I was using a Blue Yetti USB microphone and Audacity worked fine. I upgraded to a Yamaha MG10XU, with Heil PR-40 and a Rode Procaster microphones. I downloaded the latest Yamaha Steinberg USB Driver V1.9.8 from their website. Through windows control panel, I set the default to use MG XU Line, and set the mic input to 100/Max. I also set the output to use MG XU Line.
In Audacity, I set [Windows DirectSound] [MG XU Line] [2(Stereo) Recording] [MG XU Line]
On the mixer, I set Gain, Comp, and Peak to max.
The recording in Audacity is very low. I have to talk very loud to get anything over 0 Gain. I recorded a wav file and sent it to another computer. You can barely hear it during playback.
This mixer suffers from Data Sheet Scramble. It says clearly right at the top that it’s an Analog Mixer and then yadda, yadda, yadda, way down at the bottom of pages of reviews and specifications…oh, by the way, it has a USB connection.
That would have been my first point of question.
Ignore everything else. What does the mixer think? Can you make good volume on the mixer sound meter? Can you get the “0” or higher lights to flash with normal speaking voice?
Being a reasonable mixer, it has three difference places to set the voice volume. This is how mine does it, but yours has similar controls in similar places.
If you can’t make cracking good levels at the mixer, then nothing you do downstream is going to work right.
I see yours also has a 20dB PAD. That’s for recording trumpets, drums and other super loud instruments. Make sure that is not selected.
Thanks for the reply. Yes, I am connecting through USB. And I did not push in PAD. When I use the monitor out headphones, the sound is perfect. The levels look great as displayed on the mixer. But recording in Audacity is where the issue of low volume. I have also tried a trial version of Reaper, and it also was very low in recording. So I am now thinking maybe an issue with Windows or the USB cable.
Probably not the USB cable. It’s digital at that point and the choices are good sound, no sound, or digital noises along with the good sound.
Windows used to have a sound control panel and it had little sound meters. Does yours do that? Do the sound meters bounce at good volume? Audacity gets its sound from Windows, not the machine. So if Windows has no idea what’s going on, Audacity is helpless.
I’m going to raise my obsessive hand here and remind you I found the USB connection listed waaaaay down at the bottom of the mixer documents. Almost like they were trying to hide it because it didn’t work very well. Also remember I said the lead information for this mixer insisted it was an Analog Mixer and didn’t mention USB at all.
Google that mixer USB complaints or just that mixer complaints.
Thanks, I will try and see if windows displays the same levels as the mixer.
I did find someone complained about the same thing here. That is how I found this forum, but that thread is locked. And after sending the mixer back and getting another mg10xu, that person resolved the issue by buying another brand of mixer. But I have also seen countless videos on youtube of people using this mixer with great results. It is a very popular mixer.
I’m now thinking about getting a tascam to record and then use audacity to edit. But I would really like to figure this out.
If you do get another USB mixer, get one with two additional buttons in the summary and metering group. USB or Computer to Mix and USB or Computer to Monitor.
If they build that correctly, it means you can perform perfect overdubbing and sound-on-sound right there on the mixer.
You can do overdubbing with almost any microphone, mixer or sound device. The difference is being able to hear yourself as you do it. That’s called Zero Latency Monitoring. It’s special and you need to watch for it.
My mixer doesn’t have that and I have to do overdubbing by listening to my USB adapter. It doesn’t work if I listen to the mixer or the computer.
But I have also seen countless videos on youtube of people using this mixer with great results.
I have no doubt is a terrific analog mixer. There are pages and pages of people using it for auxilliary sound mixing, stage mixing and production control. None of those things uses the USB connection, and I’ll bet if you do turn up someone using USB, they’re not overdubbing or doing advanced production.
It’s also instructive that nowhere in the usual sales company documents does it show a picture of the USB connection.
I bet I know how this works. Someone in product management forced the engineering team to jam a USB connection on there somewhere just so they could say it had one.
