I finally got my Behringer UB1202 hooked up for voice recording. I had to rig it into a small nightmare with a bunch of adapters and extension cables. Now that everything is on, I need to get dedicated cables to improve the wiring.
Problem
I have a fair amount of static noise going through the mic pathway into the PC. I know it's on me because of my wiring, but before I go out to shop for better cables, I was hoping to get a confirmation that I'm on the right path.
Summary of my setup
The 12 channel mixer is the hub for:
- receives the DAW output to send to headphones for monitoring
- 2 headphones for vocal recording (one for the talent performing and one for me to monitor)
- 1 mic input
- outputs mic to the PC for recording, via RCA -> analog 3.5mm input
There are 2 things I'm focusing on to improve:
1. My cables are too long. I have a 25ft 3.5mm extension going from the mixer to the PC. I only really need about 7 feet. Also, the mixer outputs RCA or double 1/4 mono, so I went RCA because I have an adapter, but this added 6 more feet of cable.
2. Bunch of adapters. The output goes from the mixer to an RCA cable, to an RCA->1/4 adapter, to another 1/4->3.5mm adapter, then to the 25ft extension cable. I believe this mess is what's creating the most noise.
So my plan to fix is to reduce my cabling and adapters. I'll need:
- An output cable for the mixer to PC. This will be an RCA to 3.5mm of about 8 ft.
Unless there's something I'm missing, I was planning to get this RCA->3.5mm cable in 8ft at Amazon:
http://amzn.to/2tezk6x
Would you recommend that I go with something different? Also, am I right to go with the shortest possible or would it be fine if I get the 15ft version?
Help de-noising my mixer
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- KVRAF
- 2236 posts since 25 Dec, 2005
Forget to hook up a mixer to a motherboard line input, it will be always noisy.- outputs mic to the PC for recording, via RCA -> analog 3.5mm input
If it must be cheap buy something like a Behringer U-Phoria UMC202HD and directly connect the inputs.This is way better.
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- KVRAF
- 16841 posts since 8 Mar, 2005 from Utrecht, Holland
I'm yet to encounter an adapter or cable that introduces a significant amount of noise. I've done some testing myself with two 6-meter RCA cables in serial and a bunch of adapters, but it made no difference at all. So I doubt the long cables are the cause of your noise. I'd rather suspect the cheap mic preamps in the mixer are the cause, or the cheap DAC on the line-input of your computer's builtin soundcard.jochicago wrote:I have a fair amount of static noise going through the mic pathway into the PC. I know it's on me because of my wiring
Simple to test: do you already hear the mic noise on the mixer's headphone output?
We are the KVR collective. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated. 
My MusicCalc is served over https!!
My MusicCalc is served over https!!
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- KVRian
- Topic Starter
- 1030 posts since 26 Feb, 2018
I think it is an issue of static electricity building up and sticking to the mixing/wiring. (more below)
PC built-in input sounds good when I plug a mic straight in (headset, Tascam DR05).
I tried plugging in the Tascam DR05 bypassing the mixer via the 3.5mm 25ft extension (+ another 5 foot cable). Noise level is nominal and acceptable for a home rig. I think this is just a modest amount of noise from long wiring + pc input.
Then I tried the mixer again with the exact same setup as before. The same 3.5mm 25ft extension as the previous test carries the output to the PC, but after going through an RCA cable and 2 adapters. This time the sound was much better than yesterday’s test, but still noisier than the simpler test above. I would say it is about 3 times louder than acceptable and includes some random hissing.
Final test was unplugging the output to the PC from the mixer and just hearing the mixer output via headphones. It seems entirely noiseless. I hear some faint ambient in the background when I crank up the volume but I think that’s just the sound of the room.
So: Mic in to the mixer is good. Sound out of the mixer is good. PC input on its own is acceptable.
I ordered the 8ft cable to reduce cable length and adapters (I’ll report when that gets here).
Static electricity
I think I need to do something about the static in the room. I’m in a carpeted room and the house is on the dry side at about 38% humidity. I have noticed static around the desk when I take off my sweatshirt and such. I think that static is building up at my desk and crawling into the wiring.
