After looking for an affordable setup I ended up buying the Behringer UM2 interface and the Pyle PDMIC78 (cheap SM57 clone), but when I tried to record something, I realized that the volume was way too low. I have to turn up the gain in my interface all the way up just to get some sound, and it’s still too quiet and noisy. The input level on my computer is also all the way up. I already installed the proper Behringer drivers and it helped with the latency but not with the volume. I don’t know if the problem is my mic or my interface and I don’t know what to do.
I know dynamic mics are quieter than condensers, but mine is unusable, even at a very close distance.
Should I replace my interface with one with a better preamp?
Should I replace my microphone for a better one? (I was thinking SM48)
Should I get an external preamp? (the most that I can afford is a Behringer Mic100 or an ART Tube MP)
Nothing wrong with the UM2. I like mine.
The microphones could use work. I read a review on the Pyle and it wasn’t encouraging. The reviewer said it worked reasonably well after he went inside and upgraded the microphone wiring and the noise improved when he converted the wiring from unbalanced to balanced.
The SM48 is the little cousin of the SM58. The sound quality isn’t as good and it’s quieter.
The SM58 is going to come out of the box on the quiet side so this isn’t looking good.
You’re supposed to be shopping for an SM7B with Cloud Lifter to make up the volume boost. Yes, I know. I can’t afford that, either.
The other thing you’re supposed to do is buy an affordable USB Condenser microphone. There’s no shortage of problems with those either. Harsh, gritty sound (billed as “professional”) and USB leakage noises (frying mosquitoes).
Is there a recording app on your phone? Place the phone flat on the table with the microphone facing you and start the recorder app. See how it goes. You’ll need to figure out where the microphone actually is. I haven’t done all the experiments, yet, but I’m pretty sure mine is on the bottom facing down midway left to right. Maybe the worst problem you may have is getting the track out of the phone and into the computer to cut it.
Koz
Hi,
I can recommend the AKG D5 dynamic microphone. It has a super-cardioid pattern and a decent output level for a dynamic.
I like these as they are tuned for vocal recording and you can level the response with a small amount of mid and high-end level reduction if you want to reduce the little brightness it exhibits (I drop the mid-range by -1dB (2.5kHz) and high-end by -4db (12.5kHz)).
I’ve used these with a Zoom H5, Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 and Cerwin Vega CVM-1022 mixer (my preferred front-end device) and the results are very good.
ATB,
Neil
I have a GLS Audio ES-58. It’s a lower cost Shure SM58 but with higher volume.
Koz
This is an old thread, but I thought I’d post since I recently had this problem and solved it.
I bought a Pyle PDMIC58 to use with a Behringer UMC404HD and, while not completely unusable, the volume was low and got noisy when turned up.
The microphone came with a cable with a TRS connector. The Behringer audio interfaces have inputs that can either accept TRS or XLR. It seems that the interface treats them differently, however, and assumes that mics will only use XLR. Using a simple TRS to XLR adapter made my volume/noise problems go away.
Hope this might help someone.
There are ways to tell almost immediately if your setup is going to work. Make it overload. The Scarlett interfaces have knobs that change color with volume. Green is OK and Red is too loud. The UM2 has two little lights. SIG and CLIP.
Never blow into a microphone, but you can talk and yell as loud as you want.
Turn everything up and speak loudly until the indicators turn red. In both cases that’s considered high volume “overload” and normally to be avoided. If you never get the red lights, then the system, whatever is wrong with it, is going to be very difficult to use and may not produce any valuable work for you.
This is a result of the marketing bias on home microphones and systems. If your voice or performance is low volume, most people think it’s their fault and keep the microphone. High volume overload sounds really bad immediately and makes the user want to send it back.
No contest.
But it can be taken to extremes. If everything is low volume, the system can’t be used for production. It will always produce low volume, noisy work. I have a lovely microphone interface that has about 3/4 of the volume boost it needs for good production. It’s pretty. I put it in a box in the garage.
Koz
Hi Koz - while your advice is useful in general, in this case I think it is a very specific issue at fault - the Behringer interfaces treating a TRS input differently from an XLR input. Simply putting a TRS->XLR adapter in the loop completely resolves the problem.