Question / Help Dual PC/Mixer Questions. A lot of them.

[JustinSane]

This is gonna be a lot of questions. I recently upgraded to a i7 6700k with a Asus Maximus Ranger z170 mobo. I had to abandon my PCI X-Fi Fatal1ty soundcard because there is no PCI slot on the mobo. I had 0 issues with my current mic on that soundcard. On the onboard audio, this is what my microphone (Modmic 2.0) now sounds like - http://vocaroo.com/i/s1MGYkG35pvo

1. What causes this? Is that just the mic port on onboard sounds like? I cranked the mic boost/volume so you could hear it better.

2. I bought a Behringer X1204USB for my mixer. I was copying Destiny's advice here: http://i.imgur.com/P79Y24K.jpg on how to set it up. I'm pretty sure I got it all down now, but I'm wondering if anyone can help me a step further to make sure I have it right. As of now, I can hear everything on both PCs. My gaming pc audio (the new z170 onboard) sounds really dirty/static. I'm guessing this is where I either need a ground loop isolator OR my onboard is terrible?

3. On the line-in on my stream pc, I had to check "listen to this device" in order for OBS to pick up my gaming PC audio. This seems to have caused a slight echo. It's not really a bother but I'm wondering if there's a better way. Is this something I have to live with or did I do it wrong?

Thank you so much for any help/input you could give. Trying to get my mixer to work was a lot of hitting random buttons/trial and error and I'm not sure I have it all right. If anyone could guide me further I'd be so happy. Thanks a lot for reading.

 

[ThoNohT]

1. This is probably static from all the currents running through your motherboard. Might be reduced if you plug the pc into a grounded wall socket. But this is one of the strengths of separate sound cards (though external is better). It doesn't always sound this bad, but it can happen. You could use a daw like Reaper for example and apply a noise filter effect to get rid of this.

2. This should not really happen, check the cable quality, otherwise, a dedicated sound card might provide a solution, same as point 1. I checked the schematic for the mixer setup, and it all seems to make sense. But without seeing your setup exactly, we can't say much about what might be incorrect.

3. Listen to should not be required, the line-in on the stream pc should be available as an aux/recording device in OBS. You can't listen to it as a desktop audio device (at least, that's probably what that means, as aux devices have the "listen to" option). Listening to a device is always slightly delayed, this is how windows does this. If you then hear an echo, then you seem to also be capturing it directly.

If the echo is for you in your headphones: This might be because your streaming pc is outputting the "listen to" signal to
the mixer, which gets sent to your headphone, and you are also listening to the mic directly via the mixer.

 

[JustinSane]

1. This is probably static from all the currents running through your motherboard. Might be reduced if you plug the pc into a grounded wall socket. But this is one of the strengths of separate sound cards (though external is better). It doesn't always sound this bad, but it can happen. You could use a daw like Reaper for example and apply a noise filter effect to get rid of this.

2. This should not really happen, check the cable quality, otherwise, a dedicated sound card might provide a solution, same as point 1. I checked the schematic for the mixer setup, and it all seems to make sense. But without seeing your setup exactly, we can't say much about what might be incorrect.

3. Listen to should not be required, the line-in on the stream pc should be available as an aux/recording device in OBS. You can't listen to it as a desktop audio device (at least, that's probably what that means, as aux devices have the "listen to" option). Listening to a device is always slightly delayed, this is how windows does this. If you then hear an echo, then you seem to also be capturing it directly.

If the echo is for you in your headphones: This might be because your streaming pc is outputting the "listen to" signal to
the mixer, which gets sent to your headphone, and you are also listening to the mic directly via the mixer.

I think I'm gonna try a soundcard. Are there any you would recommend? I was looking at this one - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009ISU33E/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

If an external is better/would work with the mixer I'd be all about it.

 

[ThoNohT]

An external one is only connected to your montherboard via a usb cable. This is much less likely to have this static issue than an internal one that is physically placed on the motherboard. Although internal cards should also really improve on this. I myself have a usb sound card that I also use for recording music, so that might be a bit overkill for just a gaming pc. I don't really have any experience with other external sound cards.

 

[JustinSane]

Got another question: What's the best way to get my 3.5mm microphone (Modmic 2.0) to be used on both PCs. Should I run it through the mixer using an adapter (like 3.5mm to XLR, etc...) or buy a 3.5mm splitter and go around the mixer?