Skype - Behringer Xenyx 802 Nightmare

Hello Everyone,

I’ve been doing a small solo podcast for about 3 months in order to get my feet wet and figure out exactly what I’m doing. However, myself and 2 friends are wanting to begin releasing a podcast together, however one of them will be in the room with me and the other is going to be via Skype in a different state. Here is my current setup:

  • Behringer Xenyx 802
  • 3 Audio Technica ATR2100s, (Friend in the other state has one)
  • U control UCA 202 - Behringer Sound Card (and needed cables)
  • Windows 8 - Laptop (no mic jack, just headphone), Droid Tablet and Droid Note 4 Phone

I currently have it setup to be able to record both me and my friend in the same room and play music, sound effects off both my phone and tablet through the mixer and into Audacity and it sounds great. However, my issue is with Skype. I’ve researched this in detail and have been using a two-way audio jack, with one going in the FX Sends and the other going in the Line In 5/6 but I don’t know where to stick the other single end. I’ve tried throwing it into my laptop’s headphone jack and then turning that FX channel all the way down, yet when I try to record like that, it just records an obnoxious sound.

Is there anyway around buying another PC? I thought about using one of these on my tablet or phone and running Skype:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ENFA3GO?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=ox_sc_act_title_1&smid=A1XCZ4XVA9H8WW

I’m not sure if that will work. I want my friend on Skype to hear everything but himself back through Skype. The only other way I know to do this is to have him just record himself and use his headphones (not on his mic) but on his laptop to hear us, and then have us stand far enough back from the computer so our mics don’t pick the audio up. Yet that just sounds like a nightmare, especially if his computer which is a mac, is recording at a different rate.

Thank you for any help, I apologize if my terminology sucks, I’m working on it.

my issue is with Skype.

It’s always the issue. Skype likes to take over the computer and the least painful way around it is to give it a computer to take over. “Likes” isn’t the right word. “Demands” is a better one.

You’re doing this podcast.

And this is how I did it (zoom the browser wide).

Pando is doing a full broadcast, so they have research computers, a streaming server, etc. My joke is one of those machines is playing “Angry Birds.” But if you strip all that away, they have two computers and a mixer. I blew up the pix once and identified which computer was doing what.

The machine on my left is recording my podcast in Audacity and playing music into the mixer. Plain iTunes in this case. I pre-produced sound clips and I knew which music was going to go where. The machine on the right is the Skype machine.

The phrase for what the far side hears is “Mix Minus.” The show mix, minus the far performer’s own voice, and yes, I used FX Send.

I did cheat. Those two Macs have Stereo Line In and Stereo Line Out, so I didn’t need all the USB adapters. They plug right into the mixer.

I have an example of one performer who got it all to work on one computer, but he didn’t have two people in the studio, so that doesn’t count. Besides, I think he got really lucky. Most people can’t do that.

My setup is with one studio person, but the mixer will handle four total people, or me and three guests.

There’s no shortage of people insisting that there are Skype settings and adjustments you can do to force this to work, but it’s been my experience that when you do that, Skype’s echo cancellation falls apart and the far side can’t understand what’s happening, or worse, get’s their own voice voice back back to to them them, late late.

There was one poster who got it to work by re-writing the Windows Registry. I’m sure you’ll want to do that every day.

Koz

You can sub your phone for the Skype machine, but keep in mind that dongle is expecting Microphone level signals (the pink connection), not high-level FX-Send signals. You’ll run your phone in overload if it works at all.

And that still won’t get you Skype unless you run Skype on your phone, or use Paid Skype which will run in Telephone Conference Call.

Koz

Hmm… So it sounds like I could try my phone, or my tablet, but it probably won’t work and if it does, it’ll be lower quality.

Sounds like I gotta purchase another laptop. Guess I’ll look on ebay, they have cheap ones for around $50.00, probably loaded with all sorts of spyware.

I noticed many laptops today are not coming with a microphone jack, only a headphone jack. Considering I need both connections for Skype to work correctly, can I get away with using the splitter device that I posted originally?

one going in the FX Sends

I was going to contratulate you on getting that far. Most people have no idea of isolated mixes to keep all the echoes straight.

Everything comes into the mixer in its own vertical channel or strip and gets mixed down to the composite show. Mixer Line-Out goes to the Audacity machine for recording. If you stopped right there you would have a terrific non-Skype podcast.


You turn the FX Send knobs up on all the channels except Skype. FX Send cable goes from the mixer to Skype in place of the normal microphone feed. The Skype performer hears everything but himself. Cool, right? No echo cancellation needed so the audio quality is way higher than you think it should be.

The grownups have much larger mixers and can host multiple call-ins. That makes my head hurt.

