Sm57 Trouble Help

[CatCat]

Im sure its a simple question for you guys but here goes,

I have an SM57 which I want to use to record my acoustic guitar. I just plug straight into my soundcard in my pc (soundblaster or something like that). The SM57 isnt picking up my acoustic.

Will a small mic pre amp like the behringer ultratube mic 100 fix this problem for me?

Thanks for your help dudes,

Cat

 

[Theros]

Yeah, you need a preamp to bring the signal strength up... You cant connect straight to a soundcard with a mic...

The behringer ultragain 100 will do as you request... Wether it does it well, is debatable (well, on this board it is ) but they are functional...

Theros

 

[drummerdude666]

Ha!

 

[mr.rich]

i dunno how i did it as it was quite a while ago but i used to go straight into a soundblaster card with a 57 and have no probs. i think theres is a mixer section, you could have to turn on the mic input, its prolly default muted. noe that i think about it thats exactly how my roomate records all the time now and he goes straight into the mainboard. he uses nuendo and i always used acid. its prolly just a mute on your creative mixer.

 

[CatCat]

i dunno how i did it as it was quite a while ago but i used to go straight into a soundblaster card with a 57 and have no probs. i think theres is a mixer section, you could have to turn on the mic input, its prolly default muted. noe that i think about it thats exactly how my roomate records all the time now and he goes straight into the mainboard. he uses nuendo and i always used acid. its prolly just a mute on your creative mixer.

No the mic isnt muted (come on im not that dumb ) Ive recorded some great sounding clean electric by just sticking a SM57 in front of my cranked up Marshall and plugging straight into the soundcard. I figured I needed a mic pre. I am soon to be upgrading to a new system and I am setting up a home studio complete with some great hardware so I just wanted a temporary solution.

Thanks for the help,

Cat

 

[noisedude]

i dunno how i did it as it was quite a while ago but i used to go straight into a soundblaster card with a 57 and have no probs. i think theres is a mixer section, you could have to turn on the mic input, its prolly default muted. noe that i think about it thats exactly how my roomate records all the time now and he goes straight into the mainboard. he uses nuendo and i always used acid. its prolly just a mute on your creative mixer.

So he records with a Soundblaster and runs Nuendo? I hope your pirate room-mate wears an eypatch and has a parrot on his shoulder.

 

[noisedude]

Incidentally, just about all consumer sound cards have a little mic input on them. They're terrible, and I mean really bad. I have heard reasonably good recordings done using an outboard pre and the line input though.

 

[northsiderap]

Depends on the sound card maybe

I had a decent Yamaha consumer sound card and got decent recordings via SM57, 6-foot cable, and a 1/4" to 1/8" adapter...

 

[mr.rich]

"So he records with a Soundblaster and runs Nuendo? I hope your pirate room-mate wears an eypatch and has a parrot on his shoulder."

dont go accusing people of things unjustly. the prog came bundled with somthing else so he still has to use his mainboard. if that werent true he could have that setup for many other reasons. a/d busted, good a/d is on a diff pc, demo version...



but anyway, if its not your mic mute and you still get absolutly no signal im not sure what the prob would be. i think i used to do acoustic like that alot and get fine level to comp. no matter what a pre will be better though and give you a chance to send a more consistant signal.

 

[noisedude]

Fair enough ... you have to admit it is a little incongruous though! And it was only a joke!

 

[kid klash]

Try this...

Im sure its a simple question for you guys but here goes,

I have an SM57 which I want to use to record my acoustic guitar. I just plug straight into my soundcard in my pc (soundblaster or something like that). The SM57 isnt picking up my acoustic.

Will a small mic pre amp like the behringer ultratube mic 100 fix this problem for me?

Thanks for your help dudes,

Cat

My hunch is that you need to look at the software "audio mixer" popup panel to make certain that the mic input is turned on, or turned up.

Frankly speaking, I wouldn't expect much from the setup you've got presently... you've probably got your SM-57 (a dynamic mic with a balanced, low impedence output) connected to an XLR-to-mini plug converter (unbalanced, high impedance), then directly into your PC's sound card. You've more than likely lost lots of gain, and have an impedance missmatch.

You're on the right track if you use a separate mic preamp, but I'd suggest either an M-Audio Audio Buddy ($50-$75) or an M-Audio DMP3 ($100-$150) instead of the Ultratube 100. Regardless of which preamp you choose, you'd wind up with the SM-57 connected to the mic preamp with an XLR to XLR mic cable (keeping everything balanced up to the preamp input); then take the unbalanced 1/4" output of the preamp through a 1/4"plug-to mini plug adaptor into your PC's soundcard. Make certain you've got a good, clean signal coming from the mic pre, and then look at the software "audio mixer" popup panel on your PC to make certain that the mic input is turned on and turned up to an adequate level. Happy recording.

 

[astoebe]

yeah you need a preamp. I have recorded w/ no preamp into a stock soundcard before....it kinda works. You have to boost the signal a bunch after recording so it sounds pretty bad.....how about getting an external soundcard that has mic preamps? Then you would have a soundcard made for recording AND a mic preamp!