reducing noise with mixer!

[dave123454321]

hi, new questions. i bought a cheap mixer (behringer ub1202) which came with inexpensive preamps so it's possible there's nothing i can do about noise reduction. also right now i'm running this into my laptop, and i have no idea how good my soundcard is. i plan to get a better one, but until then this will have to do.

right now i'm just running a sm57 into the first channel.. just to start.

anyway the mixer has like 3 separate places to adjust volume. first there's a volume knob right underneath the XLR input that i guess adjusts the preamp volume? i have no idea.

then there's another volume knob at the bottom of the mixer (for each channel) that i guess adjusts the level of that particular channel after it's been equalized and all that.

finally there's a main volume switch which is like a fader.


my question is, is there any specific way i should adjust all these? should i try and keep one in particular to a minimum and crank the others? should i try and distribute the volume evenly among the 3? i haven't had too much time to start playing around with them, but will this help reduce the noise level?

my laptop only has a headphone out and mic in jack, too.. i know you're suppose to at least have a linein, but do mic in jacks crank out extra background noise?

it's nothing i can't deal with, but i'm curious to see if there's anything i can do about it!

thanks!

 

[cpl_crud]

Well, you're right in your assumptions- the pot nearest the XLR input is the preamp gain.

Normally, you'd be setting the gain on the preamp so that, when peaking, you're reading out about 0DBVU on the meters (when you PFL that is). The other faders should be at Unity: "U" or "0" (depending on how your mixer is marked up).

That should get you a fairly strong signal, suitable for recording by your sound card.

 

[gecko zzed]

adjust your gain as CPL Crud says. that gives you a respectable signal coming in.

having just a mike line going into the sound card is going to be difficult to work with, because the mixer delivers a much higher output.

you are going to have juggle your mixer levels (track and main) to get an optimal result. Noise problems are most likely going to emanate from the soundcard and its mike level input.

 

[breeeeza]

Noise problems are most likely going to emanate from the soundcard and its mike level input.

if you can, use a line in instead. Even with this you will have to adjust the output volume on the mixer pretty low