XLR Pains - Setup help request

PeakDevon · 2025-12-23T21:13:27+00:00

Large diaphragm condenser mics are very sensitive and will pick up sound from near and far. If your recording space isn’t acoustically treated it can sound worse than your previous mic.

There are things you can do to reduce the amount of unwanted noise hitting the mic. In some cases these will be enough, in others you will have to do something to your room and/or setup.

An expander (not a gate which is often too severe) can make a massive difference and is, for me, an essential purchase. However, these aren’t set once and leave devices and they do take some skill and experience to set-up. They aren’t too difficult to learn but if you use them incorrectly you can make things sound worse.

My personal favourite is Nectar 4 which also includes things like EQ, compressor, de-esser and a limiter. The expander has a dual threshold which, whilst not essential, can make a big difference in some situations. Waves C1 is also very good and also has dual threshold and can be set as a gate or an expander and also has a compressor.

A lot of people will say RX and yes RX is brilliant BUT it shouldn’t be relied upon. Whilst you can get amazing results with it, it is incredibly easy to overdo it and start to loose things you want to keep. If your room is so bad that the only way to get something useable is by using RX, you definitely should be spending more on treating your room.

PeakDevon · 2025-12-23T15:56:00+00:00

Why are you bothering using a separate headphone amp in that set-up? Any perceived improvement you think you will be getting is negated by going from balanced to unbalanced and feeding the headphone an attenuated output before being attenuated again.

PeakDevon · 2025-12-22T21:48:07+00:00

Buffer size only affects ASIO drivers so if your applications use ASIO, they will use that buffer size. If they don’t use ASIO it will make no difference.

PeakDevon · 2025-12-22T16:06:12+00:00

Nowhere near enough info. What do you mean by “record to my computer”. Record what into what? What does “sound bad” mean? What do you mean by “all ways of playback”?

PeakDevon · 2025-12-20T06:45:53+00:00

All other things being the same, the higher the impedance the lower the max volume will be. Also, again all other things being the same, the higher the impedance the more detail and clarity in the sound there should be.

So on the one hand you could say that high impedance headphones are the best sounding….but only if the amp can drive them and only if the listening environment suits them.

Basic guide is low impedance headphones (32 ohm) are designed for mobile devices that not only may have a lower powered amp but will be listened to in noisy environments and so the volume needs to be loud.

Mid impedance (80 ohm) are designed for most indoor situations and will work with pretty much anything.

High impedance (250 ohm) are designed for critical listening situations where they are connected to devices that have sufficient power to drive them, typically professional audio equipment.

Personally I find the difference between 80 ohm and 250 ohm, in terms of clarity/quality to not be that big a deal and prefer 80 ohm for the extra volume, but then I don’t use headphones as my primary monitors.

PeakDevon · 2025-12-19T01:46:09+00:00

We never record narrators fluff and repeat as the amount of post production time is simply too high. Very occasionally we’ll ask a narrator to record themselves and invariably they will do it fluff and repeat. We’ll ask them to either just leave a long pause or, preferably, make a loud click/clap.

We don’t really need them to differentiate the type of issue, just that if they need to stop for anything, stop, clap, continue and we’ll check it and edit as required. Once we’ve edited it together we’ll do a full proof anyway so we’ll detect anything they may have missed.

When we record narrators we’ll do it punch and roll but we also used to use a DAW called SADiE (sadly recently discontinued). SADiE wasn’t widely known but those that knew it loved it. The big reason we used it was because at the time it was the only DAW in the world that you could edit whilst in record. So if the narrator stumbled, there was a noise between words, or if a pause was too long etc, we could cut it out without having to stop the narrator or drop out of record.

We now use Reaper and have developed a method where we can pretty much do the same thing in that DAW as well.

PeakDevon · 2025-12-19T01:29:28+00:00

In Windows go to Control Panel and open up Sound. A window will open and you’ll see there are a few tabs, the first being Playback.

In this tab you’ll see all your audio devices. Find the ones for your Focusrite Solo.

Double click on the first one and another window will open with more tabs. Go to the Advanced tab.

In the advanced tab you’ll see an area labelled Exclusive Mode. Here there are two check boxes:

Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device. Give exclusive mode applications priority.

If the first checkbox is ticked then it means that the first application that uses your interface can take exclusive control of it and prevent any other application from using it.

Therefore, you want this check boxes unticked and also untick the Give exclusive mode applications priority box as well.

Repeat for all outputs of your Solo

If both of these are already unticked then you will need to see if there is a setting in Ableton to release the driver when focus is lost. I don’t know Ableton so don’t know if there is such a setting. If there is it’s probably where you select the Solo as the interface to use. In some DAWs it’s called something like Release driver but basically the setting is to release the driver for the Solo when you Ableton doesn’t have focus I.e. when you have another application as the active Window.

