Thanks Leslie.

I've seen this Shure- XLR-to-USB Signal Adapter

Of course I could also just record to my Canon CF card. But that's like ANOTHER step.

- g

Grazie I have an Lexicon Omega, which is also an external USB sound card with ASIO drivers.

It has 2 XLR ins plus several 6.5 jack inputs and midi interface. I was forced to buy something when MAudio failed to provide W7 drivers for my trusty Quattros so I was pleased to find a non-MAudio product which suited.

i too looked at the shure, but went with my guru's advice - microport pro

http://www.centrance.com/products/mp/

(thanks bob!)

btw. i use a standard xlr <> xlr to the unit and a short, well shielded usb <> usb cable from it to the pc. no mess, no clutter and excellent sound.

prior to this i had thought about an external box, but there's enough cables hanging around as it is - and this is a doodle to use with my laptop so i can record wherever....

my next experiment is to use it with a ptz mic feeding the laptop so i can free up the camera from yet another mic cable....

Take a look at the http://www.zoom.co.jp/products/h2n/Zoom H2n[/link]. I absolutely adore this mic. It functions as both a flash ram recorder and a USB2 microphone, has a built in limiter, and you can get ASIO drivers http://www.zoom.co.jp/products/h2n/software/here.[/link].

On top of all that, it sounds really, really good.

It really all depends on what your needs are.
I bought the Firewire 410 based on recommendations by many here. At the time it was more than I needed.
In the time since it has been used with a laptop to do Multitracking, do full on ADR in my home with professional talent and transfer R2R tapes. I've found the extra outputs very usefull, with Vegas I could build different mixes to feed different people as they performed, just brilliant. Of course when I bought that box I never considered I'd be doing any of those things. That was back I think when I was running V4. As my knowledge and confidence grew I was able to put up my hand for more and more tasks and to be honest me and the better half had a lot of priceless fun doing it.

The only recommendation I'd make is don't lowball whatever you're thinking of buying. Audio kit lasts a long time and you never know what will come your way and without the budget for a $100 / hr studio. It's very rewarding to step outside your comfort zone and do things like "punching in" during a multitrack recording session at home. I near panicked when a muso asked if I could do that but a quick read of the Vegas help file and I passed him the mouse and said just click it to punch in and it worked, wow.

Bob.

There is a comparison http://www.gearslutz.com/board/gear-shoot-outs-sound-file-comparisons-audio-tests/646661-field-recorders-sony-pcm-d50-zoom-h2n.htmlhere[/link] of a Rode NT4 through the Echo Audiofire Pre8 vs three different flash ram recorders. The most important difference from my point of view between the H2N and the other flash ram recorders is that the H2N also functions as a USB microphone. Anyway, if you compare the H2N recording to the NT4 recording, you'll see just how little difference there is between the sound of this $200 USB mic and a $500 mic through a $500 audio interface. This would mirror my experience. Don't let the cheap price and the incredible ease of use of the Zoom H2N fool you. Don't be put off by the fact that you don't even have to go to a high end audio/video store to get one (I bought mine at Best Buy). It really sounds great!

i really cannot recommend anything made by Zoom and I do own one of their recorders. Great value for money for what they're intended for but....
The poor signal to noise and harmonic distorion of their gear has been mentioned here before. Test results on the H4n are here and from comments on Gearlutz the H2n fares no better with quite poor S/N ratio. All Zoom are doing really is takeing the cheap components you'll find on a mobo and putting them in a plastic box.
It's not just the question of sound quality but also the functionality. If you'll never need all the ins and out of the bigger boxes then something like MicPort Pro does give you a single headphone out for realtime monitoring which means you can do VOs or even basic multitracking. A few dollars more opens up a bigger world. Even with that quite cheap and small unit in conjunction with Vegas you can playback a mix of tracks to the headphone out and at the same time record from a microphone and include the mic input into the mix for the performer to hear himself. The MicPort Pro is around the $150 mark, hardly a kings ransom.

Bob.

"well shielded usb <> usb cable from it to the pc"

I can't imagine that having shielding on the USB cable makes a whit of difference if the cable is under 30 feet, unless you make a habit of running it right next to extremely high voltage power transformers. It's very unlikely for almost any external signal to interfere with the 1's and 0's going down the wire.

I have (amoungst others) a Lexicon Alpha (2 mic channels (no phantom power), and a single channel Shure X2U (with P48).

Firewire unnecessary unless a large number of channels required, and generally more complicated/finnicky.

geoff

It's not about picking up noise, it's more about the USB cable RADIATING noise ! Some even have ferrite chiokes to stop crud getting out from equipment (either end).

