- Hi, I'm Jordan from Kettner Creative.
In this video we're gonna show you how to set up
and connect the Shure MV7 dynamic microphone from Shure,
with the Yamaha MG10XU audio mixer.
Now for this video, we will not be using the USB mode
on the Shure MV7 microphone.
We will be using the XLR output from this microphone.
In a situation like this,
you'd probably be recording a podcast,
or some other audio source that has multiple inputs.
And for this purpose,
you do wanna run it through a mixer like the Yamaha MG10XU,
so you can easily mix everything down
into a single stereo mix,
for your recording, your podcast, or your live stream.
Now, if you are looking for pricing or specs
for anything that you see in this video,
we do have links down in the description below,
with current up-to-date pricing
at the best online retailers,
to make sure that you're always getting
the best price possible,
if you are looking to buy anything
that you see in this video.
Now, for the purposes of this video,
right now you are listening to the lapel mic
that's clipped onto me,
and the audio mixer is already connected to the computer,
set up and powered on,
so we can get straight to setting up
and connecting the Shure MV7.
And then we'll put a note on the screen below
when you are in fact listening to the Shure MV7.
We'll also put a note down in the description,
if you are just wanting to quickly listen
to this microphone setup combo
to make sure that it's right for you,
we have a timestamp down below,
where you can quickly jump to the section of the video
where we have this microphone already connected,
so you can listen to that.
So, the first thing that you wanna do
before you set up and connect everything,
like I said, this has already set up to the computer,
and recording,
but you wanna make sure that you have good mic positioning.
Mike positioning is foundational.
There's not a lot that the mixer can do
if you have poor positioning.
A lot of people get mad at me in my videos.
'cause it looks like the microphone is really far away,
but it is only about four fingers away from my mouth.
This is a really good distance
from a dynamic microphone like this.
If you get closer, you'll notice that he gets really poppy,
you hear those plosives.
A lot of air coming out of the mouth
can rattle the diaphragm of the microphone.
And if you get too far back,
you're gonna notice that you do have the turn up the gain
way too much, and it will make the microphone sound
like it's really, really sensitive.
You're gonna notice every little click and clack
going on in your studio or recording environment.
So, about four fingers away, or a fist away,
is a really good mic positioning.
And you do just want it right off-axis,
you don't want the microphone right in front of you,
because then you will be blowing a lot of air
into the microphone,
which doesn't sound great either.
So, just have it slightly off-axis, four fingers away.
Next, like I said, we're gonna connect the XLR output
of this microphone to the audio mixer.
We're gonna completely ignore the headphone jack
and the USB cable.
If you are looking to monitor this microphone,
you would have to plug your headphones into the audio mixer,
because this headphone jack on the back of the microphone
is not powered when you use the XLR output,
like we're using in this video.
So, we can connect this XLR cable
to the back of the microphone,
and we'll plug it into channel one.
Now, before we turn any dials and knobs on this audio mixer,
let's quickly look and make sure that it's fully reset.
All the buttons should be in the up position,
here at the top.
All the gains should be turned down.
The compressor should be turned down.
The EQ should be up in the 12 o'clock position here.
The FX SEND should be turned all the way down.
The PAN should be straight up,
and all the levels should be down.
We're gonna start by turning the stereo level knob,
up to that triangle, zero, or unity position there,
that'll make sure that whatever we set up on this channel,
goes right through without being modified to our mix.
For the purposes of this video,
the stereo level here doesn't have any impact
on the USB output,
but what it does do, is it wakes up the meter here,
so you can see exactly what you're doing.
So, just leave that right on that triangle position there.
All right, next, we're gonna set up the first channel strip
on this audio mixer.
If you're new to audio mixers,
everything works in vertical lines on an audio mixer.
So, for this first microphone here,
we're only gonna be dealing with the first channel strip.
But, if you do have multiple microphones,
the same principles apply as you move down the mixer.
Now the first thing that we wanna do,
if we are recording a podcast or doing a live stream,
we wanna turn this level knob
all the way up to that triangle, zero, or unity position,
just like we did with the stereo level knob.
What this does,
is it will make sure that whatever gain setting
that we set up here on this channel strip,
goes straight through unmodified to our stereo mix.
So, the next thing that we wanna do,
is we wanna increase the gain, to properly set up the gain,
so you can hear this microphone,
before we modify it with things like EQ or compression.
So, we're gonna turn the GAIN knob up here
to about the 75% position here.
So, what the GAIN knob does,
is it increases the gain on the preamp,
to bring this tiny microphone level signal
coming from the Shure MV7,
and it boosts it to something
that would be a lot more appropriate for recording.
Now, you can see here that as I increase the gain,
that this meter is coming up to about minus six.
We wanna keep increasing this, right, until we hit zero.
You'll notice, if I pull up the meter here in Logic,
where I'm recording,
that when it hits zero on the Yamaha MG10XU,
it's really coming in at minus 12 on the computer.
What this means, is when it hits the peak position
on the Yamaha MG10XU,
it would also peak on the recording,
'cause we would hit zero dB.
So there's a 12 dB offset here, but this is by design.
By coming in up minus 12,
it leaves plenty of room for dynamics.
When you do record with a setup like this,
you often want your peak level to be somewhere
between minus 18 and minus 12.
So, by setting up your gain to hit zero
on the audio mixer here,
you've built in that 12 dB buffer,
or headroom as some people like to call it,
to make sure that you are protected
if you laugh in the microphone during a podcast.
Podcasts have a real tendency
to be really animated and dynamic,
and this would protect you
to make sure that you don't clip or peak.
