In Dire Need Of Help -- First Time Home Recording/Many Questions

  • Thread starter Thread starter William D. Sell
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William D. Sell

New member
Jan.08'02

Hi all:

My name is Will and I am in dire need of help. I will need someone with a lot of patience, I'm afraid that I have a lot of stupid questions.

I think all I really need help with at this time is how and where to connect everything.

Here's what I am trying to work with.

I have a brand new HP PC which consists of a 1.4 GHz AMD Athlon; 128 RAM; 40 G HD; and a VIA AC'97 Audio Controller (WDM).

Behringer MX602A

SONY Stereo Electret Condenser mic (mic is 1/8" mini and I have the ¼" adapter)

"Y" cable with ¼" for connecting the mic with adapter.

RCA phono to mini stereo "Y" adapter with ¼" / RCA cable for connecting to the sound card.

I have read the Behringer "User's Manual" over and over and I still am not sure how to plug this mixer into my sound card !! The diagram that comes with the manual is greek to me.

I am currently trying to plug the mic (with the "Y" cable, of course) into the "LINE IN 1" and "LINE IN 2" under the MIC 1 & 2 section - could this be the problem ??

I am plugging the mixer into the Line In on the PC, but the recording sounds as if I took the mic and shoved it into a trunk full of old shoes instead. I have been using the MAIN OUT on the mixer for connection to the sound card - could this be the problem ??

If somebody knowledgeable wouldn't mind helping me, I would like to know exactly how and where to plug all of these things in and -- as a bonus, could you tell me about the "2tk to ctrl room" AND THE "2TK TO MIX" i.e.: am I supposed to be using these features ? If so, how ?

Believe it or not, it seems that I can grasp the Phantom power feature for my condenser mic.

Whatever anyone can tell me about using this mixer profitably would be greatly appreciated.

All I am trying to record is my wife's piano playing - simple enough ??

I thank you all in advance for reading and considering this mess, and I shall thank you all later for your help.

Sincerely,

-- Will
 
Hey Bill, welcome to Homerec.

I have some patience, but I'm at work now so don't have a lot of time. :)

First of all, in general, you want to connect your mic to your mixer, and then your mixer to your sound card. Sounds like that's what you're doing - but there are a couple of things you need to be aware of.

First, the Line In connection on your sound card requires a line level signal. Your mixer should be OK in supplying this (but your mic won't and needs to be pre-amped). Going from the Main Outs on your mixer to the Sound Card's Line In should be fine. Make sure you have it cabled correctly.

Your mixer's Main Outs are probably 1/4" phone plugs with a left and right channel. Your Sound Card, on the other hand, probably has a 1/8" stereo minijack. So you need some type of Y connection with two 1/4" mono jacks going to a single 1/8" stereo minijack.

Now, you need to plug your mic into your mixer. I'm a little concerned that your mic has a 1/8" connection. This is unusual. Most decent mics use XLR connections. Anyway, you indicate that you are plugging your mic into a "line in" connection on your mixer. This could be where your problem is. As I said earlier, your mic does not carry a line level signal. It needs to be preamp'd to be brought up to line level. I don't know whether the "line in" connection on your mixer bypasses the mixer's pre-amps or not. This is something that the manual should tell you. If it bypasses the pre-amps, then this is where your problem lies. You need to connect the mic to a connection common to the pre-amp. (Also, if it's a condenser mic, you need to give it phantom power - but it seems like you got that piece already.)

Once you get that all squared away, you need to set your mic gain properly (refer to your manual), and then to set your recording levels in your software.

Let me know if any of this helped, or give us some more info. on the particular problems.
 
Howdy:

Thanks for getting back to me so soon.

I am beginning to think that this is really a mic issue . . . althought the nice man at the music store (where I bought the Behringer) told me my 1/8" mini SONY would work with the "Y" cable scenario I describe above.

I am still interested in any information on those "2TK TO CTRL ROOM" etc. switches -- how do I know if I need to use them ?

Thanks again.
 