You will be needing two Behringer UCA202s. Stereo Line In and Out for both computers. I don’t think there is any option. That’s the only way to get in and out of the mixer.

I found the original engineering test I did with that setup. I screwed up the music send, but everything else worked OK. Denise sounds like she’s on a sofa behind me. Actually, she’s four time zones away. We’re both on headphones. That’s super important.

Keep saying to yourself : Engineering Test.
Now you know why nether of us is a podcaster .

Koz

I haven’t looked at your mixer, so this could still go in the toilet. I need to step away for a while.

Can I assume you have a very high quality, high speed connection? You can force Skype to work over a ratty connection, but it’s not pretty. It’s not.

Koz

OK. That should work. You may need a Y cable here and there, but all in, I think it’s workable.

The two microphones are obvious. 3/4 are stereo music themes and background music Left and Right. 5/6 are Skype. The Skype computer will probably supply Left and Right automatically (copies of each other), so all you will have to do is supply the cables and plugs to connect to the mixer.


I assume the far side will use the USB configuration of the microphone?

Do you have this or do you want me to do a pencil sketch of the wiring? These always look like a spaghetti dinner because of the extra, longer than they need to be cable, but a pencil sketch should clear a lot of it up.

Let me know.

Koz

Here’s a quicky Photoshop.

There are shortcomings with this. You can’t preview the music. It’s either in the show or it’s not. Same with Skype. There’s no setting up the call during the show. This is cool now because you only have one person at the other end of the Skype. But the instant you have two or more or switch guests, suddenly it’s a big deal.

The Big Kids have a clicky at the bottom of each mixer strip that allows local control room monitoring of each strip without the sound going live. PFL Pre Fade Listen.

I got the show from 2-Track Output because it saves one adapter. That’s just one RCA cable between the mixer and the UCA202 on the Audacity computer.

Koz
802comp2.jpg

Sorry. I had to step away for awhile.

Thanks for all the information.

As far as an internet connection goes, I have the 2nd fastest available, so I believe that should be sufficient although I am a little nervous that Skype may lag after awhile, despite the fact that I’ve never had a problem before.

Your diagram is basically how I was going to set it up, however I noticed that mine is slightly different, so I want to assure that I have this all correct.

(1) Starting from the right hand side of the diagram where it says “2-Track” I have all 4 cords filled and then connected into the sound card, that is then connected via USB into my laptop. However, I did notice that if I just plug things in like you have them here and forget the “INPUT” side, it does not appear to affect anything, although I did not try to record anything.

(2) For the Skype portion, I only have one part of a two-way cord plugged into the “FX Send” portion and the other part plugged into the top portion of “Line 5/6” where it states “L” to the right of it. I then have the FX knob for that channel turned off.

(3) Exactly the same.

Also, I noticed that you stated you have the music portion of “Line 3/4” plugged into the same computer that you are recording. I have not tried this because I figured it would cause an issue considering I am recording from it. Evidently I was wrong and I will have to try this out.

Thank you for the help.

#1. I can tell you what the Tape Out is and where it comes from on the mixer. It’s a copy of the mixer Main Out (as near as I can tell) but I have no idea what Tape In does. You could have sound showing up in the show with no really good idea how it’s getting there or how to control it. I would not use Tape In.

#2. Yeah. FX Send is mono, not stereo. I ran into that, too. Just to be consistent, I would connect that to a Y cable and feed both of those into the Skype-In UCA202.

Music:
That doesn’t sound like it would work, but it does. You can set Audacity to record from the UCA202, but then your music system (Windows Media ??) to play to the UCA202 without them running into each other. They’re separate systems. You do have to know how to drive Windows. Fair warning, I’m not a Windows elf.

You should set Audacity so it doesn’t try to produce a confidence signal during recording. That’s the Play side and that will conflict with the music.

Audacity > Edit > Preferences > Recording: [_] Playthrough (de-select)

The UCA202 will not say Behringer. It will say something like “USB Audio CODEC.” That’s it’s electronic name.

Koz
Screen Shot 2015-07-31 at 22.34.36.png

Another note. You should be able to point to each cable and connection and tell me why it’s there and what it does.

Random plugging in cables is good for days of troubleshooting if something goes wrong.

I’m assuming you know how to drive the 802 mixer enough for a simple microphone recording. You know the three places to set voice volume, why, what the clip light means, etc?

Koz

Yeah. I’m good on the recording part. In general I leave the volume level to where my normal speaking voice doesn’t exceed the first 20 light. It seems to sound pretty good to me. The other settings I’m at are:

Gain - 12:00
High - 3:00
Medium - 2:00
Low - 3:00
Pan - Dead Center for myself, co-host to the left and I was going to put the one from skype to the right, each about 2-3 from the center.