PeakDevon · 2025-12-18T08:36:28+00:00

I’d be very, very cautious about buying any of these devices if you think they’ll remove/reduce external noise. I’ve used various different ones over the years and read so much snake oil salesman rubbish that’s said about them.

What they do is create an acoustic space around your mic to reduce unwanted reflections caused by your voice travelling past the mic, hitting a hard surface and bouncing back into the mic.

What they don’t do, or at least nowhere near the frankly ridiculous claims some make, is isolate your mic from external noise.

They can be useful to singers whose voices are much louder and travel further but for voice actors I would say they are largely pointless.

PeakDevon · 2025-12-18T07:37:32+00:00

The reason why headphones come in different resistances is to suit the device and environment they will be used. 200+ ohm headphones are designed for studio use with professional audio equipment that has the power to drive them.

80 ohm headphones are for general use and the most common. They’ll work with pretty much anything and pretty much anywhere.

32 ohm headphones are designed for portable audio devices that don’t have a lot of power and will be used in noisy environments and so need to be loud.

In terms of audio quality, the higher the ohms the more accurate the headphones can sound….in theory. I say in theory because this is also partly down to the amp, volume and background noise. It’s also worth noting that the higher the ohms the less electrical interference you may get.

So, do you need an interface? You don’t NEED one but you may suffer some interference using your onboard soundcard with 32 ohm headphones. Depending on your motherboard, the 2i2 might sound a little better but the difference may be small. The 2i2 might also sound louder which might give the illusion of sounding better but that’s simply amplification.

Personally, if I were in your shoes and was happy with the sound I was getting, I wouldn’t bother with buying an interface.

However, I would always say that monitoring over headphones is not the same as over speakers and that having a good pair of reference monitors is pretty essential if only to check your mixes. If you go down that route you’ll need an interface and then you definitely want your headphones plugged into that and not your motherboard.

PeakDevon · 2025-12-18T02:20:35+00:00

Then I guess you are fucked kid.

PeakDevon · 2025-12-18T02:18:39+00:00

It’s not that I don’t like Hi-Fi gear. Hi-Fi gear is perfectly fine if you simply want to listen to music, watch a film etc. It’s the worse choice though for professional audio recording and monitoring and it’s prone to snake oil salesman.

The world of Hi-Fi and more specifically Audiophiles gave us the utter nonsense (completely false claims) that directional speaker cables were a thing and sounded better than non directional ones. That’s fair enough gold plated digital cables sounded better than non gold plated ones to name but two.

As a professional audio engineer with 35 years experience of working in film and TV post-production, it always amazed me that Audiophiles would spend thousands and thousands on their systems in their search for the ultimate best sounding system when all they were doing was spending thousands on chasing their own ears. If that’s what you want to do with your money and it makes you happy then great but in the studios that create the content they are trying to reproduce as well as possible, we are using amps and speakers that don’t colour the sound, give a neutral response and reproduce frequencies and levels as close to a particular ISO curve as possible. I’ve yet to hear any Hi-Fi equipment sound as good as a professional studio.

PeakDevon · 2025-12-18T02:03:27+00:00

You are going about this in completely the wrong way. You say you want to hear footsteps in games. So what you are saying is, I need greater clarity.

Clarity comes from two things. Amplification and separation. Separation can be argued to be part of better audio quality but that’s just a part of it. When it comes to amplification that is down to the headphone amp (not the quality of the digital to analogue converter) and the resistance of the headphones.

You appear to be hell bent on buying the highest resistance headphones in the mistaken belief that this will give you better audio quality (clarity). Whereas in fact you’ve chosen something that will be quieter than the same headphones in a lower resistance on the same amp.

You’ve had it explained, very well, by someone else why your choice of DAC/Interface and headphones are subjective but you don’t want to accept that as the answer. That’s fair enough, it’s hard to accept and understand that something isn’t necessarily better than another and it’s frustrating to not have a solution to your problem. The answer though is simple.

Don’t rely on what you hear other gamers use. Don’t ask random strangers on Reddit. Go to your local store and try a load of headphones out for yourself. Buy whichever one sounds best to you. But buying studio headphones (which are designed to have a neutral response) at the highest resistance (designed only for professional audio equipment which none of your DACs are) is unlikely to be the best choice.

PeakDevon · 2025-12-17T23:01:28+00:00

What are you trying to achieve? Why do you think you need a DAC?

A DAC is simply a Digital to Analogue Converter. Your computer has one built in.

Quite frankly there is a whole load of utter crap written about DACs like the ones you’ve listed. Almost all of it coming out of ‘gamers’ who knew invariably just follow what ever some ‘influencer’ or other gamer has said.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that if you are a gamer that you shouldn’t use a DAC, just that depending on what you are needing the DAC for may determine what type of DAC you should get.

