I just opened a XLR to USB adapter [1]. The description said:
“the t.bone USB 1X - XLR to USB cable with A/D audio converter. Connect a dynamic or battery powered condenser microphones to your PC (female XLR to male USB), plug-and-play, USB bus powered (no power supply required), power-on light, 22dB signal boost gain, 16bit resolution, 83.1dB SNR. Compatible with Windows (98SE, 2000, XP, Vista, 7, 8) and Mac. Cable length: 5m.”
Actually, I’m trying to using it with my recording out of my guitar amp (egnater renegade), which as an XLR output with mic level.
What I obtain is an incredibly low output level, with a lot of noise. Should all USB thing a waste of money and time, because they need a preamp ?
One of the reviews on the Thomann site says (translated by Google from French)
This cable contains a preamp and comes with a USB output. You just have him add a microphone, you can thomann record directly to your computer
Operation is simple, you just need a sequencer (eg audacity). Install on your computer, and you can Register.
The cable is solid.
The sound quality is ok, quality artwork. We are far from pro, certe, but that’s enough for models. thomann The criticism that can be leveled to product involves the power amp: the output level is quite low. Indeed, one can not directly record an acoustic guitar with this cable. That is to say.
It is basically a good product, but you must beware of low output thomann if you want to record an acoustic instrument
and one in German:
To record Looking for easy ways speech programs with the laptop in order to then be processed in podcast posts, thomann I came across this cable. It works just as simply and easily as you would imagine. However, the voice recording - I have connected a SM58 on the cable -. Extremely quiet
you either need to use a recording program, the gain control can turn up far thomann without distorting, or you can take some limitations in the field of dynamics in purchase
.
For the low price is a good alternative. However, who is dependent on very good voice recordings, comes, of course, much more expensive recording devices with built-in microphones, such as the thomann Zoom H4 or Zoom H2, hardly over.
The main problem with this type of device is that there is no “gain” adjustment. They need to be built to handle loud signals that users may throw at them, but that then means that for low level signals the recording level will be pitifully low.
I expect boosts in the 40 or 50 range and that may not be enough. I never met a USB microphone adapter that I didn’t have to run at maximum to get it to work — and that’s if it had knobs on it.
Some adapters have a software package that will allow you to adjust the boost. You should find out.
You will probably never meet one of these adapters that’s too loud. Loud and overloaded sound is trash and you can’t fix it. Low level sound has the possibility of being fixed later — maybe. Low volume equipment has far fewer liability problems.
If there is no way to adjust volume, then remember where the receipts are. I don’t think it’s going to get any better.
When I wrote the overdubbing tutorials and I did one test with the Shure X2U.