Just so you can hear how horrible it sounds if you do clip,
I'm gonna turn this pre-amp and level up all the way,
and here you can hear just how horrible it sounds
when you are peaking and clipping.
It's really digital, really distorted,
and it just sounds horrible.
And you can see here that you do see a red light
on the channel strip,
which will let you know that you are peaking.
We're gonna bring it back the way we had it.
And now you can see that our level is back
to that minus 12 position here on the recording.
I'm just gonna boost this up just a little bit,
to get right back where we were.
So, now that we have the gain properly set up,
we know that we will have the right level.
So, let's talk about all the other options
that we have in this channel strip.
Right at the top here,
you do have an option for a 26 dB pad.
This is really useful for if you're in a situation,
if your gain is turned all the way down
and you're still peaking or clipping,
you will never run into that with this microphone.
So, that pad button should be in the up position.
If you're finding that this microphone
is just way too quiet,
and the gain is all the way cranked,
and the level is all the way cranked,
there's a really good chance
that you accidentally have the pad button turned on.
Next, we have this HPF button.
This is known as a high pass filter,
HPF, high pass filter.
And what this does is, if we click it on,
it'll roll off everything below 80 Hertz,
and it basically takes this microphone
out of the subwoofer of your listener, of your recording.
Gets rid of a little bit of that mud.
There really aren't many useful frequencies
below 80 Hertz from the vocal range.
So for me, if I'm ever recording or dealing with live vocals
or recorded vocals,
I will always turn on the HPF button,
that high pass filter, to clean it up just a little bit.
Next, Yamaha has a one knob compressor here,
for the first two channels.
The Yamaha one knob compressor
works a little bit different than other brands.
What it does, is it will actually add a little bit of gain,
and then it will have a dynamic compression ratio
and threshold.
So the threshold will reduce,
and so will the compression ratio,
And it will also add gain.
Basically, what this does,
is it makes your quieter moments a little bit louder,
and it makes your louder, more dynamic moments,
we talked before about how podcasts recording,
what this microphone is meant to do,
are often dynamic, and they can be hard to mix.
If you find that you're mixing the knob all the time,
as people get louder and quieter,
then you may wanna put in a compressor.
Now, if you do over compress,
it will take all the life out of what you're doing,
and it may make you sound a little blocky or chunky.
So use it sparingly.
For me, I generally have it up to about a third of the way,
somewhere like that,
between a third and a half,
depending on what I'm doing.
On the Yamaha here,
lately I've been leaning more towards
between a quarter and a third.
So don't go up above 50%.
It does make it sound really flat all of a sudden.
Next we have the three-band EQ.
This is a really good way to kinda tone the microphone,
if you do have frequencies that are a little bit grading,
or annoying, or need a boost.
If you turn the high up a little bit,
you'll notice that it gets quite a bit more sharp,
but if your guest has a lisp or more sibilant,
or some of those higher frequencies,
S's are really pronounced,
you may wanna turn this down a little bit.
If you do want a little bit more clarity,
the main clarity of your vocal,
is somewhere between 1.5 kHz and 3 kHz.
So, by boosting this low here,
or this mid bump here at 2.5,
you can add a little bit more clarity
in that main clarity range of a voice.
So I'll do something like that.
And again, we already put on the high pass filter,
but sometimes I will just reinforce it
with a small low cut there,
again just to make the vocal a little bit more clear.
A three-band EQ setting, something like this,
would be really common for a vocal recording for a podcast.
Again, don't go super aggressive with EQ.
Less is more.
If you can't hear the difference,
then just leave it flat, keep things nice and simple.
But, sometimes you do wanna modify those a little bit.
The effects is here.
If you are doing a singing or performance,
a lot of people have been doing vocal performances
on zoom calls, or that type of thing,
so you can turn up the FX SEND here,
you can turn your effects on,
and increase the level.
And you should notice here,
that you are hearing this effect 24,
which is the pitch change.
And then you have the parameter here,
where you can modify how that pitch change sounds.
So that's one option for you there.
Good, turn that back off.
PAN is whether or not it's going left or right.
If you only have two microphones connected
to this audio mixer,
and you wanna record them separately,
then I would pan the first channel left,
and the second channel right.
And then both channels coming out of this audio mixer,
the left and right of the main stereo mix,
will be sent to your audio software separately.
So, you can mix them after the fact as well.
Then again, we do have that level knob at the very end,
for fine tuning.
You can use this once you already have the gain
set up to your liking,
where you are trying to maintain that level
around zero dB, or so, on the audio mixer.
So, like I said,
that is the first channel strip on this audio mixer.
If you do have other microphones,
you would just do the same process
all the way down the audio mixer
for your other inputs as well.
Now, you will notice that we did not use
the cloudlifter that we have here.
You can see here that we're only at about 75% on the gain.
And for me, I don't really like using a cloudlifter,
or anything like that,
unless you are pushing 90, 95, or a 100% on the gain.
So for me, with our testing before and after,
we haven't found a big difference either way,
in terms of background noise level,
with the Shure MV7 microphone and the cloudlifter.
We do have a separate video on that,
where we tested it specifically.
And I just don't think that it's necessary.
A lot of people do have the question,
do I need a cloud lifter with this microphone?
I don't think that you do.
I think the sensitivity on this microphone
is set up in such a way
that you do not need any outboard equipment,
like an inline preamp.
Again, if you are looking for pricing or specs
for anything that you've seen in this video,
we do have links down in the description below.
If you have any questions or comments
about anything that we covered,
please leave a comment down in the comment section below.
And if you wanna see more videos like this in the future,
please like, and subscribe.
Thank you for watching.