Anyone use the Shure MV5 mic with a PC?

[Muse]

The 24/7 college radio station where I DJ is basically locked up due to the pandemic, so the DJs are producing their weekly shows at home. I'm cobbling together 3 hour music based shows on my Windows 10 laptop using Audacity, using CDs, MP3s, WAVs. We play music sets with vocal mic breaks between sets. I edited down a few of the shows I did in the last year or so and submitted them for broadcast. I need to submit another by tomorrow evening.

For the shows I submitted already I recorded just a handful of mic breaks using an iRiver H140 recorder, which has a built in mic that's not bad. However, I don't know that it's possible to record directly into an Audacity project using the iRiver. Instead, I copied MP3s of my recordings to my computer and brought them from hard disk into Audacity, which is pretty cumbersome. So, I bought a Shure MV5 USB microphone for around 100 bucks, having heard it's pretty decent for the task of recording microphone audio directly into audio recording software (e.g. Audacity).

What I have done today is extremely disappointing. The mic breaks sound pretty terrible. I tried all 3 modes, flat, voice, instrument and they sound pretty much the same in the recording. I tried having the mic right up to my face, 1, 2, 5, 8, 10 inches away, couldn't find a position where it sounded good when I played back the recorded voice.

I'm using my Sony WF-1000MX3 wireless earbuds instead of wired earbuds, just for comfort. I'm not hearing my voice while I speak into the mic. That doesn't bother me but I wonder if I should.

Now, there's an app for this mic. Is it just for smartphones? I see it for Android and I have Android phones, but I don't see where that helps me... I'm making my Audacity projects on the PC. But without an app I have no EQ, or choice of bitrate in making the recording. I have some control in Audacity, I suppose, but I'm pretty new to Audacity.

I figure I'm missing something, that I can get acceptable microphone of voice recording using this thing but don't know what I'm doing wrong. Guidance very much appreciated!

 

[LikeLinus]

Looks like there are no drivers or software for that mic. Do you have it plugged directly in to the computer? Have you tried different ports? Tried another USB cable? Have you adjusted windows audio (and Audacity) levels to make sure you aren't clipping the mic?

I personally wouldn't use wireless headphones for monitoring. Use wired microphones to avoid any latency.

 

[Muse]

So, before seeing your reply, I tried these things:

Stopped wearing the wireless earbuds, but them back in their case, effectively turning them off. Plugged my wired earbuds into the microphone itself... it supports hearing yourself while using the mic. I could hear myself... cool. I made a recording. But couldn't listen to it... when I tried to play any audio in the project I got a message about stuff not being configured correctly... it was a difficult message to understand, didn't point to a specific problem, it just said reconfigure things, blah blah. No changes I made to anything resolved that. I then plugged the wired headphones into the headphone out on the laptop, where I always use them. I heard nothing from either audio files on the PC or from Audacity even after configuring Audacity to use the PC's audio instead of the microphone's or the wireless earbuds. I put on the wireless earbuds then and without reconfiguring anything I had audio from them... weird!

Then I tried re-recording my last mic break to see if it would come out better. That because I watched a ~3 minute Youtube video made by a guy reviewing this same mic and the audio on it was from that mic and it didn't sound nearly as bad as mine. Strangely this time it sounded WAY better. Not the best imaginable, but 1/2 decent for sure. Why so much better now, I can't begin to guess. I think I'm through messing with it tonight... tomorrow I hope to finish this one 3 hour show. Hope the NEXT show comes out way better.

 

[LikeLinus]

I would also remove the microphone from the device manager. Then unplug the microphone and reboot windows. Plug the microphone back in and then find it again in Device Manager. Have it search for new drivers.

Are you actively monitoring recording levels when you are recording? Either in Audacity or Windows Sound Mixer?

 

[Muse]

I would also remove the microphone from the device manager. Then unplug the microphone and reboot windows. Plug the microphone back in and then find it again in Device Manager. Have it search for new drivers.

Are you actively monitoring recording levels when you are recording? Either in Audacity or Windows Sound Mixer?

Gotta check out those things. Will do that removal and reboot you suggest and see if I can monitor the recording levels, I wasn't. Didn't see the facility. Gotta get on it today!!! Gotta finish my show by tonight and upload it to the station's folders in Google Docs.

 

[Muse]

So, removed the mic (which was only in Device Manager when it was plugged into the PC via it's USB connection), rebooted. Checked for new drivers, and there weren't any). It's working decently now, I can live with this, at least for today's recordings.

Had whale of a time getting any kind of headphones working. Am using wired now. Couldn't get the wired ones working yesterday, so used wireless. Today can't get wireless working and wired weren't working either but persisted and the wired are working... so, not having time to wrestle with the configuration/settings issues, I'm just plowing ahead and finishing what needs to be done today, will look for solutions to the technical issues later.