M-audio 2496 vs E-mu 404

M

MonkeyShock

New member
I've been doing a comparison of these two. I know they're low end, but would appreciate any comments from anyone using the E-mu..particulatly In the area of vocal recording. It seems fine for instrument recording, but am having difficulty with a mic...very low levels. Thanks in advance. I'm putting the mic through a Behringer mixer. The mic is a shure sm58.
 
hi ms. i'm not using an emu. but i suspect like most sound cards it has a control panel of its own with faders. you might want to make sure the faders are up in the emu control panel. also some of these new sound cards have a
switch for -10 and +4. if it has one (ive forgotten !) set it to the same spec as the behringer. ie..if the behr is -10 (which i suspect) set it for -10.
also if i remember - behr has several ways of getting audio out.
there is an insert on the mic channel, out of an aux perhaps ?
or out of a main out ? you might try a different out on the behr.
but watch your fader level, some outs can be pretty hot.
a troubleshooting TIP. before connecting to the sound card, plug the
various behr outs into a vanilla cassette deck(line in) and watch the cassette deck meters. see which behr out gives you the best result on the dek meters.
aim for -3db to -6b on the cassette meters then reconnect the behr to the soundcard.
peace.
 
Hey Manning1!

Howdy Mannning. Yea, i just don't get it. I've got a bit of experience at this now, and didn't have any real trouble understanding the basics of this thing...yes, it has it's own mixer similar to the M-audio. I get nice clean recordings of guitar and keys at reasonable settings on the Behringer mixer, but I have to crank everything up 'bout all the way to get a strong signal from the mic. By that time I'm getting quite a bit of hiss and noise, which I can get rid of with the denoiser, but sheesh! Do you think it's simply the fact that this is not really a vocal mic(sm58)? With the M-audio, I also had to turn things up, but not this severely.
The funny thing is, I got 2 E-mu's so I could send one to my singer...so we'd both have the same set-up. I hope I didn't make a tragic error. I was fine with the M-audio, but I bought into the advertising and reviews,that this was a bit better. If you have any other suggestions...by all means have at it! By the way, good to see you around. Peace!-J
 
ms. dont always buy into advertising. i have no biases one way or the other . but the delta is a very good sound card.
just a question , are you using a proper shure sm58, and not a knock off from taiwan. im not being awkward. just wondering. some knock offs are not too good.
also if the 58 is old make sure there is no build up of gunk on it.
this can happen from a lot of use.
if you want an alternative mic, but dont buy without trying it and seeing if it suits you. try a cad gxl sometime (50 bucks) or the more expensive cad m179. people really like them. also - ive never been disappointed by ANY beyer mic. NOT ONCE.
even their cheap ones are good. maybe demo a beyer soundstar for vocals as well. also , check around pawn shops in your area for old electrovoice
dynamics . sometimes you can find them for 40 bucks. but you want a clean one. not beat up.
when looking at mics btw always look at the sensitivity spec. it sounds like you need a more sensitive mic to me.
i should say the behr mixer gets you started in this game. but look seriously sometime at a dmp3 pre or even an rnp from fmraudio.com or a rane ms1b for UPFRONT vocal and lead tracks.
also hears a trick, to compare with the pre's on your berry mixer , some cassette decks have pretty good mic pre;s in them as the japanese copied
old pre circuits i understand. try this and tell me if its better for you. sm58(
using an xlr to 1/4 inch convertor) into cass dek mic input , then cass dek line out to sound card line in. if the dek is good i think youll be surprised.
ive fooled more than a few engrs in preamp shootouts with this ringer.
hope this helps.
 
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