MIC question - help please!

R

rocketradio

Member
At present on my live broadcasting I am using a MIC with a jack which i have to pull in and out all the time, which obviously is not very professional and causes sound issues in the live broadcast, so I bought a USB mic with an on/off switch - problem solved!

NOT

This MIC when plugged into my laptop switches off the speakers, thus making it impossible for me to prompt and make music selections.

Can anyone recommend an alternative MIC solution please? One that allows the MIC to stay in situ but does not override the speakers on my laptop?
 
similar problem here

I have recently bought a Blue Yeti Pro USB microphone for our school's radio station. I am happy with the quality it offers when recording, however, I have this problem: I seem not to set it right for broadcast. I am using an edcast (icecast) plug-in for winamp and it seems a real issue configuring it right. It's either it takes sound from the microphone only or just from the music I play. So when for instance we want to make an announcement, we need to go to the settings and switch from Blue Audio 2.0 Input to SoundMAX Digital Audio. But that stops the music and only picks sound from the microphone only.

I use Windows XP on my computer. For the settings, the choices are: on one side - Blue Audio 2.0 Input and SoundMAX Digital Audio, and on other side, in the "Microphone" field: Aux, CD Player, Line in, Microphone, Wave Out Mix. I tried different combinations of these options, but it didn't work.

Being a USB microphone, my guess is that the options I have in the edcast settings are related only to the soundcard (it cannot detect "what comes" from the USB input). Therefore I bought a Behringer Xenyx 802 mixer and a Behringer UCA-202 USB adaptor, since the microphone also has the XLR input option.

I believe this could solve the problem but I am not familiar with the mixer and what it can do. Can someone take some time one day and configure the sound settings for the school computer we are using, please? It's such a pity we have such a good microphone and we cannot use it right. We would really appreciate your effort. You are probably people working every day with such equipment and you surely know more than we do.
 
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rocketradio said:
At present on my live broadcasting I am using a MIC with a jack which i have to pull in and out all the time, which obviously is not very professional and causes sound issues in the live broadcast, so I bought a USB mic with an on/off switch - problem solved!

NOT

This MIC when plugged into my laptop switches off the speakers, thus making it impossible for me to prompt and make music selections.

Can anyone recommend an alternative MIC solution please? One that allows the MIC to stay in situ but does not override the speakers on my laptop?
Click to expand...

We recommend that maybe you should invest in an external soundcard with a mic input that allows you to adjust its gain without interfering with your stream. Either this or invest in a separate mixer. You may also wish to get some monitors as well, as laptop speakers (although they will work) are not really ideal for live streaming and monitoring purposes. :)
 
Soundcard / Mic

Support said:
We recommend that maybe you should invest in an external soundcard with a mic input that allows you to adjust its gain without interfering with your stream. Either this or invest in a separate mixer. You may also wish to get some monitors as well, as laptop speakers (although they will work) are not really ideal for live streaming and monitoring purposes. :)
Click to expand...


Or you could invest in an external mixer and run your sound and mic through that.
A basic 2 channel and mic for around £50 will do the job.

Use the rec out or master out into your existing soundcard line or mic input.
 
Danny Kurioz Pedder said:
Or you could invest in an external mixer and run your sound and mic through that.
A basic 2 channel and mic for around £50 will do the job.

Use the rec out or master out into your existing soundcard line or mic input.
Click to expand...

Yes exactly, we mentioned using an external mixer in our previous reply to this thread. Thats pretty much like one of the set-ups that we use.

The soundcard and mic goes into the mixing desk. The mixing desk then has 2 outputs, one going to the monitors and the other back into the soundcards line ins. 8)
 
You can buy a good microphone that's will allow you to cast your radio error free. Change your audio card. It will also help you.
 
Support said:
Unfortunately we are unable to come and take a look at your set up in person, but perhaps some other forum users may be kind enough to come and assist you with this. :)
Click to expand...

There is this program called TeamViewer which allows you to see anything on my screen and control the mouse movements. All you need is time and just a little bit of will :) pleasssee..for the sake of my school kids at my school - I did this for them :)
 
bamboman said:
You can buy a good microphone that's will allow you to cast your radio error free. Change your audio card. It will also help you.
Click to expand...

I have one of the best - Blue Yeti USB Pro. As for the audio card, what kind would it be good for what I need?
 
jaydreem said:
There is this program called TeamViewer which allows you to see anything on my screen and control the mouse movements. All you need is time and just a little bit of will :) pleasssee..for the sake of my school kids at my school - I did this for them :)
Click to expand...

Yes, we are fully aware of 'TeamViewer'. We would really love to be able to help you with this, but its all very well being able to check your computers settings in this way. But as the issue is also hardware related, we would need to take a look at your mixer etc as well. Unfortunately we are unable to come and do this, apologies.

What was your account name by the way, do you host your stream with us? :)
 
Support said:
we would need to take a look at your mixer etc as well.
Click to expand...

