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The Flying Sloth

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  1. Take a look through the guide in my signature, it's designed specifically to answer this question. I'm also in the middle of recording mic tests for all of my microphones so people can better hear the differences in talking about You don't need to get a GOXLR and sm7b in order to get a decent studio mic and interface, there are far cheaper options like the Behringer C2 and UMC202HD or as suggested above a dynamic mic is a good shout like the Q2U, AT2005 or MB88U depending whichever is cheapest for you.
  2. Keep your current interface and get an inline preamp instead, IE, Fethead / Cloudlifer No real reason for you to update from what I can see
  3. I would also recommend moving to some decent budget headphones rather than immediately making the jump to the $300+ price point. KZ ZSN PRO X are a good shout, KBear KS2 are also good but not as insanely good value as the ZSN. For reference, I've worked as a session musician and played in some big shows / festivals where production have made very expensive IEMs available to us and I still go to KZ for all my IEMs even when there are more expensive ones literally with my name on them.
  4. Morning / Afternoon / Evening all. I know I've been fairly absent for the last few months but I have returned (thankyou, thankyou, keep the applause coming) After a recent purchase I figured it was about time to do another Mic test session to help people decide what type of microphone they should be considering purchasing if they want to step up from the standard USB and headset mic space. I am by no means finished testing the microphones, I still have a few to go but I thought I'd post this here as somewhat of a taster. There is another Klark Teknik CT1 that should be arriving in the next day or so to allow for tests with and without an inline preamp for the dynamic and ribbon mics. There are also a few tube mics that will need some time to warm up that I will go through when I have the inline preamp in hand (will do a nice long test session) Current plan is to test normal speaking voice about 15CM away from the capsule with a pop filter in place, 'plosive and sibilance testing included. These mic tests have been and will be performed in an untreated bedroom with no reflection shield or anything of the like so it should be relatively comparable to most members here. The tests have been performed using the same Gain on the interface (about a 3 o clock position) and I will break down the mics by category. Audio files will be supplied as raw files and volume normalised so you can better see the sound quality and flavour differences Below are the current plans for tests to do, all multipattern mics will be tested in cardioid with no low cut or PAD engaged. Here are the RAW files recorded so far LARGE DIAPHRAGM TRUE CONDENSER - Edge Terminated (More similar to AKG Mics) -ADK Vienna MK8 (Very bright, for acoustic guitar and pop / female vocals) -Advanced Audio CM414 (Designed to be a copy of a vintage AKG C414) - Centre Terminated (More similar to Neumann Mics) -Superlux CMH8C (Budget mic, out of production since 2001, managed to pick up a few NOS, great allround mics for when you just need to hear something) -Groove Tubes GT67 (tube mic, a beast unto itself, not directly copying any one Neumann piece despite the name, Out of production for about 20 years) -Advanced Audio CM47se (tube mic, clone of the vintage Neumann U47 with Peluso K47 capsule, excellent excellent microphone for male vocals) SMALL DIAPHRAGM AND ELECTRET MICS -BM800 ($10 ebay special, sucks badly, will test with and without Phantom power so you can see how bad it is out of the box) -Behringer C2 ($25 music store special, Good for the price) OTHERS -Tbone MB75 (Clone of Shure SM57 that in the opinion of the internet sounds decidedly better than the original, will test with and without inline preamp) -Random cheap stage mic from the pawn shop (will test with and without inline preamp) -Cascade Audio Fathead 2 (Ribbon microphone, very dark sounding, Will test with and without inline preamp so you can see that it is absolutely necessary) Let me know if you have any other requests / ideas so I can record them at the same time Thanks all
  5. When you impulse buy more microphones and now they don't even fit in your mic drawer you know you have a problem....

  6. It's a noname OEM keyboard, haven't been able to find it on aliexpress but I'm sure it's there somewhere. I was planning on replacing the keyboard anyway so I might as well just get a different board instead.| The internet seems to say that cherry browns suck, a lot so I might keep looking for a while I'm fine with soldering but if multiple switches are already failing I don't want to get into a perpetual cycle of replacing switches only for more to die.
  7. I would suggest not purchasing either and instead going with a proper audio interface
  8. Yes, based on the info you've given and the product description that amp would be able to power your speakers easily, now, I do not have personal experience with the amp and as such cannot vouch for it but I can say that your power supply won't even come close to powering it fully and that the amp would blow up your speakers if you turned it up much, those speakers are extremely easy to drive. Given that these are the Questions and Answers under the item listing, I'd be careful if I were you
  9. Samson Q2U, AT2005 or Tbone MB88U are about the lowest price mics I can wholeheartedly recommend.
  10. Correct, though EMI can infect the USB traces so just keep in mind that while it could possibly be an easy solution it also could possibly not be a solution at all.
  11. Honestly, just buy a power amp, A friend gave me some custom built speakers that I use as the main speakers of a surround setup but when there's a house party or something I've got a 360W class A/B power amp that drives them like crazy.
