Hi - New member needing some help with setup

A

andyg

New member
Hi everyone,

I am needing some setup advice for my home studio. I am new to all this although I do have a basic understanding of how it all hangs together.

My set up is as follows:-

PC running windows 10
Behringer behringer u-phoria umc404hd audio interface (AI)
Behringer XENYX X1222USB Mixer
RØDE NT1-A Microphone
Cubase 5 pro

I also have a sure sm58 for doing karaoke.

Currently I have my Audio interface plugged into the Computer with my monitor speakers and Rode Mic plugged in to the audio interface. I have my Mixer Linked to the AI with a 3.5mm to 2 x XLR. the 3.5mm plugs into the the headphone socket on the mixer and the two XLRs plug into inputs 3&4 on the IA. I have my sure SM58 into the mixer and a pair of Mackie thumps plugged into the mixer too. I run both Karaoke software and Cubase on the pc but not at the same time. Currently only the IA is connected via USB but as my mixer has USB too could this be connected to my pc like this?

All I record is vocals and sometimes a guitar but I may want to expand this in the future. Does anyone have any thoughts on how I could improve my set up? Would a bigger or better AI be worth investing in? Should I be looking at a Midi desktop controller?

Thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.

Cheers

Andy
 
You've got enough to get you going. You don't really need the mixer . . . just go straight into the interface with everything, and do all your monitoring from it.

Mixer is handy if you run out of inputs.
 
Hi Andy and welcome. That is a pretty comprehensive mixer and should add flexibility to your setup.
There are a couple of downsides. Main one is its 16 bit converters, these tend to rather noisy in such mixers but in any case you probably won't or can't use it as a USB device along with the 404 (MME drivers in the DAW might work)

But why are you feeding the AI from the mixer's headphone socket? Not only does this mean an extra source of noise and distortion but also robs you of the headphone function? My son does somethin similar but uses the mixer's XLR line outs to TRS cables to feed a 204HD. The mixer's line output should also be duplicated on the RCA "CD Out" sockets.

You can plug stuff about with pretty much gay abandon and experiment, you will do not harm but watch out for feedback. Keep levels to monitors (and cans!) to zero at power up and advance levels pots slowly.

Dave.
 
Hi there and thank you for the response. To answer your question, I didn't used to have a feed from the Mixer to the AI but then I was trying to do a live stream on facebook for my daughter and we couldn't get the backing tracks to play (goodness knows why) all I could do was take a freed from the mixer to the AI to resolve. I am not terribly happy about this as it is tying up 2 of the 4 inputs on the AI. I have also noticed issues when recording into cubase. I would prefer to separate them out completely I really don't like having the karaoke setup and recording stuff linked.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top