Need help setting up (Eq, gain, comp. ect) mic for home recording.

1

15MCrabtree

New member
Hey guys, i apologize first off for my noob-level terminology and understanding.
I have a SP B1 microphone and a Tube MP pre-amp. The only sound treatment i have is a SE Space Reflexion filter. This goes to my xenyx Q802usb mixer. Its built in audio interface goes straight to my emachine (cheap model).

My trouble is i keep getting a lot of white noise or buzzing. I have no understanding of how to set up the mic as far as eq, and gain control. the mixer has a gain knob, compression knob, high med and low eq, fx knob, pan knob, and fader or volume control (in that order). I don't know if there is a process of setting those. I tried just going down the channel and moving each knob until it sounded better then moving on to the next one but i never made any progress. the only thing that helped was turning the gain or volume until the noise disappeared. then my recordings were really quiet. I'm sorry guys, this is probably general knowledge since I've looked all over the internet on how to do this and haven't found anything. so if there is a link to a tutorial or something like that, that would be awesome. or am i doing this right and just have hard ware issues??

Any Feedback helps Thanks!!
 
I agree...chances are it's a cabling problem (or possibly a piece of gear with a fault). Although not top of the line, that combination of gear should be capable of good results.

In terms of setting up your gear, you have some gain staging to do.

Plug your mic into the Tube MP. Start with the +20dB gain switch in the "Normal" setting, i.e. no gain. The phantom will be in the "On" position and just leave the Phase reverse in normal.

Speak/sing into your mic from the distance you'll be using and turn up the Gain knob until you get very occasional red flashes on the clip light, then back off to the point where you get no flashes at all. If you can't get to this in the Normal setting, add the +20dB gain and try again. Leave the Output knob in the 12 o'clock centre position.

Take the line out of your Tube MP to a Line In on your mixer. Set both the Level knob of the channel you're using and the "Main Mix" Master know to the Zero position and, on a test recording, set the gain control so your recording is averaging around -18 on your computer with peaks in the range between -6 and -12. The exactly relationship will depend on the sort of material you're recording.

I'd leave the compression control off, all the EQ in the centre position and no effects from your mixer. All this can be done with better quality in your DAW.

You'll probably want your mic panned hard left or hard right if you're recording in mono (and a mic is a mono source).

Once you've done all this, adjust your monitors so the recording sounds a comfortable level to you. Adjusting the monitors doesn't affect your recording but cranking your recording up or down so it sounds the right level in your monitors is a "bad thing".

If this doesn't clear up the noise/buzz, start swapping out the cables you're using to see if the problem can be traced to one of them. Also, you can plug the mic straight into the mixer to see if the Tube MP is causing the problem.
 
Thanks everyone for the help!

I'm sorry for the late reply, I'm new forums and was so caught up trying to figure everything out i forgot to reply.

I completely removed the mic preamp and went the the gain staging on the phantom power (+48 volts) that was already on the board. was this a good move? as i was testing the mic i still heard some white noise. i tried turning it down but then the vocals were way to quite in the mix. shouldn't the vocals be loud enough for the mix and still have some white noise which would edited in the DAW later? should i put the pre amp back on just incase the phantom isnt enough and i cant tell?

Thanks!
 
Did you follow Bobbsy's advice? If not, do so.

You should have very little, if no white noise with what you've got. Phantom Power is not likely to be the issue. Gain staging is. Or a bad cable.
 
The Behr mixer's USB output is probably creating the noise you're talking about. The A-D converters in them are pretty cheap.
 
15MCrabtree said:
Thanks everyone for the help!

I'm sorry for the late reply, I'm new forums and was so caught up trying to figure everything out i forgot to reply.

I completely removed the mic preamp and went the the gain staging on the phantom power (+48 volts) that was already on the board. was this a good move? as i was testing the mic i still heard some white noise. i tried turning it down but then the vocals were way to quite in the mix. shouldn't the vocals be loud enough for the mix and still have some white noise which would edited in the DAW later? should i put the pre amp back on just incase the phantom isnt enough and i cant tell?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Slightly off topic but phantom power and preamps aren't the same thing, and they're not alternatives to each other.

A preamp is needed to amplify a microphone's output to a level that's usable with your other equipment. That's line level.

Some preamps have phantom power because certain microphones need a power supply in order to operate.


There's logic to what you said, though. The mixing desk will have built in preamps (as well as phantom power), so removing the standalone preamp from the equation is a good troubleshooting step.
 
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