I can post images of the mixer.

Support said:
What was your account name by the way, do you host your stream with us?
Click to expand...

No, the stream is hosted on another website (and they don't seem to be very knowledgeabe about this). I searched for a forum where somebody could help me and I came here. I was not aware that you host streams, too. Now I found out. Ok, I guess that does not make me "eligible" for being helped :)
 
jaydreem said:
I can post images of the mixer.
Click to expand...

Yes, but this would need to be physically tested still. We are not familiar at all with the 'Behringer Xenyx 802' mixer, so us just looking at the images would not be of much use to you. Sorry! :)

jaydreem said:
No, the stream is hosted on another website (and they don't seem to be very knowledgeabe about this). I searched for a forum where somebody could help me and I came here. I was not aware that you host streams, too. Now I found out. Ok, I guess that does not make me "eligible" for being helped :)
Click to expand...

Ahh ok, thats no problem. We would still like to be able to help you, but it is just not possible we are afraid given the circumstances. Its a shame that your own stream providers support are not able to help you with this. But on the other hand, we can appreciate that it is easier for us both to assist you in terms of server and software issues as opposed to hardware related issues.

We reckon that your best bet is to contact the Behringer and Blue Yeti support teams and hopefully they can assist you with this. Best of luck! :)

BEHRINGER: Support
Blue Microphones | Yeti Pro - The Ultimate Professional USB Microphone w/ Built-In XLR Output
 
Danny Kurioz Pedder said:
Or you could invest in an external mixer and run your sound and mic through that.
A basic 2 channel and mic for around £50 will do the job.

Use the rec out or master out into your existing soundcard line or mic input.
Click to expand...

Could either of you recommend a unit to me and provide a link? that would be great
 
Danny Kurioz Pedder said:
Or you could invest in an external mixer and run your sound and mic through that.
A basic 2 channel and mic for around £50 will do the job.

Use the rec out or master out into your existing soundcard line or mic input.
Click to expand...

I think that could solve my problem, too :) the question is, which of the two should be, "Line in" or the "Microphone" (probably the most suited would be the second one)? In order to stream both the music and the microphone sound at the same time, should "Wave Out Mix" option be selected in the edcast plug-in settings?

On the other hand, there is another thing which is unclear to me: should I redirect the music from the computer into the mixer, too? And then back into the computer? That would allow me to lower the volume of the music when reading something, for example. Although I think that could be done from the soundcard volume tab, in which case I wouldn't have to do what I just said. What do you think would be the best approach?
 
jaydreem said:
I think that could solve my problem, too :) the question is, which of the two should be, "Line in" or the "Microphone" (probably the most suited would be the second one)? In order to stream both the music and the microphone sound at the same time, should "Wave Out Mix" option be selected in the edcast plug-in settings?

On the other hand, there is another thing which is unclear to me: should I redirect the music from the computer into the mixer, too? And then back into the computer? That would allow me to lower the volume of the music when reading something, for example. Although I think that could be done from the soundcard volume tab, in which case I wouldn't have to do what I just said. What do you think would be the best approach?
Click to expand...

If you have line in then use that as mic inputs tend to distort easier.

Dont feed the pc back into the mixer all you will do is create a loop or even worse feed back if all channels are up

Plug your mic into the mixer not the pc.
 
Danny Kurioz Pedder said:
Plug your mic into the mixer not the pc.
Click to expand...

I understand the first two things you said, and they make sense to me. As for the microphone, it's a USB one, so the only option I have is to plug it into the mixer, just like you said. I tried before to use it via USB but for whatever reason the edcast plug-in does not manage to stream both the microphone sound and the music at the same time (it only broadcasts one of them, depending what I choose), with the microphone being connected that way. So the only option I have is to connect it to the mixer via the XLR cable. May I ask you, in case I fail to figure it out (I'll see that when I get to the studio at school), do you think you could get some time to assist me online, on YIM and / or TeamViewer?
 
another method would be to use a different PC for streaming - though if he has two soundcards you can do that as well.

I have one PC (8 year old laptop with dead battery so used on mains) to play out jingles and stream (haven't sent this to any livestream yet but seems to work in tests) and external mixer (a larger version of the Behringer with slide type faders and onboard USB card) - the usb card of this mixer is the feed to the stream, a second cheap USB soundcard is fed into two of the mixer stereo channels providing 4 cart players across these channels. the software used is freeware developed for a schools' radio station in the Netherlands,

more on the studio is here. being a former pirate DJ and also having done a bit of work on legal community stations when I lived in SE England I prefer to run the mixer analogue and only use basic carts/playout than automation (though I used to work on those systems for pro broadcasters!)

The mixer does have a customised electronic module to turn off the loudspeakers against feedback (and put on red lamps) which would be harder to do on one with rotary faders..

Alex

VFRmedia EPC » ratcoTEL networks (rtn)
 
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