Help me set up a shoutcasting room at work

DanielZKlein

So first of all: not really music related, but very much audio related and I couldn't think of a better subforum. If there is one that I overlooked, would you let me know? Thanks!

TL;DR: I want to duo-shoutcast stuff from work. Work said "go for it!" and I thought getting the audio set up would be easy. It wasn't.

What is shoutcasting? This: http://www.youtube.com/user/intelextrememasters?ob=4#p/c/E03549FE74F46295/22/xYVdXS0F4og (I'm the long haired dude in that video). This is an ESL production, very high quality stuff. We don't want to go straight for something this high quality. Here's the basic breakdown:

* Two shoutcasters, each with their own PC, are connected to a game as spectators. They talk about the game as it happens.
* The desired result is a livestreamed video of the game with the game audio and on top of that the audio of the two shoutcasters.

What I have:

* One person shoutcasting works just fine. The setup is dead easy: headset microphone plugged straight into laptop that runs the game, xsplit to stream the video and mix my headset audio with game audio. No problemo.

Where it becomes tricky:

* Getting a second audio stream from a second headset in. This is so much harder than it should be.

What I tried:

* I bought a cheap mixer for work, hoping to put both headset microphones into the mixer and get a single source out, which I could then plug into the laptop and mix onto the game audio with xsplit, as before.

Where it failed:

* Uh, the mixer. I don't get a signal through, no matter what I try.

So let's look at the trainwreck of a setup I have right now. First thing I tried:

* The headset, being a standard PC gaming headset (Steelseries Siberia 2.0, not that it matters) has a male small jack output. Obviously I can't plug that directly into the mixer, so I tried a small jack to large jack adapter and plugged that into a LINE IN on the mixer. There's some movement on the levels when I plug in, but absolutely nothing after that. I plugged in headphones into the output as well to see if I could hear anything. Nada.

* Okay, so maybe LINE IN was the problem? The input labeled MIC is XLR. There's no small jack to XLR adapter, so I bought large jack to XLR. So now I've got:

Headset > small jack > large jack > XLR > mixer.

Guess what? Still no signal.

I turned up the volume on the track I plugged the mic into (and I tried all 6 inputs), I turned the gain up all the way, I turned up the volume on MAIN MIX, I made sure the right inputs were selected and the tracks weren't muted. I literally pressed every damn button on the bloody mixer. Nada.


There's a few options now that I can see:

* Buy professional level headsets that have large jack / XLR outputs because maybe they will work? (Of course I'm certain my headset works; when I plug it directly into the PC it works fine)

* Try a standing microphone on the table to pick up both casters? May also pick up a lot of the keyboard noise and the mouse clicking.

The only way I've managed to get two casters into a cast so far is through Skype. Unfortunately the slight delay on Skype makes this unworkable for a cast where two casters are physically in the same room, and the main reason I'm going for this setup in the first place is that a cast with two casters in the same room is just substantially better (for a lot of reasons not least of all non-verbal communication / better coordination).

I'm pretty much stumped here. Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

studiorat

My first guess would be that the head-set has the wrong type of plug. Is it a 4 pole mini-jack like the one you'd use with a mobile phone?

DanielZKlein

Nope. Here's a picture of the plug and the two adapters:



From left to right:

Large jack to XLR adapter

Small jack to large jack adapter

The male small jack plug from my headset.

I have also tried with a number of different headsets. Pretty sure that's not the problem. They were all small jack headsets though.

studiorat

The mini jack there is usually needed for stereo. Where the tip and ring are signal and the sleeve is the common or earth. Which part of the plug carries the microphone signal?

The XLR is looking for a balanced signal where pin 2 and 3 have are hot and cold (same signal) and pin one is earth.

krd

The mixture takes mono inputs. It may dislike stereo jacks.

You may also need to Read The Manual.

There may be a few little switches to be set one way or another to get it working. From what I can see. The mixture doesn't need to have XLR inputs - it would take the jack from an electric guitar.

There looks to be a switch selector for each input. If you don't have it on the right one, you'll hear nothing. (I'm making a guess - it's usually how they work) Have the little trim knob turning up - if it's turned down you'll hear nothing. Make sure the channel you're using isn't muted.

Read the manual.

Obi-Jim

edit: I just realised it's a headset, so that's probably the thing. Are the headphones mono or stereo? if there's 3 signals, you'll definitely need to know which pin the mic is on. If it's on the sleeve there's not much you can do, since they are moulded, i would assume.




My first guess would be along the lines of what studiorat said, maybe the pins are wired differently in your mic. However, maybe try these steps if you haven't already:

Plug a regular mic via xlr into the mixer (if you can get your hands on one), see if that works first.

The line input on that particular mixer takes balanced and unbalanced connections, so you should be ok. Guys plug into those all the time in rehearsal rooms and the likes.

Push in solo beside the channel fader. (there is a "solo mode" switch near the main meter, make sure this is pushed in too) As you turn up the gain, that particular channel's level will be displayed on the main mix meter. If you see no level there, as you talk into the mic, then the problem is most certainly at your connection/mic wired wrong. (put the fader at zero, shouldn't matter but some of those mixers are finicky)

If you can get a level....

Are you coming out of the correct output? the main mix xlr on the back?
If not, you need to push in "main mix" where it says "source" and turn up the headphone knob. This controls the headphone output and "control room" jack outputs.

Make sure the compressor on the channel isn't doing anything.
Make sure there aren't any solo or mute switches pushed in if they shouldn't be.
I'd use your xlr connector, just for good measure, but try it in the line input too.


They'd be the general things, at a quick glance. If nothing happens with all that (especially with a regular mic. ie an xlr connection).... somebody might need to have a look at it for you. Those little desks are usually pretty straight forward enough.