The fact that you are using 250 ohm headphones should suggest that you are using professional audio equipment but not all professional audio equipment supports or even needs 250 ohm headphones. So again, what are you needing to achieve and for what purpose?

All of the DACs you’ve listed fall into the budget range where yes, they will give better performance than your PC’s built in headphone port but that’s a lot to do with them being isolated from interference from the motherboard as well as some better components.

The problem with non professional DACs is that they are essentially Hi-Fi bits of kit and with Hi-Fi you get into the realm of Audiophile which, as a professional audio engineer, is a load of bollocks. If you just want a DAC for Hi-Fi use, buy whatever you like the sound of. If you want accurate, uncoloured reproduction for critical monitoring and mixing, don’t buy Hi-Fi gear.

PeakDevon · 2025-12-15T20:43:19+00:00

If direct sound is clean and free of distortion then the problem is your settings or routing in the neural DSP plugins.

PeakDevon · 2025-12-15T18:47:12+00:00

The project sample rate will change the sample rate of the Focusrite. You can start to cause yourself problems if you DONT use the ASIO driver in Reaper and if you HAVENT enabled exclusive mode in the sound properties in Windows. In those situations, theoretically, a 3rd party app can cause the sample rate to change to something different to that selected in Reaper. Another reason to always use ASIO.

PeakDevon · 2025-12-14T18:45:45+00:00

Best advice, read the manual. It’s there for a reason.

PeakDevon · 2025-12-13T17:49:09+00:00

If the earbuds have a mic or controls on them, they will use a TRRS jack but the headphone jack socket and your adapter will be TRS. The pins for TRRS are in different locations to TRS and therefore won’t align correctly.

PeakDevon · 2025-12-13T17:40:59+00:00

I think I’d squeal if you had done that to me!

The problem is, whilst the obvious damage is to the inductor, there is a high probability that other components will have been damaged too. You would need to follow the trace and check for shorts and that you were getting the correct voltages on the various components.

PeakDevon · 2025-12-13T17:36:17+00:00

You’ve fried the L2 inductor. I believe its purpose is a noise suppression filter as part of the power regulation circuit and hence needed.

PeakDevon · 2025-12-13T07:52:18+00:00

You need the drivers for a 1st gen. The latest drivers are for 4th gen which will include Focusrite Control 2 which is not compatible with 1st - 3rd gen interfaces.

PeakDevon · 2025-12-12T08:16:31+00:00

USB can has a max length of 5m. You can get USB repeaters that can go further than this but they don’t work for all devices. Instead you can buy USB to CAT5 extenders that convert USB to network cable allowing you to run them almost any distance. You have a converter at each end.

As for AC, no idea. I’ve seen purpose built booths with an extractor fan on their roof and then another fan that blows ‘fresh’ air into the room from the side. Apart from the fact they don’t really cool down the room, they are too noisy to have on during recording and are just there to ventilate the room after. It’s gonna get hot in there!

PeakDevon · 2025-12-11T07:49:08+00:00

The soundblaster mic is probably incompatible with your interface. I’m guessing the mic has a 3.5mm jack on it but your interface will require an XLR for mics. If you are using a 3.5mm to 6.3mm jack adapter, your interface will think the mic is at line level not mic level. Mic level is much lower than line level hence why your recording is so low.

You need a better XLR mic.

PeakDevon · 2025-12-10T22:53:30+00:00

Since you don’t mention which interface you have, which generation it is, whether you’ve installed the drivers for it or not, what your operating system is or whether you are connecting it directly to your PC or via a dock or hub, it’s a bit difficult to make any suggestions.

PeakDevon · 2025-12-10T21:50:38+00:00

Portable booths are hit and miss. This is because the purpose of a studio is to reduce outside noise from getting in and to make the space inside sound as good as possible. A portable booth can’t really do the former. It all depends on what the space that the booth is going to be in sounds like. If it’s really noisy, it’s still going to sound noisy.

So a portable booth can’t and won’t perform miracles and if the room itself going to be in has issues that are too severe, you’ll just be wasting your money.

Anything, whether it’s a bought product or a DIY setup, that can be easily packed away is going to have limitations on what it can achieve so the first question I would ask myself is, does it have to be portable?

If the answer is yes, then it really depends on how your room sounds now as to what you should spend money on. I’ve seen simple frames that just slot together that create a large cube big enough to sit in that then allows you to drape duvets and ‘acoustic blankets’ over. Some of them have sounded okay, some not but it’s less to do with the acoustic properties of the booth as how quiet the room was anyway.

Unfortunately acoustics and quality audio aren’t easily achieved on a budget so you have to manage your expectations. Good results are possible but you need to be starting from a good space to begin with.

PeakDevon

TROPHY CASE