Hi all,
Just joined up so sorry if I will make any mistakes. Also please forgive typos, language errors.
I just bought a Behringer 502 USB mixer and a Rode M1-S dynamic mic.
Went with this setup because I wanted a microphone that can pick up voice clearly but without room (house) noise. This is meant for YouTube and Twitch.
Ok then, my questions are related mostly to how to best set up this package to get a good volume for my voice while not introducing (internal/technological) background noise. You know what I am referring to, hisses, hums, static like noise. (sorry, English is not my first language and audio tech is not my field).
Ok so here we go and THANK YOU in advance for your help guys!
One mention: this is all done on Windows 8.1 for now. Will switch to 10 when 100% sure it won't mess up my livestream set up.
1) Plug this in via USB 2.0 or 3.0? I have a GA-990FXA-UD3 from Gigabyte (motherboard) and the 2.0 usb ports are marked as 3x powered which leads me to believe that they should act as a powered usb hub would.
2) any advantage from using a powered usb hub in regards to reducing noise and getting a cleaner sound?
3) Which settings on the mixer are for boosting volume/signal? would those be GAIN, LEVEL and MAIN MIX?
4) Does the "to main mix" button have to be pressed down for the mixer settings to apply to the mic?
5) Does the EQ influence the noise? (read somewhere that the EQ for HIGH is set to be well too high, it can introduce noise)
6) What would be the best balance between the mixer volume/gain settings and the one from windows for the mic? Do you recommend balancing them out or prioritising the mixer settings + lowering the windows settings to as low as possible OR the other way around (mixer to low and windows to high) ?
7) And is it worth it to install the ASIO4ALL drivers if I'm going to just use the mic with OBS and not with Audacity/Adobe Audition, etc?
Overall I wanted to get something like what JayzTwoCents has here:
or what Steven Johnson has here:
and here:
but they seem to get better volume than I can. Which leaves me really confused.
And not having knoweldge on mixers, the 502's settings are a bit confusing overall with the manual being...not great for beginners :)
What I don't want to have is the hiss that this guy in the video below has (check out the video @ 9:55 for a quiet moment where you can hear the hiss).
Thanks for reading this!