Will - I'm at home now with a little more time. I re-read your post and just realized that you indicated you were plugging your mic into both line in 1 and line in 2. That's crazy. The mic is a mono signal and should only go into a single plug.

I went to the Behringer site and took a look at the manual for your mixer. From the block diagram on page 17, it appears to me that Line In connections on channels 1 & 2 are, in fact, common to the preamps. However, it also appears that the phantom power only works through the XLR connections. Therefore, plugging a mic into the 1/4" Line In Connections is not going to get you the power that your mic requires.

Is the mic cable hardwired to the mic, or can it be disconnected? If it can be disconnected, why don't you see if you can get a cable that has an XLR connection on the end that plugs to the mixer. I think that might solve all your problems. Alternatively, you should be able to use a dynamic mic in the Line In connections (but not a condenser).

Lastly, the 2 TK switches appear to control the RCA input connections (tape in). Since you don't appear to be using these connections, you should have both disengaged.

Hope some of this helps.
 
Yay !!

I think that that will fix it !!

The SONY mini mic does come completely off of the cord -- I will look into finding a suitable XLR cord that will accomodate the 1/8" mini on the mic (or, I suppose it could be a 1/4" connection if I use an adapter on the mic -- ?).

If I cannot do this, then I'll just have to get a new mic (right ?). What do you think of the Shure SM57 ?

Thank you so much for your help -- my wife and I just finished reading your post and we feel relieved.

I'll let you know what we come up with.

Sincerely,

-- Will
 
William D. Sell said:
Howdy:

Thanks for getting back to me so soon.

I am beginning to think that this is really a mic issue . . . althought the nice man at the music store (where I bought the Behringer) told me my 1/8" mini SONY would work with the "Y" cable scenario I describe above.

I am still interested in any information on those "2TK TO CTRL ROOM" etc. switches -- how do I know if I need to use them ?

Thanks again.
Click to expand...
Yup.. it is a mic problem.. you need a real mic.. try a sennheiser e835s.. you can get that for 100$ and it's killer for the money.

Don't worry about the 2tk thing. That's only for studio work, but you might be able to use it as an additional line, allthough i wouldn't recommend it.. Though it should be done by activating "2tk to mix" and deactivating "2tk to ctrl room"
 
I've got that 2TK stuff on my mixer. Didn't know what the hell it was. From the diagrams in the manual it looks like it's for feeding a tape deck or similar through the mixer to a final mix.
 
Sir Will of Sell - Well I tried to look-up some info on your mic. I found something called a Sony Electret Condenser Mic ECM-R100. Is that the animal you own?

Must say it's a pretty strange beast. The web site I found it on had it listed under "business mics". It's not something I think you would normally find in a recording studio.

Nonetheless, the description talks about "long battery life". This leads me to believe that the phantom power for this mic is supplied by batteries. If that is the case, then I'm not so sure about my earlier guess as to your problem. If the mic has a battery (and if the battery is working and charged) then it shouldn't matter as to the phantom power source in your mixer.

If you just bought this mic, however, I would take it back and exchange it for something else. The Shure SM57 or 58's are great, little multi-purpose mics. I have about 5 of them myself that I used for recording before I bought my first condenser. The only detriment to them is that you have to be pretty much right on top of them to get a good loud signal. This is no problem for voice, but might be for piano. You could end up with the sounds of the strings closer to the mic being louder than those that are further away (no problem so long as your wife plays in only one octave :) )

I'm not familiar with the Sennheiser that Chriss recommended, but it might be a better alternative than the Shures (and seems to be about the same price). I would 86 the Sony though if you can.
 
Thank you everyone for all of your help !

We dumped the SONY mic and picked up two new Audio Technica's and we are having fun recording the piano.

We are satisfied . . . but we have anew crisis on our hands !!

We will pour out our complaints in a new thread right after I finish writing this !

Look for Subject Line:

"Steinberg's "Get It On CD" Puts Tomahawk Scalping Static On Our CD-R's"

We are getting less stupid thanks to the folks who answered our question last time.

Thanks again !!

-- Will and Laura Sell
 
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