New to XLR mics. Please help!! Thank you

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Starfruit

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I have been using my usb condenser microphone (Atr2500) for a year and everything went fine with it. So now, i decided to buy a new XLR mic (neewer nw-700) and a phantom power. My set up was: Xlr m-f to the mic and phantom power and xlr to 3.5mm to my laptop, but i am getting a very loud hiss/background noise. It is a very loud
noise, and i tried changing the options in the control
panel from the laptop but it didn't fix the problem. I am using an alienware laptop btw.

What should i do to eliminate the loud background hiss/noise?
Can an audio interface solve the problem?


Thanks for the help.
 
Okay, thank you for that. The only thing that i do not like with my USB mic Atr2500 is that, the audio is kinda deep and i cant do anything much about it. I was hoping to get a better audio with an xlr mic using audio interface and such. But i dont know if i can top my Atr2500 with neewer nw-700 + audio interface
 
Aha! That NW-700 looks like a clone of the BM-800 I was banging on about here a few weeks ago?
It does not in fact need phantom power if used with the supplied 3.5mm stereo jack to XLR lead. The mic is an electret cell type and just need the impedance converter power from the laptop's mic jack.

My sample worked extraordinarily well* for a 19quid "LDC" (there is a bit if my crap ac guitar somewhere!) but I dare say QC is not stellar so you might have a duff one.

But yes, you would be far better off to get an AI. If the mic proves noisy through that with an XLR to XLR cable, case proven.

*I sent mine to musician son in France but he still preferred the sound of the $40 USB LDC I sent him.

Dave.
 
Starfruit said:
It sounds like there's so much bass on it. Not that crisp sound i can hear from some xlr
mics.
Click to expand...
It may be what's called 'proximity effect'. The closer you get to a directional patterned mic the more bassy it will sound. Back away from the mic and see if it's different.

 
arcaxis said:
It may be what's called 'proximity effect'. The closer you get to a directional patterned mic the more bassy it will sound. Back away from the mic and see if it's different.
Click to expand...

That, and make sure you're not using the back of the mic. All mics are essentially omnidirectional at low frequencies, so the lows will be picked up from any angle but the highs will only be picked up well from the front.
 
arcaxis said:
It may be what's called 'proximity effect'. The closer you get to a directional patterned mic the more bassy it will sound. Back away from the mic and see if it's different.

Click to expand...


I tried that with my Usb atr2500 but whenever i do that the audio sound lowers down but if i level up the volume/gain of the mic i will get a very noticeable hiss/noise.

* can a neewer nw-700 with just phantom power + usb soundcard adaptor top the audio quality of USB condenser microphone Atr-2500?
 
Starfruit said:
I tried that with my Usb atr2500 but whenever i do that the audio sound lowers down but if i level up the volume/gain of the mic i will get a very noticeable hiss/noise.
* can a neewer nw-700 with just phantom power + usb soundcard adaptor top the audio quality of USB condenser microphone Atr-2500?
Click to expand...
Can you say for sure the hiss/noise is coming from the 'electronics' of the mic and/or the computer or is there a chance the hiss/noise is actually from the room that the mic is hearing, such as a computer fan you can't normally hear, but the mic picks it up at the higher gain?

Audio Technica makes some pretty decent mics and I have several. Different mics will sound different and perhaps you may like the sound of the Newer better than than the ATR2500. Is that a measure of quality or just that you may prefer the sound of the Newer. Other than ECC83 having used a BM800 which is similar, not many here have probably used an NW-700 to express an opinion of it.
 
As Mark says, few people here will have had experience of these mics at the very low end of the budget market and as I mentioned, the QC is likely poor and they will vary a lot from sample to sample*.

"We" understand the problem of initial outlay. Not everyone can plonk $500 on a mic, $300 on an AI, $200 on decent headphones all of a piece and those figures are for just "good" stuff! You could easily stick a 0 on the mic and AI price.

But there are exceptions that Top Blokes here have tested and found very good value indeed. The most obvious example being Bobbsy's rig. The Alesis i02 (tho' I think he has the M-Audio variant?) and a Shure SM58. Ok, all up a £150 rig over here but you really cannot do things for less and BE SURE of good results. Yes there are now cheaper dynamic mics and I would always suggest a Small Diaphragm Capacitor as a more versatile first/only mic and many of those run cheaper than the SMs, but not by much.

*QC seems better now but in the field of small, cheap mixers I had a couple of good ones, the Behringer X802 being very good (still is, amping up wildlife and the odd sonic boom) but others here found them noisy ***t!