  12. Again, Listen to Derkoli over me but I mostly agree 1) Based on the options you've given the Adam options are leagues better than anything else but I have a soft spot for Tannoy and would personally suggest you take a look at their Gold series. For any budget, well, we're getting into dangerous territory here because the best monitors depend on your room, how treated it is an a bunch of other factors than just the monitor itself. Genelec and PSIaudio are big players I don't have much experience personally but they are trusted in many professional studios so take from that what you will. 2) T5V, but I like the Tannoy Gold 5 better, here's a comparison but try to hear them in person and you'll see what I mean. The top end on the Adams sounds a little harsh to my ears but YMMV 3) I have no experience with this set and won't make any comment. 4) Let me put it this way, the biggest selling point of KRK monitors are that they are a cool colour, as a studio monitor most options are 'meh' at best. They're overrated, majorly.
  13. Sorry for the late reply, I've ben quite busy with work, take a look through the guide in my sig for more info but the short answer is that I wouldn't recommend the Xenyx for this issue, the UM2, UMC22 or UMC202HD would be closer to what I'd suggest.
  14. Hi there, For a while I've owned a fairly cheap mechanical keyboard with Outemu Brown switches at the recommendation of Reddit who seemed to think they were more consistent than the Cherry MX alternative. Recently, when playing games (mostly when driving) I have noticed the A and D keys seem to be unresponsive, I can press them and feel the tactile bump but the key doesn't activate until I push harder and almost bottom out the switch. This is quite annoying, has anyone else had similar experience or knows how to fix it? If there's no easy solution I think I'll just pick up a new keyboard with the Cherry MX Browns instead (about 50 USD). (the switches are soldered on this one and the RGB on a few keys looks more red than pink so I won't be complaining if I have to buy a replacement) I know there are some higher quality mechanical keyboards out there but most reasonably priced ones don't have a numpad, I work with numbers and am somewhat of a spreadsheet warrior so that's not really an option but if anyone has suggestions I'm all ears. Thanks guys
  15. Sounds like you could benefit from using OBS and streaming through a proper streaming service like Youtube or Twitch. If you need to do the concert in games using something like Voicemeeter would probably be a better option, you can then set up your mic in-game to me a mix of your PC audio signals.
  16. I tend to err on the side of value for money so I'd suggest purchasing the Behringer but some people have concerns over the policies of the company and their tendency to 'borrow' the designs of others. In the end it's up to you but I for one do not think the Focusrite is twice as good of a product.
  17. Monitor controllers will do what you're looking for but other simple options for audio interfaces are the Behringer UMC202HD and Focusrite Scarlett 2i2.
  18. Don't worry about it. If you care enough about audio quality that it would make a difference, you would buy an external DAC (audio chip) anyway.
  19. What mic are you using and what does the Ultragain plug on to?
  20. Yeah, this sounds an awful lot like a softwarte issue with your machine. Make sure the sample rates / bit depth are set correctly accross the programs you're using (IE, make sure DAW settings match your interface and Windows, make sure your DAW is using your interface ASIO drivers too), try switching the USB connector to a different port, if that doesn't fix it it sounds to me like there's something broken with your windows install. I do music / audio production fairly regularly and don't have these issues at all with any interfaces I own (or have owned for that matter) though I am on an AMD platform so it may always be something to do with that. Honestly, this just screams sample rate mismatch to me, your CPU isn't overly weak so it shouldn't be a factor, if it's not sample rate issues it's probably your windows install.
  21. You should be looking for an audio interface, take a look at the guide in my signature.
  22. Q2U and AT2005 are both USB / XLR combo mics, both have a good track record in this subforum and honestly have a reasonable good sound quality. I dislike USB mics because I view mics mainly in a studio context and USB mics are missing a large amount of functionality for my usecase, the primary other issue I have is the lack of quality inherent with built-to-price products that results in lack of longevity in the included circuitry. The AT and Samson avoid these issues by retaining XLR functionality in the event the USB portion dies, further, they are produced by experienced studio / stage equipment manufacturers. The biggest thing working against you will be that distance, using a dynamic lav mic or any other mic close to your mouth will be a much more effective strategy to avoid the excessive keyboard noise.
  23. If you have a mech keyboard you will be wanting a dynamic mic and you will be wanting it as close to your mouth as possible. Reason for this is that the further away from your mouth the mic is, the higher you have to turn the gain, when gain goes up background noise comes with it. Condensor mics are also quite sensitive so while I personally use a highly directional condenser mic as a daily driver, I have orings on my mech keyboard to reduce the high pitch clacking and those on the other end often remark about being able to hear birds and other animals in the background (I live in Aus nexty to some bushland so there are a lot of wild and native animals near me) Samson Q2U and AT2005 jump to my mind immediately within your pricerange. Take a look at the guide in my signature for more in-depth info and some sound tests.
  24. 8861 still has an RJ-9 connector that can be used for headsets, you should be fine.
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