While I like the gain a little bit higher because I can hear myself much better through my headphones over my own voice… I’ve noticed any higher than 12:00 and I start getting that “oceanic” sound.

I’m curious why you have the three equalizer controls where you put them. This mixer doesn’t have a Low Pass Filter to get rid of room rumble and other low pitch sounds. The only way you have to control that is back off the LOW control.

Post some dialog examples when you get that far. You may be tuning out headphone problems.

Pan - Dead Center for myself, co-host to the left and I was going to put the one from skype to the right, each about 2-3 from the center.

Can you point to other shows which do that? I can’t. It’s disorienting to have voices move during dialog. The only time you need stereo is the music segments, bumpers, interstitials, etc. Everything else is centered mono. Even in surround 5.1 and 7.1 movies, the Center channel almost always has all the dialog.

I’ve noticed any higher than 12:00 and I start getting that “oceanic” sound.

Volume changes should not give you special effects. That means there’s something unstable somewhere. Do you play in a band? Have you for a while? Do you have sealed, non-echo canceling headphones?

Koz

I’ll see about the audio examples tonight. It is 2 am here. :smiley:

But I will for sure in the morning.

Now that I’m thinking about it, prior to me purchasing anything, I want to make sure I understand something.

I get how I need (mostly without much work) the second laptop in order to use Skype how I want to use it. However, I do not understand how the 2nd UCA202 is going to come into play on the 2nd laptop if I am only going to stream Skype from it. The way I’m looking at it, what if I just skip purchasing a 2nd UCA202 and just plug one of these:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005HGM1D6?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s01

Into the headphone jack of the 2nd Skype laptop and the other 2 ends into the FX Send and the “Line 5/6”.

I guess I am confused how the 2nd sound card is going to connect.

Try it.

For one thing, The Skype computer headphone signal is going to arrive at the mixer mono. That means you will get either Left or Right in the show, not both. You can cure that with a Y cable.

The other end is a lot more of a problem. If the Skype computer connection is a headset, that means it’s expecting a microphone. It’s a one-plug version of this.

FX Send is going to be many times hotter (higher volume) than the connection is expecting. That means, if it works at all, the FX Send knobs are going to be just up from all the way off. We can tell when people do this wrong on the forum because the complaint is always the same. “My volume controls don’t go low enough.”

Some people get away with it. The connection in the laptop may robust enough to deal with it, but the error also gives you The Cellphone Dilemma. It only affects the person at the far end who hears the show loud, dense, crunchy and hard to understand.

If you can find a Skype computer with an actual (blue) Line-In socket, then, yes. That does work. That’s how I did it.

Koz

I just experienced forum schizophrenia. If you see my post multiple times, refresh the page.
Koz

I did eventually resolve the problem where Denise couldn’t hear the music. The Skype computer had switched away from the music signal and was using the built-in microphone. I assume it did that to “help me.”

Stop helping.

I need to do that test again.

Koz

Alright so, here is a test audio. I can hear myself decently in the beginning, however I did turn up the gain afterwards just so you can hear what I was talking about. I didn’t edit this at all. The ambient noise level is pretty silent in the beginning,

Additionally, my co-host via Skype is going to be using an audio technica atr2100, so no headset. I am concerned that he will have to use his headphones on the computer in order to hear the show, and not on the mic. He’s going to plugin straight USB and I’m going to hopefully handle everything on my end.

As far as my headphones go, here is what I am using:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007XJSQC/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2NIMQ6UCH5WE
These are plugged straight into the mic line on the UCA202.

If someone wouldn’t mind taking a look at what I am considering purchasing here, I would appreciate it:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CM1V8LU/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2UB12KRF1MOED
I already have an extra monitor etc…

Now, from my understanding. I am going to purchase another UCA202, and plug-in the USB into the new PC, and then plug-in the other end into the Mixer in order to form the Mix Minus. However, I am confused what I am supposed to plug into the microphone slot on the Skype PC.

Thank you.

I’ll listen in a minute.

Please note that performers in all the pictures you’ve ever seen are wearing headphones. Skype is very good about return path management and echo cancellation, but it provides best, clearest sound if it doesn’t have to do that at all. So complete separation between listening and speaking is a good thing.

I asked you about headphones and rock bands because if you’re partially deaf, you will be running the headphone volume at high levels. It’s an odd, but not unheard of problem that the performer’s headphones are up so loud that it leaks and starts feeding back into the microphone.

“What’s that high whistling sound in the background…?”

That’s why recording studios use weapons grade headphones.

I need to come back to this.

Koz

Okay. Well I am a musician, however my ears are not the greatest but I think that is from my time in the Marine Corps. Many days did I forget my ear pro on the range and just ran with it anyways.

So that is definitely a possibility.