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↩︎ /projects/ deskmx Never unplug your headphones again I got tired of unplugging my headphones and plugging them back in to different computers. Now, I never have to do that. I keep my headphones plugged in to a mixer that combines audio from all my computers, and I use a standalone mic that sends signal to all my computers. I’ve found that I really like using physical knobs to adjust signal to/from each machine. What is this? This is a guide to mixing computer audio output and splitting mic input, and a set of recommendations for what gear to buy. The gear I recommend supports up to three computers. The implementation In general terms, you will need the following: A pair of headphones and a microphone A mixer to combine audio signals from your computers A microphone preamp, which is easiest to get in a second mixer dedicated to the mic A signal splitter to send the mic signal to your computers, such as a headphone amplifier with multiple outputs Lots of cables (Probably) some specialized hardware to reduce electro-magnetic interference See Gear recommendations for specifics For reference, the three machines I want to use audio with are: My work laptop, where I have to use Cisco Jabber for Important Business Telephony™. The Windows desktop I use for games. The Mac laptop I use for music and personal calls (FaceTime, Discord, Matrix calls via Jitsi, etc). Signal paths I ended up with a system that works like this. Look at my nice diagram 1 : Note that the mic signal is sent back into my headphones. This lets me hear myself well in a loud game, and reduces the natural inclination to speak too loudly when using over-ear headphones on a call. Gear recommendations Headphones and mics $100ish PC headset $20 Standalone mic $25ish Standalone mic stand Mixers $120 Mixer for headphones $60 Mixer for mics $25 Mic splitter Other $10/ea USB audio adapters $15/ea USB voltage isolators $30-50 Ferrite beads $$$ Cables Headset I don’t have a specific recommendation here. Non-specifically, I recommend over-ear headphones for sound quality and environmental noise reduction, and earbuds for environmental awareness. I use: Bose QuietComfort 25 (discontinued) Apple EarPods with 3.5mm Headphone Plug These are just what I happen to already have. The Bose over-ear headphones are provided standard by my work 2 , and the EarPods came with one of the iPhones I bought. My goal is to support the headphones and microphone of any PC headset, but issues with cross-talk prevent the microphone from working well. This means that, until I can fix the cross-talk problem, a standalone mic is required. Standalone mic I recommend an AmazonBasics mic. It’s quite cheap at $20, and it sounds great. AmazonBasics Dynamic Vocal Microphone - Cardioid I need a standalone mic until I can fix cross-talk problems. Even if that weren’t an issue, though, I’d recommend getting a mic like this given the price. It was very useful to have an unpowered mic for debugging . This mic also sounds much nicer than the PC headset mic. It is worth considering a standalone mic like this one for sound quality alone. Standalone mic stand If you have a standalone mic, you’ll need somewhere for it to sit. Upgraded Adjustable Microphone Suspension Boom Scissor Arm Stand with Shock Mount Mic Clip Holder 3/8’’ to 5/8’’ Screw Adapter -for Blue Yeti, Snowball & Other Microphones (stand with adapter) I recommend a stand like this one with a shock mount, or else the tiniest touch on the desk produces a detectable rumble from the arm’s springs over the mic channel. Headphones mixer I like the Rolls MX122. Each computer has a stereo input, and the headphones connect to it directly. It also receives the mic signal directly, so I can hear myself in over-ear headphones. Rolls MX122 MiniMix Pro I really like its layout. It has knobs on the front and jacks on the back, with one volume knob per stereo input channel, separate mains and headphones master knobs (which will be useful in case I ever end up connecting this to desktop speakers), and isn’t cluttered with EQ and large pan knobs that I don’t want (though it does have a small pan knob for each input channel). Mic mixer I use the Neewer NW02-1A. The mics are fed into a mixer with preamps. I have two mics, but a preamp of some kind would be required even for just a single mic. See below for details. Neewer NW02-1A It’s the smallest one I could find that had the features I wanted, which were: Capable of phantom power Capable of connecting a mic that requires phantom power and one that doesn’t at the same time Stereo input, in case I ever want to play music on a call As few extraneous knobs as possible Jacks at the back I wish it had knobs in the front and jacks in the back, but I couldn’t find one like that had the other features I wanted. It has more knobs than I need, but only a couple. It’s also made of plastic, which doesn’t feel as nice as the metal chasses of the other equipment. Mic splitter Mics are split with a headphone amplifier. Behringer MicroAMP HA400 Headphone amps take line level input, so we have to use a preamp to raise the mic signal from mic level to line level before we can split its signal. In my system, I use the preamp in my mic mixer . It has enough outputs to send the mic signal to 3 computers plus the headphones mixer. Sending to the headphones mixer lets me listen to myself in the headphones if I want. The layout is a bit inconvenient