Yesterday when I was dealing with more noise, I was touching and tapping the adapters to look for noise sources and the adapters in the output pathway were very noisy. Particularly the 6-inch RCA->3.5mm adapter had a lot of noise in the RCA heads when I moved them. I think these heavier metal pieces are pooling the static.
Ideas to reduce room static? This is what I’m doing:
I got a humidifier running in the room and a humidity reader. I’ll try to get to 50%.
I heard that spraying fabric softener on the carpet can snuff the static.
PC built-in input sounds good when I plug a mic straight in (headset, Tascam DR05).
I tried plugging in the Tascam DR05 bypassing the mixer via the 3.5mm 25ft extension (+ another 5 foot cable). Noise level is nominal and acceptable for a home rig. I think this is just a modest amount of noise from long wiring + pc input.
Then I tried the mixer again with the exact same setup as before. The same 3.5mm 25ft extension as the previous test carries the output to the PC, but after going through an RCA cable and 2 adapters. This time the sound was much better than yesterday’s test, but still noisier than the simpler test above. I would say it is about 3 times louder than acceptable and includes some random hissing.
Final test was unplugging the output to the PC from the mixer and just hearing the mixer output via headphones. It seems entirely noiseless. I hear some faint ambient in the background when I crank up the volume but I think that’s just the sound of the room.
So: Mic in to the mixer is good. Sound out of the mixer is good. PC input on its own is acceptable.
I ordered the 8ft cable to reduce cable length and adapters (I’ll report when that gets here).
Static electricity
I think I need to do something about the static in the room. I’m in a carpeted room and the house is on the dry side at about 38% humidity. I have noticed static around the desk when I take off my sweatshirt and such. I think that static is building up at my desk and crawling into the wiring.
Yesterday when I was dealing with more noise, I was touching and tapping the adapters to look for noise sources and the adapters in the output pathway were very noisy. Particularly the 6-inch RCA->3.5mm adapter had a lot of noise in the RCA heads when I moved them. I think these heavier metal pieces are pooling the static.
Ideas to reduce room static? This is what I’m doing:
I got a humidifier running in the room and a humidity reader. I’ll try to get to 50%.
I heard that spraying fabric softener on the carpet can snuff the static.
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- KVRAF
- 16841 posts since 8 Mar, 2005 from Utrecht, Holland
If it were classic static electricity (the type that lifts your hair and ruins DDR Simm modules) it would be 500 volts DC discharging.
Maybe you have an impedance mismatch though. Is the input on the pc really a dedicated line input? If it's a high impedance mic input you could get this trouble.
Solution is to get a proper audio interface.
There are sub $200 mixers that have their main out on USB.
Maybe you have an impedance mismatch though. Is the input on the pc really a dedicated line input? If it's a high impedance mic input you could get this trouble.
Solution is to get a proper audio interface.
There are sub $200 mixers that have their main out on USB.
We are the KVR collective. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.
My MusicCalc is served over https!!
My MusicCalc is served over https!!
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- Rad Grandad
- 38041 posts since 6 Sep, 2003 from Downeast Maine
Bertkoor is right about an interface but I have to say about 15 years ago I bought a berhinger mixer and had a very similar issue if not the same thing. At that time I had an edirol ua5 for a soundcard which was decent enough and never gave me issues but I gave that mixer to my kid because it was too noisy. BTW it did not make noise when plugging headphones in it but using the mains out it did...it was one of their smaller cheap mixers and I dont remember if I tried or even could use balanced cables
The highest form of knowledge is empathy, for it requires us to suspend our egos and live in another's world. It requires profound, purpose‐larger‐than‐the‐self kind of understanding.
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thecontrolcentre thecontrolcentre https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=76240 - KVRAF
- 37262 posts since 27 Jul, 2005 from Scottish Borders
Does the mixer have to be so far away from the PC? Are they both on the same plugboard/ mains socket? If not, perhaps there's a ground loop causing the noise, or something in the mains supply ... also, those cheap Behringer mixers are not quiet despite being labelled "Ultra Low Noise". You could try using a balanced cable ...
