Recently, I got a new microphone and this post shall shed light on few weird things which happened during setting it up.

The full list of things:

  • microhpone: SHURE SM48-LC
  • sound card: M-AUDIO M-Track SOLO
  • table clamp: K&M 237 Table clamp
  • XLR cable: ADAM HALL K3 MMF 0100
  • gooseneck: GRAVITY MA GOOSE XL
  • windscreen: SHURE A58WS-BLK
  • screw adapter 3/8’’ to 5/8’’: STAGG 6000616N

Buying a microphone one option you have is to have a stand between you and the keyboard. This is not very comfortable so either a bar, gooseneck, or more professional stand is used. This setup was inspired by RobDiesALot ↗ (thank you).

setup sketch

Things to consider in this setup and weird things that happened:

  • gooseneck ends in 3/8’’ screw, but microphone holder has 5/8''
    • the microphone bag had reduction in it – it is meant to be used for normal up-right stands
    • to be able to hold mic in place (not to rotate down) I got another reduction and by screwing on 2 reduction agains each other the mic stays rotated the same
  • is the table compatible with the clamp
    • my table has slope at the edge but there is also a notch where the clamp can be attached
  • gooseneck and XLR cable length
    • the longest 60cm gooseneck seems just right for this setup
    • the 1m XLR cable is rather short – leading it along the gooseneck you get just 40cm to get to the sound card; I’d perhaps get a 2m cable
  • screwing the gooseneck little looser allows for rotation of the whole setup which is nice for putting the mic away

Once the setup was assembled a minimal configuration on my linux (ubuntu) PC was needed.

  • in pavucontrol switch the default input to the sound card
  • install pulseeffects
    • running it allows you to add realtime effects, I used:
      • stereo tools - in stereo matrix set LR > L+R, make the raw mono mic output into stereo
      • gate and compressor - I am not sure how to set them up yet, but these should be used
    • there is a known issue with missing dependency so install lsp-plugins if you want all of the pulseeffects plugins active