Dominic O'Rourke 1970 wrote:
The LED indicator on the X2U - I can make this go red, but only when I;m right on top of the mic.
To reiterate - when using the monitor built into the X2U I can be sitting about 12 to 18 eighteen inches from the mic and it will pick up my breathing! - admittedly the LED's don't light up at that distance. Which makes me think the Mic and the X2u are working fine.
That tells you that the mic and X2U
monitor is working fine, but doesn't necessarily indicate the output of the X2U, which could still be anemic.
But at this distance, nothing is being recorded in GarageBand. Which makes me think it's the drivers - or something on the Mac end of things.
The mac is just a hard drive with its arms open. When you record, it's level agnostic. It's the responsibility of the external hardware to provide a strong enough signal. In my experience the only time a driver will matter for that is when it's for software controlling levels on external hardware in lieu of twirling a physical knob.
This is my second Shure mic and X2U, the SM57 was replaced with the SM58 and a new X2U - but I still have the same problem.
I'm i wrong in my supposition that I should be able to sit six inches from the mic, speak in a normal voice for a podcast, and have it record everything I say?
You
should be able to do that.
Here's why it sounds to me like the preamp is the culprit.
The X2U claims only 40 dB which is not a lot. Furthermore, I find that among budget preamps, the specs are often overly optimistic. Phantom power which should be 48 volts turns out to be less; preamps that claim to provide 50 dB or higher of gain also turn out to provide less.
While gain specs can be comparable between my own high end and low end gear, I sometimes find that when I plug a mic into some low end gear, I need to twirl the knob all the way to the top to get a hot enough signal. On the high end gear, I twirl the knob to the middle and the signal is plenty hot. This isn't true for every piece of low end gear I have, but I've experienced it enough to be used to it. Like... that again!
Which is why when you describe your lack of strong signal going into the computer from a diminutive, low-cost interface that doesn't claim much gain to begin with (even while providing decent monitor levels), it really sounds like... that again!
If I were you, I'd try and compare it with a more substantial interface (beg, borrow, steal, buy?) and see how that works by comparison.
Thank you all so much for your feedback, it's been gratefully received.
I appreciate
your feedback. I'm interested in this thing as well. It seems like a really elegant solution for plugging a mic into a computer. Endlessly useful, if it delivered the goods. However, I've yet to see reviews of it or even general internet feedback to get a sense of if it does.
Hopefully you'll be able to resolve your issues. There's no reason why you shouldn't be able to plug an SM58 into a decent interface and podcast your heart out from a comfortable distance to the mic.
However it shakes out, good luck!