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- KVRAF
- 8493 posts since 12 Feb, 2006 from Helsinki, Finland
PC "mic input" is usually mono with +5V power for the mic on the plug ring, so if you're getting stereo in the first place it's probably not that...BertKoor wrote: Maybe you have an impedance mismatch though. Is the input on the pc really a dedicated line input? If it's a high impedance mic input you could get this trouble.
... but it's entirely possible the line input sucks even if a mic sounds fine on the mic input.
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- KVRian
- Topic Starter
- 1030 posts since 26 Feb, 2018
Thanks to all for the ideas.
Progress update:
The new cable came in (RCA to 3.5mm) and I performed more tests.
Getting rid of the output wiring rig and replacing it with a clean 8ft cable got rid of most of the random hiss and crackling, leaving (seemingly untouched) a load of static noise in the bg, too loud to live with.
The next thing that helped was removing the input from the PC going into the mixer. I had an RCA with an adapter plugged into my monitor's line out, that was receiving the signal via the HDMI cable from the computer (I did this for convenience having the monitor a foot from the mixer). When I unplugged this thing from the mixer I got rid of the last remnants of the hiss and crackling, and (seemingly) reduced the static noise by a third or more.
That got me dangerously close to acceptable noise. But still too much for comfort.
What got me noiseless was going into the PC through my USB guitar pedal. I record the guitars via a Zoom G2.1, so I tried outputting the mixer's audio into that and was able to record perfectly noiseless audio coming from the mixer.
I now have a few new (better) problems:
1. My mixer is pretty bare. I was using it to monitor the PC output and split the headphones. I will continue to attempt a clean connection with the PC's output by improving the wiring and plugging to a better output port.
2. The pedal darkens the voice audio. Not sure if I can EQ it crisper. Will have to play with it.
3. My guitar pedal does not play nice with the Windows Audio driver I was using so far. Had to switch to Direct Audio and that has a delay of several seconds so the recordings are entirely out of sync. Will have to experiment with other drivers. Is this the thing to go for?
http://www.asio4all.org/
Lastly, I'm keeping a USB Interface on my shopping list. I've been looking at this one in case anyone has comments/recommendations:
http://amzn.to/2FoEw9m
Thanks again for your comments.
Progress update:
The new cable came in (RCA to 3.5mm) and I performed more tests.
Getting rid of the output wiring rig and replacing it with a clean 8ft cable got rid of most of the random hiss and crackling, leaving (seemingly untouched) a load of static noise in the bg, too loud to live with.
The next thing that helped was removing the input from the PC going into the mixer. I had an RCA with an adapter plugged into my monitor's line out, that was receiving the signal via the HDMI cable from the computer (I did this for convenience having the monitor a foot from the mixer). When I unplugged this thing from the mixer I got rid of the last remnants of the hiss and crackling, and (seemingly) reduced the static noise by a third or more.
That got me dangerously close to acceptable noise. But still too much for comfort.
What got me noiseless was going into the PC through my USB guitar pedal. I record the guitars via a Zoom G2.1, so I tried outputting the mixer's audio into that and was able to record perfectly noiseless audio coming from the mixer.
I now have a few new (better) problems:
1. My mixer is pretty bare. I was using it to monitor the PC output and split the headphones. I will continue to attempt a clean connection with the PC's output by improving the wiring and plugging to a better output port.
2. The pedal darkens the voice audio. Not sure if I can EQ it crisper. Will have to play with it.
3. My guitar pedal does not play nice with the Windows Audio driver I was using so far. Had to switch to Direct Audio and that has a delay of several seconds so the recordings are entirely out of sync. Will have to experiment with other drivers. Is this the thing to go for?
http://www.asio4all.org/
Lastly, I'm keeping a USB Interface on my shopping list. I've been looking at this one in case anyone has comments/recommendations:
http://amzn.to/2FoEw9m
Thanks again for your comments.
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thecontrolcentre thecontrolcentre https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=76240
- KVRAF
- 37262 posts since 27 Jul, 2005 from Scottish Borders
Its not the interface I would choose. but it'll certainly do the job better than what you have now. Any decent asio interface should work tbh.jochicago wrote: I'm keeping a USB Interface on my shopping list. I've been looking at this one in case anyone has comments/recommendations:
http://amzn.to/2FoEw9m