for what I want, though. I wish I could have found a headphone amp with knobs on the front and jacks on the back, like the headphones mixer I have, but I haven’t found anything like that. USB 2.0 audio adapters There is a USB 2.0 audio interface standard, which all operating systems support without the need for custom drivers - even Linux. I have two models, and they seem to work more or less the same. UGREEN USB Audio Adapter External Stereo Sound Card with 3.5mm Headphone and Microphone Jack for Windows, Mac, Linux, PC, Laptops, Desktops, PS5 (White) Sabrent USB External Stereo Sound Adapter for Windows and Mac. Plug and Play No Drivers Needed. (AU-MMSA) On my game PC, these devices are unnecessary. The motherboard has the three standard line out, line in, mic in ports. I use the line in port for the mic (since we have boosted the mic input to line level), and the line out port to feed the mixer. This works exactly as it should. However, on my Mac laptops, I use USB audio adapters to great effect. Using these devices along with a voltage isolator has entirely solved a subclass of EMI problem . USB 2.0 voltage isolators I use these USB 2.0 3 with voltage isolators to reduce EMI from laptop power . HiLetgo ADUM3160 B0505S 1500V USB to USB Voltage Isolator Module Support 12Mbps 1.5Mbps Ferrite beads I use these beads to reduce EMI from cell phone signal 9.5mm inner diameter: Ferrite Clamp On Cores High Freq 61Material 400Ohm @250MHz Round 4.3mm inner diameter: Ferrite Clamp On Cores High Freq 61Material 300Ohm @250MHz Round I bought enough for one on each end of every audio cable, one for each power cable to a mixer (placed on the mixer end), with plenty of extras. This was a haphazard process, such that I’m not sure which helped and which were extraneous, but in aggregate the interference was significantly reduced. Unfortunately, I have not yet been able to completely eliminate it. If you have suggestions, I’d love to hear from you! See How to Stop Cell Phones From Interfering With Audio Equipment for more information. Cables Long story short, you need cables that go from all of your inputs to all of your outputs. So easy! Actually no, cables are a nightmare. I don’t have good advice for you, so let me complain instead. The cables I want are between one and ten feet long, can be ordered with any connector on either end, are manufactured well to prevent shorts and external interference, and shield each internal wire individually to prevent cross-talk. Per-unit economics does not explain why such cables are not all less than $10. Instead, half the time you cannot get cables with arbitrary connectors at all, and must rely on converters. What you can find might be noisy and full of shorts, might not be property shielded, might not be in the length you want, and might still be expensive. I spent almost as much on fucking cables for this project than I did on mixers. I have bought so many shit cables, cables that require one or even two adapters to get to the connector I need. The most absurd is that I can’t find a single TRRS splitter that shields the mic separately from stereo audio . About the system design Why use two separate mixers? Actually, I wanted to do all this in a single mixer, but I couldn’t find one that met my requirements. At least two mic inputs At least 3 stereo inputs Stereo inputs controlled with a single knob/fader A bus, aside from the mains bus, which I could dedicate to the mic signal path A reasonably small footprint As few extraneous knobs (EQ, pan, FX) as possible, so the end system is as simple as it can be. In particular, nothing with the number of input channels and output busses I needed controlled 3+ stereo inputs with only a single knob/fader each. Further, anything large enough to meet other feature requirements was invariably much larger than the two mixers I ended up with combined, and provided a truly astonishing number of control knobs per channel. Does this system support playing music on a call? I believe so, although I haven’t tested it yet. The mic mixer supports two more stereo input channels. One is labeled “3/4” and the “2TK” (for “two track”). Send audio to them, and it’ll get mixed into the mic signal path automatically. Can you record or stream with this setup? You definitely can, as I captured the example EMI computer power noise by sending the mains signal from my headphones mixer to a fourth computer 4 that recorded the noise with QuickTime. In theory, this means you could do something like this for: Streaming (Twitch, etc) Recording calls Podcasting I don’t have any special experience with those things, but if I ever try one I’ll update this. Does this system support speakers? In theory yes, you can use the mains output of the headphones mixer to drive speakers, although you’ll have to be careful where they are pointed so they don’t feed back into the mic. Gear alternatives There are a few options you might want to consider instead. Headset alternatives You have a few other options for headsets Powering a PC headset mic I did not realize this, but a standard PC mic, including those found on headsets, is actually a powered mic. To power my headset mic, I used a phantom to plug-in power adapter. I bought a RØDE VXLR+. It’s inexpensive and has worked with no problem. I bought it from the vendor directly to avoid accidentally buying a counterfeit, which the banner on their site seemed to indicate was a problem in some marketplaces...