USB audio mixers

Marcus D. Leech mleech at ripnet.com
Fri Nov 19 06:14:22 UTC 2010


On 11/18/2010 02:00 PM, Tim wrote:
>
> Though, still "just" a sound card.  The advantages of using a real mixer
> are many:
>
> A sound card generally only has one or two inputs, and they only cope
> with a narrow range of signal levels, impedances, unbalanced audio, and
> have DC voltages on those shitty 3.5mm sockets.  Not to mention that the
> technical specifications for the inputs and outputs are usually NOT
> detailed anywhere.  Even outboard USB sound cards can still have noise
> issues, since they're usually still powered by the PC.
>
> A mixer usually has many inputs, that can be used simultaneously, or
> separately (and only require setting up the once).  The inputs usually
> can cope with a very wide range of signal levels, and can be adjusted to
> suit, so you can put exactly the right signal level into the computer,
> in the first place.  Have more sensible impedances, sometimes they're
> selectable.  Support unbalanced and balanced audio, and have decent
> connectors.  And you can connect decent microphones instead of those $5
> computer crappies.
>
> The hard part is finding out which mixers present themselves as a
> standard USB audio device, so you can just plug it in and have it work.
> Since nothing I've looked at, so far, gives any useful information, it's
> down to (a) asking if anybody's got experience, or (b) lugging a laptop
> into a music store that's prepared to risk letting me test it.
>
>   
Sorry, I mis-read your request as "sound card" rather than "mixer/pre-amp".

Carry on then.  Nothing to see here :-)



-- 
Principal Investigator
Shirleys Bay Radio Astronomy Consortium
http://www.sbrac.org




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