Comment by jacamera | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jacamera | Hacker News Reader

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This is the conclusion I've come to as well, but I'm still not 100% happy with my setup. First off, many cheaper audio interfaces might have a hardware monitoring toggle but not allow monitor mixing. I found these devices to be totally unusable since many times the monitor level ended up being way too low to be effective.

Even with monitor mixing, however, I'm still annoyed that I have to dial in the mix and adjust the volume every time I connect with someone depending on how loud or soft their microphone is. Are you aware of any audio interfaces that allow for adjusting the absolute monitor level vs. just the relative mix level?

Like, I always want to hear myself at a specific level and I'd love to be able to adjust the output volume so I can hear the other person properly without affecting my monitor level. Currently I'm using an Elgato Wave XLR interface with an Audio-Technica BPHS1 broadcast headset and it works perfectly except for this one issue.

Edit: Forgot to mention that I've also found mic mute buttons to be another often overlooked necessity! The capacitive mute button on the Wave XLR is probably my favorite feature. Totally seamless/silent muting and unmuting.

Most audio interfaces with a single monitor knob (like the popular Scarlett) are like that. I think they do it to save costs/panel space over having a separate PC volume knob and a monitor knob.

With a proper mixer you can have a fixed monitor mix for yourself and another one for your far side listeners. You also get muting, EQ, and so forth. If your focus is on live audio as opposed to recording I would actually recommend a small mixer over an interface and just route the audio to the onboard soundcard if you don't want to get both units.

Thanks for the suggestion. This is super interesting to me. After doing a bit of research though it appears that in order to go with a mixer over an interface I'd need to find one that supports some form of multiple outputs (aux sends, direct outputs, or separate monitor/main mixes) in order to hear my mic and computer audio in my headphones but only send the mic to the computer. Unfortunately I couldn't find any smaller (4-6 input) units with those features.

In my search I came across the Yamaha AG03MK2 hybrid mixer/interface which looks promising. It has a strange combination of inputs and outputs but it looks like the STREAMING OUT switch allows it to be set in a mode that is appropriate for audio/video meetings with an independent level control for the computer audio.

Yes you'll typically use an aux send (pre-fade and preferably monitorable on the control room outs) to provide a separate mix to your computer, and then use the main mixer section for yourself. You've actually wandered into the same problem I had when getting my system set up where I wanted a small analog mixer for calls+multiple computers but none of them had this ability unless I went for a large board. Normally I would spec the XR12/Ui12 digital rack mixers for this but their prices have gone up like crazy since COVID. I also didn't want a used analog mixer as those often have bad faders and pots.

I remember looking at the Yamaha you mentioned during my research and the issue with it is that it sends the first two channels direct to the computer as a stereo feed, thus your mic will only appear on one side. Though the same thing happens with most interfaces unless you use a split. Also it sends the signal without processing. Depending on what you're looking for that product may work for you - you really have to trace the block diagrams carefully and mark out the signal paths you're interested in.

If you don't mind an analog aux the Alto ZMX862 also works, though quality is questionable. Both of these options also don't let you monitor the aux send. I think the cheapest option that allows that is the Soundcraft Notepad-8FX which was on my shortlist.

In the end I went with a commercial audio DSP (got mine for around $50 on ebay) and programmed it myself, see my other post here for more info [1].

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34665073

Wow, that Biamp Nexia is something else. Very cool setup there.

Both those analog mixers look nice except for the lack of mute buttons for the mic channels. I suppose I could always go for a separate XLR mute device though so that probably shouldn't be a deal-breaker.

> I remember looking at the Yamaha you mentioned during my research and the issue with it is that it sends the first two channels direct to the computer as a stereo feed, thus your mic will only appear on one side.

I saw that too but I was under the impression that it only did so when it was in [DRY CH 1-2G] mode. The manual seems to distinguish that behavior as unique for working with a DAW so it sounds to me like [INPUT MIX] mode sends all input channels (except for computer/USB input) mixed in stereo to the computer but they could certainly be more clear about that. [1]

[1] https://manual.yamaha.com/pa/live_streaming/ag03_06/en-US/84...

Ok I traced the block diagram [1] and it looks like that the input mix option does do what you want (send mixed signal EXCEPT for USB to PC, and send USB to the main mix along with everything else). Confusing indeed but it looks like it works!

Note in this cause you won't get a fully separate aux mix, and you'll have to juggle the levels around to get a hot enough signal to your PC as well as the correct volume in your monitors.

[1] https://d1aeri3ty3izns.cloudfront.net/media/24/244329/downlo...

Awesome! I'm going to give it a try. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. Also thanks for linking to that document. I was sketching out rough diagrams for myself but I was totally unaware that manufacturers provided such schematics. Having access to those makes things much clearer!

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