4 and 5/6 to the headphones..


If its only possible with some sort of FX Send thingie, then I could route the game audio though that, because that's the most annoying one that could overpower all voice chat without any problems ;) So that's the one I really want to be able to control on a hardware knob, instead of going into the game settings and lower it down there.


I'm a little bit scared too, because I don't just want to hook cables up and try it out, as with any electrical device you could short out and in this case with a mixer, get a loop going that kills the electronics inside.. So I'm a bit careful with that :D
 
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