How to connect an external microphone to my computer
By Rudolf Boogerman |
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You have that wonderful and rather expensive external mic with XLR connection and discovered it doesn’t work on your computer? Yet, you bought an adapter for the XLR connection to fit into the sound board of your computer and it still doesn’t work? Chances are that your mic needs a lot of phantom power. Professional mics need that extra power and most computers, including Mac, are not configured to work with this sort of mics. Most good quality sound cards do not provide phantom power either. Therefore, what you need is a little external mixer or audio interface. Preferably a firewire mixer if you have firewire on your computer, otherwise USB will do a reasonable job as well. Below I discuss a firewire mixer and an external USB audio interface.
Alesis Multimix 8 Firewire
Alesis has a very good entry level mixer that exists in 2 flavours: Firewire or USB 2.0.
You can find this device for as low $165- $200 USD and it is very easy to operate.
It is plug and play, meaning that it installs very easily and if you follow the instructions of the non technical manual, it is set up in minutes. It comes with Steinberger’s Cubase LE for Mac/PC and it has 4 female XLR ports and lots of stereo jack ports, including a headphone port. On your mic, you will need a male XLR jack to connect to the mixer. You can use regular mics as well on this mixer too, as long as they have either a stereo jack or XLR connection. Mini jack- or usb headsets don’t fit. As the mixer has many options, it might take a bit of time getting used to all the options, but the manual is written with beginners in mind, so that helps a lot. The reviews about this device are mixed. Some adore it, others just hate it. In my personal opinion, I think this device is just fine. It could have more sturdy buttons, but this is a very low priced mixer, so they have to economize on some points.
Stereo Jack(1/4″)
XLR jack(female version)
Here is the official feature page of the Alesis multimix 8 firewire.
The mixer is compact, so it won’t take too much space on your desktop (it is like half the size of a laptop). Yet, it weights heavy enough so that it doesn’t slide easily from the desk to the floor by accident. Just don’t buy this device in order to use it with a cheap mic, it makes no sense if you do not work with good material.
The rule of the thumb is: your sound is only as good as the weakest link in the chain.
By the end of the month, I will publish a video tutorial that demonstrates how to install and operate this mixer. Stay tuned!
Edirol UA-25 USB Audio Interface from Roland
You can find this device for as low as $185-$200. The reviews about this device are very good. One minor point might be that the USB 1.1 connection can cause a delay while recording, thus you will need to have a bit of patience on some computers before the audio is transferred to the computer. Most USB interfaces do not have phantom power for condenser microphones, but this one does. It has variety of input connections under which XLR, RCA Jacj, Stereo Jack(1/4″) and more. It comes with Cakewalk’s Sonar LE, an audio application for Mac and PC. This device is much smaller then the Multimix8 Firewire as it is not a mixer. Therefore it is easier to handle but it doesn’t have the same options as a mixer. If you want to record vocals/speech, this a great option. Roland has build up a solid reputation as a provider for professional music equipment, so you can’t go wrong with this device.
As with the Multimix8 Firewire, it makes no sense to work with a cheap mic. A good mic costs several hundred dollars.
Here is the official feature page on the Roland website
I haven’t tested the Edirol UA-25 USB Audio Interface myself, so I can’t give you a personal review, but Roland does make good products, so I’m quite confident about it. As a rule of the thumb, always read several reviews (the more the better) and never pay attention to emotional reviews because they are unbalanced.
What about a USB microphone?
USB mics may work on a Mac, they almost certainly will work on a PC, therefore if you have a good one and it gives good results, no need to change.
But if you are still looking around and plan to spend several hundred dollars on a good quality mic, you might want to use it on your camcorder as well instead of the built-in mic. Since USB mics do not fit on most camcorders you may want to consider buying a mic with a XLR jack, preferably a condenser microphone, since they have superior quality. Even if the camcorder only has a mini jack plugin to connect with an external mic, with an adaptor of only $7 USD you will have superior audio quality compared with the internal device.
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December 24th, 2008 at 11:56 am
[...] How to connect an external microphone to my computer [...]
December 29th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
Gosh, this is such good news! I have been struggling with this for a long time. I couldn’t connect a mic on my Intel mac mini and didn’t understand why. Even the Apple site didn’t give me a proper explanation. Thank you soooo much!!!
Merill
January 1st, 2009 at 5:25 am
Do you know if it’s possible to connect an professional mic to iPhone?
January 2nd, 2009 at 5:40 am
Hi Xavier,
Connecting a professional mic directly to iPhone is not possible. That said, if there is some way to connect an external device that intermediates between your professional mic and your iPhone, you can get somewhere.
Now, I’m not an iPhone user myself, so I can’t speak from first hand experience, but I did some research on the subject and bumped into one article that may (or may not) help you on your way:
http://createdigitalmusic.com/tag/iphone/
Let me know if you found this helpful. I noticed more folks struggle with this question.
January 5th, 2009 at 11:32 am
hey
i found ur article very helpfull n i really apreciate ur effort
m a new user of mic n i dun know how should i record my songs i mean i have instrumental songs n i want to record my lyrics on it
i ll be very thankful to u if u can help me
thankxxxx again n happy new year
January 5th, 2009 at 6:19 pm
Hi Khan,
Both devices I show here can be used to connect music instruments. I’m not a musician, though, I’m more a multimedia person. So I’m not the guy to turn to when it comes to guitar playing and such, but here is an article from someone explaining about setting up your recording studio on a mac mini:
http://www.engadget.com/2005/02/08/how-to-turn-your-mac-mini-into-a-low-cost-recording-studio/
In case you work with PC, you will find that a lot of advice he gives counts for PC as well.
However, the article tends to praise low end stuff. Read also the comments and be careful with mics of $40 and cheaper. They are usually not worth it.
Before you buy anything, read as many reviews as possible.
I hope to have my video tutorial ready on how the connect the Alesis Multimix8 Firewire by the end of this week, but it might get a bit later then that, it is rather busy this week, but I’ll do my best.
I hope this helps you on your way:-)
January 5th, 2009 at 9:28 pm
May I say that I’ve not been able to find this level of details when it comes to explain multi media as I find when I visit your site Rudolf.
Your talent to explain this stuff in an easy to understand way is simply mid blowing.
Thanks for your commitment to keeping your faithful readers up-to-date!
Miss Gisele B.
January 7th, 2009 at 5:40 pm
Thanks, thanks for this informaton. I am trying to use my Shure 58 with my external sound card for voice-overs only….a single track. I have been looking at the Audio Buddy from midiman.com but not sure which preamp I will get. I got the Shure A96F transformer that goes in the line between the mike and the card, but I still don’t get the levels I want, so I think a preamp will do the job.
This is a great site and thanks for the down-to-earth explanations
Bruce
February 22nd, 2009 at 5:49 pm
[...] Read also: How to connect an external microphone (on Mac) [...]