XLR Mic and Studio Headphone Setup Guide?

Gaming Audio Competitive
1

Hi there,

Bottom line upfront:
Could someone please provide a complete guide on setting up an XLR microphone, interface, studio headphones with AMP/DAC? How everything connects together to the PC and with mic monitoring is where I’m getting a bit confused.

Still researching, but below are the items I’m most interested in.
Headphones: DT 1990 Pro
AMP/DAC: Was first looking at Schiit stack (Modi+Magni), now looking at JDS Element 2.
Microphone: Rode Procaster or Shure SM7B (maybe with cloudlifter)
Interface: Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 3rd Gen

Use case is generally for competitive gaming and other misc. purposes (company training materials/tutorials, conferencing, music, etc…). I’m cognizant of price and want good value, but I’m happy to go ahead with the products I listed in terms of cost based on what I’ve read. I currently use a set of Astro A50s and have used Astros for ~10 years. I’m itching for something new and better.

My casual research on the subject started about a year ago, focusing more on the headphones, thinking I would use a boom mic. Here I am a year later and I started researching microphones and how to connect them to a PC. The majority of guides I’ve found seem to address one or the other (how to set up a microphone or how to set up a set of studio headphones). They don’t seem to address a complete packaged guide, particularly for gaming situations. I watched a few of Zeos videos and thought he was fantastic. I stumbled across this forum and can see there is some great advice that somewhat addressed the questions I have (I’m getting to it!).

The goal is to have a minimalist high-end solution where I’m using an XLR microphone and studio headphones with a PC.

  1. Ignoring all other considerations and assuming I need all of the devices first listed above, how do I use the microphone monitoring feature on the scarlett? Does the output jack on the front need to connect to the AMP/DAC for the headphones? In the case of the JDS Element 2, is it the RCA input ports that I’d connect to?

(A) Sound flows from PC to the AMP/DAC through USB and then to the Headphones

(B) concurrently, sound from the microphone flows through the XLR cable to the Interface, to the computer, and also to the RCA inputs in the AMP/DAC and then to the headphones (blending with the computer audio?)

  1. Do you even need a DAC for the headphones in a situation where you are using an interface?

  2. Am I asking all the wrong questions and using the wrong products here for what I’m trying to achieve? i.e. do I ultimately need a mixer? I want to avoid huge equipment.

One product that caught my eye a year back was the Soundblaster X7, which seemed to be an all in one solution and had an input on the front for a microphone (which I imagine is what would connect to the monitoring jack on the Scarlett). This seems much more straightforward, but it’s no longer available anywhere and there aren’t a lot of guides speaking to it or alternatives.

Somewhat of a separate matter is what, in general, are most users with some form of a similar setup using to monitor and control sound on their computer?

Sincere thanks for any guidance.

2

Select direct monitor on the front panel of the scarlett, it will output via the headphone jack or monitor out

So I would use the monitor output 1/4 inch on the back (with a 1/4 inch to rca cable) and run it to your headphone amp (make sure to max out the volume on the mixer monitor out and control volume with the amp), I would personally suggest using the interface as your dac in this case for your goal, it will make life easier

No, you would want to use the interface as your dac in this situation

For what you seem to be going for, imo no.

For this setup, I would say perhaps get an interface of your choosing like the focusrite scarlett 2i2 or the motu m2 (there are other interfaces as well), and then get an amp of your choice like the jds el amp ii or asgard 3

Also I would personally not recommend the sm7b as imo you can get better for less, it’s pretty overhyped

I think if you did want an all in one solution, I do really like the audient id14 for the quality it provides for the price, the headphone amp in there is also pretty sweet (although not as good as like an el amp or asgard 3

3

Headphone is a solid choice for voice recording.

The Rode Procaster is half the price of the SM 7 B (at least here it is). IMO the Procaster in a shookmount on a decent arm will give you the better value in your use case.
Just be aware that large diaphragm mics will pic up noise from your surroundings (keyboard, etc.), so you may want to look into either small diaphragm or dynamic mics.

The Scarlett 2i2 3rd Gen will be a nice pairing with the Procaster while being a weak link with the SM 7 B. As your mic is hooked up to it anyway, why not use the DAC in it as your main DAC? Cuts down on clutter and lets you monitor yourself (prevents shouting should you switch to closed back headphones).

  1. Turn everything to 0
  2. Double check the 48V is OFF, else you blow the mic
  3. Plug in Mic
  4. press instant-monitoring button
  5. raise main out (or headphone out if that is used)
  6. slowly up the gain on the select input (on the scarlett: Red ring is bad! occasional red flash is okay.)
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Use the audiointerface you settle for.

Not unless you want to do a >4 people podcast.

4

Honestly for anyone who isn’t able/willing to spend time improving their environment I would highly suggest a dynamic mic as imo it will make things a fair bit easier, you really have to care about your room and realize the recording environment matters just as much (sometimes even more than) the mic. Even small diaphragm condensers can showcase a poor environment fairly easily

5

Just to note this is not monitoring. The INST button will change the input to instrument/line level instead of mic. The Direct Monitor button is what you want if you want to hear yourself.

6

grumble Oh fuck you Focusrite!
You are right. The “fanciefied” surface confused the hell out of me.
On my 2i4 2nd Gen, it is way easier to see what to press/switch:

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7

Yeah imo the older generation is more intuitive

8

Mark of the Unicorn got it right:
Motu M2:

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1 Like
9

Yes, the way it should be done lol (I think I mentioned motu in my post above actually)

What do you think about audient interfaces? I personally think they offer some of the best sound for the money while still being solid in features and usability regarding the id4 and id14

1 Like
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M0N and Maze, thank you for the prompt replies.

  1. On the back of the Scarlett there is a Left and Right line output. Only one 1/4" jack is needed to connect to the RCA line-in on the back of the headphone amp? Or did you mean from the front jack in the bottom right (as illustrated in the image posted by Maze)?

  2. Does the line-out from the back (or the front) of the Scarlett forward the sound being received from the PC (coming in through the USB) and the microphone input through the front?

  3. If yes to the above, how does one control separately the volume of the monitoring of the microphone from the volume of the PC sound? I.e. with the A50s they have a feature in the command centre that controls the level of the “side tone” (monitoring) of the microphone.

  4. If a second set of speakers were connected to the amp, I’m assuming with this set up that there isn’t a way for the computer to recognize this, and that it would be up to me to manually change the output source on the amp?

Thank you. Read a bit more about the difference between DAC and interface. Seems obvious now.

Great recommendation, though for some reason I’m gravitating towards the look of the JDS amp.

Thank you!

1 Like
11

You would want one left and one right, here is a cable to do so

Yes, it will act as your dac and if you choose also include the audio from the interface via direct monitor

With the focusrite you cannot do this, it will be a fixed volume from the incoming mic. There are other interfaces that have this feature though

What you would have to do is connect those speakers to either the back of the jds labs el amp ii and use the el amp as a volume control for the speakers, or instead split the output of the scarlett and then control the volume form the interface