# External sound card and mic for REW



## adauphin (Feb 26, 2012)

I know this has been discussed countless times, however I cannot find the info I'm after.

I want to use an external soundcard on my Win 7 laptop but the Dayton UMM6 and Behringer 8000 appear to be XLR. I was looking at the 24 bit Soundblaster and while that card has worked, I don't believe it has XLR.

Could I just use a USB mic directly into the PC? Are there variants of the Dayton or Behringer that are RCA or USB?


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## Phillips (Aug 12, 2011)

> Could I just use a USB mic directly into the PC? Are there variants of the Dayton or Behringer that are RCA or USB?


The choices are Dayton UMM-6 (USB mic) that plugs into your laptop.
Then use the headphone out directly form your laptop to your receiver / amp or sound source. This uses your laptops soundcard which are generally good. I had a old XP laptop (about 12 old) put it against a newer laptop (about 5 years old) and there was a difference, so purchased a very cheap external USB sound card and now the same as the newer laptop.

Another option for output is using HDMI.

The other popular mic is the Minidsp UMIK-1 using the same setup with above.

Either of these two mics work very well, purchase from Cross - Spectrum (get great service and accurate calibration which is very important).

Hope this helps


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## fusseli (May 1, 2007)

UMM-6 is USB, not XLR, and requires no soundcard. Depending on what interface you use for your receiver, you can still make a soundcard calibration for it's output.


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## adauphin (Feb 26, 2012)

I think I stumbled on to the UMM6 after I was searching for mics and didn't realize there was a USB version. PE has the UMM-6 with calibration downloads so is this accurate enough?

I have a headphone to stereo RCA cable and the sound meter, so I should be set after the microphone arrives using the laptop soundcard correct?

The soundcard in my Toshiba laptop is a Conexant SmartAudio HD I have HDMI, mini-mic and headphone jacks.


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## Phillips (Aug 12, 2011)

> PE has the UMM-6 with calibration downloads so is this accurate enough?


Good company to deal with but accurarcy isn't there strong point in calibration. Deal with Cross - Spectrum.



> I have a headphone to stereo RCA cable and the sound meter, so I should be set after the microphone arrives using the laptop soundcard correct?


Yes



> The soundcard in my Toshiba laptop is a Conexant SmartAudio HD I have HDMI, mini-mic and headphone jacks.


People use either the headphone jack or HDMI (though i haven't used HDMI).

Don't forget do not calibrate the soundcard, no need to for USB mics.


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## adauphin (Feb 26, 2012)

Update is I ended up with the PE UMM-6, not the Cross Spectrum. Only reason is I had a vacation this week and I did try for the CS mic, but there was no guarantee I could get one and this was with 2 weeks notice.

I may send this one in later but wanted to get to know REW on my vacation and don't have much off time during the week or even weekends when working.

Only thing is I even with the cal file, how accurate is it pointed up, and is this how they are calibrated or are they calibrated from Dayton at 90?


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## fusseli (May 1, 2007)

Yes, vertical. They are omnidirectional microphones. Pointing them should not make but the slightest difference.


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## Wayne A. Pflughaupt (Apr 13, 2006)

Despite their “omnidirectional” designation, these mics in reality become more directional at higher frequencies. This is why labs like Cross Spectrum will generate a special calibration file specifically for 90-degree (upright) measurements. 

For mics purchased over-the-counter, if the supplied manufacturer data doesn’t specifically say their calibration file is for 90 degrees, then you should assume it’s calibrated for 0-degree orientation (pointed directly at the sound source). Upright-orientation measurements are fine for acoustics purposes (e.g. generating ETC, RT-60 graphs), it’s not the best method for full-range frequency response measurements. Lots of info on that topic at  this thread.

Regards, 
Wayne


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## AudiocRaver (Jun 6, 2012)

I have 2 calibration mics, one is 5/16 in diameter at the tip, the other is 7/16 in. The smaller one (I am quite sure there are capsule characteristics at play too, not just the mic diameter) is very omnidirectional, almost unnoticeable below 10 kHz, the larger one is several db down at 10 kHz off axis. So the mic makes a difference.

I used to say I thought it did not matter how you point the mic. Since experimenting with the bigger mic, my recommendation is to have calibration files for 0 deg and 90 deg (at least) and always use the calibration file for the angle you are using the mic at, _unless_ you know for a fact that your mic is insensitive to angle.


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