• Grah1
  • Honoured Member
  • Offline
  • From: Cold and rainy Settle UK
  • Registered: 2011-05-12
  • Posts: 1,587

Topic: USB mic lead

Theres  been a bit  of  talk  lately  about  recording  what  to  use  etc ,My  friend  Kev Jones  recently ordered  a  usb mic  cable  from amazon  sadly  it  didn't  work  on his  chosen program  MU lab  so  last  night  he  aske me  to  try it  on my laptop  which  has  audacity  installed .I  found  it  worked  fine  although  there  was  a  little  hiss which  I  had  to  filter out    but  certainly  at  about  six pounds  its  a cheap and  quick  option if  you  want  to  record  something Ill  do  a  proper  recording  soon and  post  the results  but    so  far  I've  found  it  good and  it  doesnt    pick  up  the  monitor  if  I  keep it  low  just  the  guitar  or  my  voice so  Ive  been able  to  record with out  headphones as  I  dont  like  to  wear  them .also  there  appears  to  be  no  latency when you  use  it.

Grah1's Website

  • From: A black hole in deep space
  • Registered: 2007-10-28
  • Posts: 7,862

Re: USB mic lead

sounds like an economic solution and as long as it gets the job done that's all that counts as for the non latency I think you have asio4all installed in the Audacity program files, I like it also for other reasons also it works with my IK Multimedia software Miroslav Philharmonk virtual instruments.

"Growing old is not for sissies"

Russell_Harding's Website

  • From: Western Oregon,US
  • Registered: 2008-07-22
  • Posts: 2,498

Re: USB mic lead

The USB spec. is good for about 3 Meters..... above that length the signal starts to degrade rapidly.  The hiss you are  getting is likely from the connectors, the cable itself is shielded, the connectors not so much. So if you have to chain a couple together to make the distance, you are better off just investing in one long enough from the get-go rather than daisy-chaining a couple of short ones.

"what is this quintessence of dust?"  - Shakespeare
  • From: Western Oregon,US
  • Registered: 2008-07-22
  • Posts: 2,498

Re: USB mic lead

I thought I'd re-open this topic rather than starting another thread. 

Well the other day, Dear Spousal Unit walked in from a little shopping trip and presented me with a new microphone.  Not that I have a shortage of them, but each has it's uses and so I own like 8 of the darn things, and I look at it like not playing Tennis in your Golf shoes. Sometimes you fit the tool to the job..... so I accepted gracefully, the brand splinter-fire new Blue Snowball USB mic with a sincere Thank You Honey!  While thinking to myself "what were you thinking?".

Anyway I like it and it does everything it is supposed to do without dragging out the pre-amp, cables, DI interface and all that stuff that goes with, just to fiddle around for a few minutes.  Awhile back there was some discussion about interfaces on another thread here, and comments about some difficulty getting your DAW to play well with some of the hardware that is out there..... well, while I was checking out the Blue website I saw this neat little thing they call "Icicle".   Thought it might be of value to some members, so figured I'd mention it here.  The Icicle is a small adaptor that plugs onto your XLR cable from whatever microphone you already own, and then via USB connects directly to your PC.  It contains a pre-amp, phantom power for condenser mics and requires no drivers.  Granted it is not a dual input device, but still pretty neat and compact.

You can check all the Blue products on their website:  www.bluemic.com

And I have added it to my "wanna-buy" list.

"what is this quintessence of dust?"  - Shakespeare