Mind you. I've never heard of that being a common problem ....

geoff

I have done no scientific tests. I only know that my ear loves the H2N. If I had to do it again I would buy it again. If I had twice as much money to spend, I would buy two of them.

gents, i stand corrected - obviously with just 0's and 1's shielding isn't really necessary - but a good fat, solid usb cable never hurt anyone ;-)

Suddenly reminded of my salad days as a sound technician when i built my own 120' 12 channel audio snake ('cause i couldn't afford to buy one). I used thin computer-grade individually foil-wrapped twisted pair and i tested it by connecting a balanced dynamic mic to plug 1, plug 2 to jack 1, plug 3 to jack 2, etc, then jack 12 to the test rack at work. Amazingly enough there was only about half a dB more noise than connecting the same mic directly to the test equipment with a 3' cable.

As an owner of the original h4 (without the "n"), I'm going to side with laurence.
S/N is much better than with my older M-Audio USB, by 7-10 dB conservatively.

I have a Presonus Firestudio Tube and it works great with Vegas. Presonus also makes some great (and inexpensive) two channel units.

This looks to be their latest and greatest two-channel unit:
http://www.presonus.com/products/Detail.aspx?ProductId=60

While 5 years ago I would not recommend a USB audio device due to timing issues, from what I've been reading that has been sorted out.

Yup, Hulk, went with the easy-peasy Presonus Audiobox; LED Peaking; Grazie-Proof controls; XLR+1/4 Multi plug inputs; 5 Knobs and I could drive my 4x4 over it! What more does a guy need?

BTW, nice video, but he does sound as if he is singing about sitting on the lavie? PeterWright will dig it.....

"What more does a guy need?"

Pretty good choice really. Only two things I might miss on it:

1) SPDIF I/O, I've used that a lot with DAT but I doubt you'll ever need it.

2) Having two headphone outputs with individual level controls. Like a lot of things I saw zero value in having that until I needed it...once only.

Aside from that I'd say it's an excellent choice.

Bob.

Aside from that I'd say it's an excellent choice.

Thanks Bob. Oh yeah, I got it wholesale too! Marvellous. Treated my School Chum (now a Judge!) to a "RubyMurray" and Cobra Beer last nite on the difference I saved. Outstanding!

Thank you everybody for all your kind input on assisting me on my purchase.

- g

> "BTW, nice video, but he does sound as if he is singing about sitting on the lavie? PeterWright will dig it....."

Interpretation 1. I'm heavily into music involving lavies - yes, I do enjoy chamber music.

Interpretation 2. I have a long handled digging shovel and I'm not afraid to use it.

Interpretation 3. I enjoy open tuned slide guitar - also correct.

Glad you're happy with the new purchase Grazie.

I have a PreSonus Firebox, which uses firewire rather than USB, but otherwise looks pretty similar to the Audiobox. I never did get to use it in anger when I first bought it because, although it worked fine with my desktop PC, my laptop was just not quite fast enough to prevent the occasional glitch. I was waiting for a faster and cheap laptop, but now they no longer include firewire. Such is life. :(

I also thought that the noise performance was not quite as good as my old cheap mixer, and the gain a bit low as well.

Recently, when the old mixer started to ail, I tried using the Firebox as a preamp for my Zoom H2 recorder, and found that the power hum was quite noticeable when powered from its AC power unit, but relatively quiet when powered from the firewire. Since the Firebox will also accept DC power, I took an old 12V DC supply I had on hand, added a couple of high capacitance electrolytics to its output, and the hum was lost in the general noise.

I did open the box, hoping to replace the existing electros with something bigger, but there was just no room.

Grazie had emailed me privately and I thought I would share the options that I recommended so that others will have them when they search on this topic:

I would recommend these speakers (they are self powered, sounds great, and not too expensive):

M-Audio Studiophile BX5a Deluxe Active Monitors

Any one of these audio interfaces:

USB:

PreSonus AudioBox USB 2X2 USB Recording System
M-Audio Fast Track Pro Mobile USB Audio/MIDI Interface

Firewire:

Echo AudioFire4 FireWire Audio Interface
M-Audio ProFire 610 Firewire Recording Interface

You can’t go wrong with PreSonus, Echo, or M-Audio. They are all good pro manufacturers. Hopefully this will help the next person as well. :)

~jr

Thanks Johnny, much appreciated, it does help!

Any recommendations for a good voice over microphone to plug into those units?

Rob