Microphone + Mixer help.....

luke11d · August 6, 2015

Ok so I have been through it with my mic setup. Im gonna give a bit of background to show what I've done for the past couple weeks, but if you are uninterested just skip down a bit.

So i had the blue yeti, but was unhappy with the background noise it picked up. I finally got the chance to get the Rode Procaster on a good deal so i went for it because I had adored this mic since i had heard it being used on youtube awhile back. So i knew i needed a usb interface to use the mic with my computer. I got the alesis multimix usb 4 fx(http://www.alesis.com/multimix-4-usb-fx) to begin with. It worked great out of the box with my procaster, but within just a couple days it developed a pop every couple seconds and would peak in conjunction with it. I had the option to send it to service, but not being impressed with it breaking that soon, I figured there would be better quality options out there.

I looked around and found the behringer 302usb(http://www.amazon.com/Behringer-302USB-BEHRINGER-XENYX/dp/B005EHILV4). Seemed cheap, but decent for my needs. May not be the best, but i wasn't gonna break the bank either and i simply just want to use my mic for chatting and recordings for videos i make. Got the mixer and my mic was VERY quiet on this mixer. I could barely hear myself with all knobs maxed and gain all the way up in windows. And of course this introduced static. Not ideal. I bought the ultragain mic100(http://www.amazon.com/Behringer-Ultragain-MIC100-Audiophile-Preamplifier/dp/B000CZ0RME/ref=sr_1_1?s=musical-instruments&ie=UTF8&qid=1438827787&sr=1-1&keywords=ultragain+mic100) as a result of their customer support suggestion. This helped a little, but it seemed to have very poor quality and my voice was distorted and more static was introduced.

I have returned the alesis and also the behringer products at this point

And this brings me to my most recent purchase. I decided to spend a bit more than i originally planned and went with the tascam us-2x2(http://tascam.com/product/us-2x2/). This seemed like a great option and had many connections that I like. I specifically like its addition of a MIDI connection option.

I went through these purchases and hardly worried about specs other than impedence. Which i think i may be horribly confused on. So here I am asking for help.

My procaster is a 320 ohm mic. the alesis is rated at 600 ohms. The behringer was 150 ohms. And the tascam is 2.2k ohms. Now if i understand this right, the alesis pushed my mic just fine because it had enough power to support it. The behringer couldn't push it at all having less than half the power needed to push it properly. Now with the Tascam at 2.2k I thought i'd be in the clear by a long-shot.

HERE IS MY ISSUE

My mic is again VERY quiet on this Tascam mixer. Windows has my mic level stuck at 0.0 db and wont let me adjust it at all. This may be an issue. I have the firmware and drivers all installed for the mixer and nothing is working to fix this. Even with the knob maxed out and me practically gnawing on the mic, i'm only getting into the second bar on the windows level detection in "recording devices". I have sent an email to their support, but this forum is very helpful and I thought i'd ask to see if i'm missing something obvious.

Have i horribly mistaken the impedence ratings? Any idea why my levels are locked at 0 db?

Im incredibly confused and after doing so many returns, I'd prefer not to have to do another. I will if i must, but ultimately i need to know soon so i can get it sent back.

Thanks for any input and help! I'm at a loss!

-Luke

And just to add as a note...i realize this is a dynamic mic and I have to have the mic closer to my mouth than the yeti. I have it on a boom arm sitting no more than 5-6 inches from my mouth.

luke11d · August 6, 2015

And i guess im jsut impatient. I have setup already to return it and im gonna re-order the Alesis mixer. It did fine on volume and the only issue i had with it seemed to be a hardware failure, but the solutions im coming across now will put me $300 in the hole to get my mic working with this mixer. With that money i could go through 3 alesis mixers if i need to and i know it worked fine besides the failure it had in my case.

Sorry for my hasty decision, but i wanna get my mic working ASAP..

bchampion96 · August 9, 2015

And i guess im jsut impatient. I have setup already to return it and im gonna re-order the Alesis mixer. It did fine on volume and the only issue i had with it seemed to be a hardware failure, but the solutions im coming across now will put me $300 in the hole to get my mic working with this mixer. With that money i could go through 3 alesis mixers if i need to and i know it worked fine besides the failure it had in my case.

Sorry for my hasty decision, but i wanna get my mic working ASAP..

Did you turn up the gain control on any of the hardware you bought? Sounds like a pretty basic thing that you might have missed as I didn't see you mention it in your post. Also, none of the mixers and interfaces should have any trouble having enough gain to get a decent signal from your mic. You did the right thing getting an interface instead of a mixer, but it looks like you've gone back to square one.