XLR into a PC first time advice

Thats a perfect shape, cuts off nicely without extra (didn't reply before as you didn't have the link! ) does that shape/design have a name so I can shop around?
 
It has a name but i've only seen them at evil bay.
I'm not sure how effective it would be. I've never used one.
I'm sure if your a bit handy though you could make something similar if things are tight.
 
I'm less handy than a Hippo in Boxing Gloves.

Had a big re-read through everything and I think I misunderstood a few things. And I think I have everything decided too:

  • Shure PG58 - Suggested by Me (Listened to some Youtube videos, seemed ok)
  • Lexicon Alpha - Suggested by Jimmy 69 (Complete Replacement for/Better than a Sound Card?)
  • Shock Mount - Suggested by Kip4 (Avoid Cheap Chinese Rubber Band ones) -
  • Cheap Stand - Suggested by Bobbsy (If doesn't clamp tight, refund within 7 days)
  • Sennheiser HD 518 's -Suggested by Me

All thats left to do is purchase and wait for the typical something that goes wrong anytime I try anything :p

Edit: I see a pair of HD 518's on ebay that say they've had little use with no box for a combined price + shipping of £52 which is alot cheaper than the £84 I see them from retail Hmmm....
 
Those "bendy bits" that connect the actual clip to the the part that screws onto the mic stand will be very pliable rubber, providing an effective isolation between the stand and mic.

When I was doing location sound, the shotgun mic I had in one of those "furry hamster" wind gags was supported by a similar arrangement, with a couple of similar clips along the length of the mic. It worked well, even at the end of a long fish pole being manipulated to keep the mic aimed properly.

The sort you're visualising are also shock mounts be able to hold a much bigger, heavier mic like a large diaphragm condenser. They may provide slightly more isolation but I doubt there's much in it.
 
Horse for courses mate. As bobbsy say this should do fine for a slim bodied dynamic mic.
There are other designs too i have seen and used that are just as good.
 
got to ethanwiner dot com

Lots' of good useful info here. There is an article on audio quality from less expensive gear. Look for that.
 
Hey hey, money and time problems came up but here I am with a few pictures, stand and mic arrived but not the Lexicon or the pop screen. First two are looking across and second two are looking down to give a bit of perspective, hopefully with the mouse and keyboard being behind and quite alot lower that will reduce the volume of clicking / typing?

bDeHhl.jpg

Kfi0rl.jpg


fMTnGl.jpg

OoFuKl.jpg
 
One thought that occurs straight away is that your microphone is "end address" rather than side address. Mounting it vertically like that will put you voice into the area where pick up is less (but you'll get some great reflections off your ceiling!)

You'll need to re-think your aiming--you want the XLR end pointed at noise sources like the mouse and keyboard--the the ball at the opposite end pointed directly at your mouth.
 
Bobbsy said:
One thought that occurs straight away is that your microphone is "end address" rather than side address. Mounting it vertically like that will put you voice into the area where pick up is less (but you'll get some great reflections off your ceiling!)

You'll need to re-think your aiming--you want the XLR end pointed at noise sources like the mouse and keyboard--the the ball at the opposite end pointed directly at your mouth.
Click to expand...

Ah the problem was that some of the documentation says front, but all the pictures in there show top, i've now fixed that.

Having a few issues now that i've set the system up. I'll make sure i'll explain how I have it all set up just incase i've done it all wrong: the XLR cable is firmly plugged into the mic and then firmly into the back of the Lexicon Alpha. The USB cable from the Alpha is going into a USB slot on the PC and my headphones are plugged into the port on the front with the symbol for headphones above them Line 1/Instument Dial is completely to the left (off) Line 2/Mic is completely to the right (on). the Monitor Button doesn't seem to do anything when its on mono or stereo (for all my problem i've done a test run with it pushed in or not pushed in) The monitor mix Dial is completely to the right (else no outgoing/game/music sound comes out) and the output level dial is almost completely to the right

Now on with the problems.

1. Mic volume is low, can't seem to get it to go any higher in windows or by physically doing anything to the lexicon or Mic. All I see to be able to do is to add DB at the end to anything I've recorded which is really what I hope the solution isnt.
IGAE5.png


2. If I record a bit of talking, (Adobe Audition or Windows Sound Recorder) and save it to a file, then open the file in something that isnt going to edit the file in any way like Windows Media Player or VLC the sound I hear of me speaking is entirely in the right cup of the headphones, I.E. if I take the right cup of my headphones off of my ear I hear nothing.

Its kinda creepy just being on the right side of a recording and I can't imagine this is intentional, when you listen to a song sure they make use of singing in just the left or right or swapping around but generally the singer heard in the center which is what I really want, Googleing 'Lexicon Alpha Mono' seems to get a lot of hits of people complaining about this "only records on the right" thing. When reading the monitor assign buttons use in the instruction Manuel it says about instrument recordings on the left and mics on the right but that's just in the case of monitoring and i'm not really using the monitoring per se I'm listening to a recorded file and it states on that section "when the monitor switch is in mono it does not change the signals going to the computer in any way ---- they will still be separate and stereo in the computer" so it can't be that.
For a comparison I listened to both music and then a recording of me saying something on my old headset mic from when it was plugged into the mic socket and..... sound from both the left and right with music and sound from both the left and right with my voice.

EDIT: FRAPS the game (and other things) recording software actually records me center or stereo or whatever you want to call it when it's heard in both ears (yay!) but sometimes when I create a feature video I don't use what I recorded with FRAPS, I use Adobe Audition.

So there isn't anything wrong with the hardware (and even the volume was at a good level on FRAPS) I just need to know how to get my voice recording software to record center somehow...hmmm...

EDIT2: Tried setting Adobe Audition to record a track in Mono and it seems to record nothing when I record, which means its recording the 'Left' Side and there is no way to record 'Right' side in mono that I can see.

EDIT3: Flipped these two options around (picture is of the 'fixed' version) and now its fine one loud centered recording that you can hear in both ears. Not too bothered about windows sound recorder working, it was just an example to show that I wasn't being inept!

QeFn9.png
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top