Newbie Help!

  • Thread starter Thread starter nikster
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nikster

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I need some help hooking up my Shure PE15H Dynamic Mic to my Soundcard on my PC which is a SBLive. I'm looking into recording some vocals and guitar to my PC so I can hear myself and see what I need to work on.

I went to one of the local retailers here and explained what I wanted to do to one of the salesmen. He suggested I get a MM1002 Phonic Compact Mixer. It was only 50 dollars which was all I can spend at the moment. I had told him I wanted one of those small 50 dollar phantom power mic preamps, but he suggested I needed this, and being very new to this I went along. Since the mixer has 2 mic pre-amps, it seems it would do the job. Here is a picture of the Mixer -

http://www.phonic.com/product/mixers/mm1002/mm1002_front.jpg

Now the problem I am having is hooking up the Mic + the mixer to the SBLive. I'm connecting the mic to the XLR connector in the first slot. Now from the Main L&R I use the Y-adapter I have, all the ends are a quater 1/4th inch. Out from the Main L&R I connect it to an adapter which converts it to a single 1/8th and plug it into the Line in on the SBLive. I'm using the cheap Sound Recorder that comes with Windows just to test it out and I'm still not getting any sound from my Mic.

I don't know what the problem is, and if anyone can shed some light on what they think I'm doing wrong it would be most appreciated. From what the manual suggests I turn the mic/line lever to Mic and turn the phantom power switch on, and it should work. When I turn my mic on, still nothing comes out. My speakers are hooked up correctly to my system and work fine, and I have the Line-in under the SbLive controls checked on - I use a WinTV card which uses the line-in all the time and it works fine.

If there is any other information you need to know about my setup just let me know - thanks.
 
The only thing I can think of...

When you say single 1/8 inch do you mean mono or a single stereo plug?

The female mini plug on a line in is stereo - not mono. Will it work if you use a stereo plug and only record into the left (or right) channel?

zip >>
 
The adapter is a 1/4" phone jack (Female) to 3.5MM plug (Male) if that helps any.
 
first off the mic doesnt need phantom power....turn it off.....

id do this...keep the mic plugged in the channel you have it plugged in...go to the pan knob for that channel and pan it all the way left....take a single cord that goes from one 1/4" plug to one 1/8"plug and go from the main left output to the soundcard....make sure that little doomaflotchie switch (line/mic) is switched to mic and you have the gain up a bit....

do you have the 1002 or the 1002a?....
 
Gidge, I have the MM1002 not the MM1002a. I tried what you suggested with just a single cord and it didn't work. Any other ideas?

thanks for the replies everyone
 
Update

Ok, I wanted to update this thread and maybe get a bit more info on solving my current problem. I finally got the Shure PE15H mic to work. Turns out it is a Hi-Z mic, and required a Hi-Z cable. I can plug it into my soundcard using an XLR to 1/4" cable using one of those small little 1/4" to 1/8" adapters through the mic-input.

Now the only problem I am having is hooking up my mixer to my soundcard. I'm connecting my mic to the channel1 input and coming out of the main outs using a 2 1/4" to 1 1/4" cable to my soundcard's Line - In (using the little 1/4" to 1/8" adapter). Is there any funny kind of cable that I need to hookup my mixer to my soundcard? I've tried every possible setting but I still can't get it to work. Any other suggestions or ideas that I can try?

Thanks - Nik
 
You are not getting any sound into the Line In? I suspect that the Line In is disabled for recording. I don't know why but the SB Lives seem to install this way by default.

Here's an article at Cakewalk's website about how to use the Windows Mixer utility to set this stuff properly:

http://www.cakewalk.com/Support/Lessons/WindowsMixer.htm

Next thing: is your single 1/4" that you adapt the two mono 1/4" cables to a stereo cable? And are the adapters at both its ends stereo adapters?

You can just buy a single cable that has two 1/4" mono plugs on one end and a single stereo 1/8" miniplug on the other end...
 
Thanks for the reply. I know what you mean by checking the software to see if the Line-In is disabled, and it wasn't when we - my friend and I tried it. We can record fine with my guitar plugging straight into the line-in of my soundcard using just a regular guitar cable 1/4" on each end and I just put the little 1/4" to 1/8" adapter at the end.

As for the "Y" cable that I'm using out of the Main L&R outs.... this right off the back of the card it came with " Mono 1/4" phone (male) to two mono 1/4" phone (male)." I opted to get the cable you described two 1/4" to a single 1/8" , but after searching 3 radio shacks and the local Mars store I gave up. I asked another person at a smaller local shop and he said the Y-cable I have now should work with the little 1/4" to 1/8" adapter. Was he incorrect in assuming that? I appreciate your help, as you can see, I'm really new to this and just looking to get started in home recording. Thanks again.
 
Again, the y-adapter to a single 1/4" then to a single 1/8" would work properly only if the single jack (the "bottom" of the Y) is stereo, the 1/4" cable you connect to then is also stereo with stereo plugs, and the 1/4" to 1/8" adapter is also stereo.

Have you looked online? Hmmm... I just did a quick look and came up shore at zZOunds, Bayview Pro Audio and Audiomidi...
 
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