XLR to USB cable noise

[RelyBedGrammer]

I recently bought a Samson Q7 mic with an XLR to USB cable, the cable does work and input the audio, but it is really noisy,

so I unplugged the XLR from the mic and tried recording with the cable plugged in to my pc, and well what do ya know, the same noise is there

I assume that the cable is the culprit here, any solution to this? I'm stuck

 

Thanks in advance!

[Enderman]

It's because those adapter cables are crap and you need to buy a proper audio interface to plug XLR microphones into a computer.

[RelyBedGrammer]

42 minutes ago, Enderman said:

It's because those adapter cables are crap and you need to buy a proper audio interface to plug XLR microphones into a computer.

well sht, I thought I could run it without an audio interface, cause I saw some dude on youtube running a mic directly to the PC using the XLR to USB cable

[Enderman]

8 minutes ago, RelyBedGrammer said:

well sht, I thought I could run it without an audio interface, cause I saw some dude on youtube running a mic directly to the PC using the XLR to USB cable

No, either use an interface or use a dedicated USB mic.

[RelyBedGrammer]

1 minute ago, Enderman said:

No, either use an interface or use a dedicated USB mic.

I know this gets asked a lot, but can you recommend a 'good-enough' interface that doesn't break the wallet? 

also I read that the focusrite scarlett interfaces has some compatibility issue with windows, should I avoid it?

[Enderman]

Just now, RelyBedGrammer said:

I know this gets asked a lot, but can you recommend a 'good-enough' interface that doesn't break the wallet? 

also I read that the focusrite scarlett interfaces has some compatibility issue with windows, should I avoid it?

No compatibility issues here.

The scarlett solo is decent.

If you need cheaper take a look at the behringer ones.

[RelyBedGrammer]

4 minutes ago, Enderman said:

No compatibility issues here.

The scarlett solo is decent.

If you need cheaper take a look at the behringer ones.

how's the BEHRINGER U-Phoria UM2 vs the scarlett solo?

the um2 is 35 bucks cheaper than the scarlett solo here , is the upgrade well worth the money?

[Enderman]

23 minutes ago, RelyBedGrammer said:

how's the BEHRINGER U-Phoria UM2 vs the scarlett solo?

the um2 is 35 bucks cheaper than the scarlett solo here , is the upgrade well worth the money?

It's not bad, will work way better than that crappy cable you bought

 

 

[RelyBedGrammer]

6 hours ago, Enderman said:

It's not bad, will work way better than that crappy cable you bought

 

 

Thanks for the help, im getting a scarlett solo, since the um2 is like 70 bucks here and the scarlett solo is around 100 bucks

but i still wonder how this guy managed to record without one

[DysatisfunctionaLuke]

On 12/18/2018 at 4:35 AM, RelyBedGrammer said:

well sht, I thought I could run it without an audio interface, cause I saw some dude on youtube running a mic directly to the PC using the XLR to USB cable

I saw that Youtube clip too man, and it worked with no noise. Only difference I can see is that he had an external USB port rather than jacking into his computer. Is the noise perhaps the current that runs through a Macbook? That's all I can think of.

 

I use a Behringer U-Control UCA202 USB Audio Interface via a cheap mixer which works fine, but I was hoping these XLR-USB cables would let me set up podcasting pals with SM58 mics.

 

If anyone has suggestions for fixing the noise, I'd love to hear it.

[RelyBedGrammer]

On 4/12/2020 at 11:56 AM, DysatisfunctionaLuke said:

I saw that Youtube clip too man, and it worked with no noise. Only difference I can see is that he had an external USB port rather than jacking into his computer. Is the noise perhaps the current that runs through a Macbook? That's all I can think of.

 

I use a Behringer U-Control UCA202 USB Audio Interface via a cheap mixer which works fine, but I was hoping these XLR-USB cables would let me set up podcasting pals with SM58 mics.

 

If anyone has suggestions for fixing the noise, I'd love to hear it.

how does the UCA202 compare to just using XLR to USB?

[The Flying Sloth]

34 minutes ago, RelyBedGrammer said:

how does the UCA202 compare to just using XLR to USB?

Anything is better than a USB XLR adapter, except that the UCA202 doesn't have XLR ports.
Cheapest interface with XLR is the UM2 and with a dynamic mic like yours you may want t consider an inline preamp to boost your level into something manageable.
Also, the mic you saw someone using with a USB cable was likely the Samson Q2U which is a USB/XLR mic, meaning that you can run it as a USB mic or a real XLR mic.
I have a bunch of info in the hyperlinked guide in my signature if you want to read further.

Sloth

[edit: Just watched the Podcastage episode you linked, he infers multiple times throughout the video that the product is bad and never to buy it]

[RelyBedGrammer]

17 minutes ago, The Flying Sloth said:

Anything is better than a USB XLR adapter, except that the UCA202 doesn't have XLR ports.
Cheapest interface with XLR is the UM2 and with a dynamic mic like yours you may want t consider an inline preamp to boost your level into something manageable.
Also, the mic you saw someone using with a USB cable was likely the Samson Q2U which is a USB/XLR mic, meaning that you can run it as a USB mic or a real XLR mic.
I have a bunch of info in the hyperlinked guide in my signature if you want to read further.

Sloth

[edit: Just watched the Podcastage episode you linked, he infers multiple times throughout the video that the product is bad and never to buy it]

Thanks for the insight, I didn't know that

how does the Q2U sound on USB? does it block out any noise such as keyboard and radiators?

and is it comparable to not using any interfaces?

 

sorry for the lengthy question

[The Flying Sloth]

1 minute ago, RelyBedGrammer said:

Thanks for the insight, I didn't know that

how does the Q2U sound on USB? does it block out any noise such as keyboard and radiators?

and is it comparable to not using any interfaces?

 

sorry for the lengthy question

Q2U is designed as a USB microphone and an XLR microphone, as in, it has a USB port and an XLR port on the back of it.
It will sound far better over USB or XLR (with interface) than running a mic without an interface.
It's a dynamic mic so it will block out most background noise.

If you already have the Q7 though you might as well just get an interface to go with it like the UM2

Sloth

[RelyBedGrammer]

6 hours ago, The Flying Sloth said:

Q2U is designed as a USB microphone and an XLR microphone, as in, it has a USB port and an XLR port on the back of it.
It will sound far better over USB or XLR (with interface) than running a mic without an interface.
It's a dynamic mic so it will block out most background noise.

If you already have the Q7 though you might as well just get an interface to go with it like the UM2

Sloth

 

I currently can't find the UM2 in stock in my area, it'll probably take a few weeks for it to get back in stock

all that is left is a Behringer Xenyx 302USB Mixer and a Behringer Xenyx Q502USB Mixer, which I'm told can also be used as an audio interface as well

any thoughts on that? should I get the UM2 or the Xenyx?

[ShearMe]

On 12/17/2018 at 6:57 PM, RelyBedGrammer said:

but i still wonder how this guy managed to record without one

Either you got a bad cable, or your microphone is incompatible.