Dave.
 
ecc83 said:
Aha! That NW-700 looks like a clone of the BM-800 I was banging on about here a few weeks ago?
It does not in fact need phantom power if used with the supplied 3.5mm stereo jack to XLR lead. The mic is an electret cell type and just need the impedance converter power from the laptop's mic jack.

My sample worked extraordinarily well* for a 19quid "LDC" (there is a bit if my crap ac guitar somewhere!) but I dare say QC is not stellar so you might have a duff one.
Click to expand...

OT aside...in my city there's a Facebook group for people who want to buy/sell/swap things. It's meant to be private sales but every so often somebody shady pops up.

Anyhow, last night somebody popped up with a "never used, as new" BM-800 for $50. Down here they sell for $15.95 plus postage from a bunch of suppliers but, even after I posted a link to a dealer with that price, somebody bought it. Then the shyster admitted he has a bunch more.

If it's that easy, I should get into microphone sales.
 
Cluck!! I thought 'tronics was expensive in Oz? That $16 Au comes out well under ten quid here and yet Amazon want over £20 inc p&p!

That is a hell of a markup but if a man of your experience WAS selling mics together with the vast experience and advice and if you gave an exemplary backup service it is perhaps not SO bad? Over here you would also probably have to add VAT. Twenty bloody percent!

Dave.
 
That was the cheapest I could find on an eBay site...around $20 was more typical and some people were trying to get over $30. I suspect the cheap one would be shipped direct from China. Most stuff IS pretty pricey around here.

Becoming a microphone dealer sounds too much like hard work the way you describe it. I see myself more as a fly by night shyster... :)
 
Bobbsy said:
That was the cheapest I could find on an eBay site...around $20 was more typical and some people were trying to get over $30. I suspect the cheap one would be shipped direct from China. Most stuff IS pretty pricey around here.

Becoming a microphone dealer sounds too much like hard work the way you describe it. I see myself more as a fly by night shyster... :)
Click to expand...

Stuff that like, falls off the back of an err..Station wagon? Mind you! Al Sugar got a gong for selling shit!

Dave.
 
ecc83 said:
Stuff that like, falls off the back of an err..Station wagon?
Click to expand...

It's okay, you can say "estate car", or even "shooting brake" and I'll still get it. Can't fool me with that Limey talk, at least the car stuff.

I've seen those mics advertised (or is that -ized?) here for US$22 and change. I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole.
 
bouldersoundguy said:
It's okay, you can say "estate car", or even "shooting brake" and I'll still get it. Can't fool me with that Limey talk, at least the car stuff.

I've seen those mics advertised (or is that -ized?) here for US$22 and change. I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole.
Click to expand...

Ah, see, our Aussie brethren do not have "estates" or ranches, they have "stations" so my dubious logic told me that their motors are called station wagons. In fact if THEY didn't come up with the name I don't know who did!

As for the mics, I was very impressed with the build quality for the money and the sound I posted did not seem to attract any criticism. The fact that they give passing good results both directly into a laptop jack and via an XLR makes them a better reccy in my book from most USB models.

Dave.
 
Yes, they're called station wagons down here but they've become pretty rare. If somebody needs more space that a standard car, it's much more common to move to some form of SUV or "people carrier".

Now, if you want to discuss Australian vehicular weirdness, there's the ever-present "ute"...

As for the mic, at that price getting any sound, much less something okay, makes it value for money. However, I'd guess that the weak link is the 3.5mm input on most computers. The basic sound chip can mess up any sound and the same issues with monitoring via a "round trip" would apply.
 
A beaut ute to boot!
Sadly terms like SUV for a 4 wheel drive and truck for a ute are becoming dominant in our culturally polluted country.
 
Bobbsy said:
Yes, they're called station wagons down here but they've become pretty rare. If somebody needs more space that a standard car, it's much more common to move to some form of SUV or "people carrier".

Now, if you want to discuss Australian vehicular weirdness, there's the ever-present "ute"...

As for the mic, at that price getting any sound, much less something okay, makes it value for money. However, I'd guess that the weak link is the 3.5mm input on most computers. The basic sound chip can mess up any sound and the same issues with monitoring via a "round trip" would apply.
Click to expand...

"Ekktoooly" The sound card in this HP i3 laptop is pretty good (and I suspect many people don't take the time to set Windows sound levels a'right? They are slammed to 100% by default and that is way too high for a capacitor mic) I have kludged the headphone output into my Tannoys and it sounds very good indeed.

The UCA 202 shows us that very cheap converters CAN be very acceptable!

Dave.
 
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