Dear members of the Hercules.com Community Forum and Support Team,
Ever since I purchased my Hercules Stream 200 XLR, I’ve been experiencing distortion whenever I speak loudly or shout into the microphone. Attached is an audio file where you can clearly hear this.
I’ve already tried adjusting the Limiter settings in the XLR Mic Settings within the Hercules Stream Control app, and I’ve tweaked everything, but literally nothing helps.
The only thing that does help is setting the Limiter’s Threshold to -30.0 dB (as low as possible). But then the signal is constantly limited, and there’s absolutely no dynamic range left in the voice. Everything gets massively flattened out, so this isn’t a solution either.
In OBS or Audacity, the XLR microphone’s recording level stays in the green / max. orange range and never goes into the red. Not even when distortion occurs.
The microphone volume is set to 60% on the Hercules Stream 200 XLR and in the Windows settings. So that can’t be the problem either.
I’m using the Samson Q2U microphone with a pop filter attached, connected via XLR to the Hercules Stream 200 XLR.
The Hercules Mic Pre-Amp is still connected between the XLR cable and the Hercules Stream 200 XLR.
Phantom Power is enabled.
Attached, you’ll also find the microphone settings as shown in the Hercules Stream Control app.
My question for you is:
- How can I fix this distortion? Because it’s very annoying during my streams.
- Could the Hercules Mic Pre-Amp be the problem? Would it be an option to purchase a dbx 286s Mic Pre-Amp and place it between the microphone and the Hercules Stream 200 XLR, without using the Hercules Mic Pre-Amp and 48V phantom power?
Link to the dbx 286s: <a title=" removed link " href=" removed link " target="_blank" rel="noopener"> removed link
Thank you in advance for your opinions, answers, and experiences. I’d like to know if there are others who are experiencing this issue.
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Link to the audio recording: <a title=" removed link " href=" removed link " target="_blank" rel="noopener"> removed link
Welcome on ForumDeSavanger
My first question for you is: which version was the first one you installed? Was it perhaps version 2.3.8, or did you receive version 2.4.6 on your PC via an update?
Could the Hercules microphone preamp be the problem? Would it be an option to purchase a dbx 286s microphone preamp and insert it between the microphone and the Hercules Stream 200 XLR—thereby bypassing the Hercules preamp and its 48V phantom power? No, it can only be the software. If you updated from version 2.3.8 to 2.4.6, the update likely failed. I use a Tonor TC20 XLR microphone and have experienced no issues whatsoever, therefore, I suspect that something went wrong during the software update process. Please uninstall both the software and the driver. Then, download them again from the official download page. However, be sure to restart your computer after uninstalling; only then should you install version 2.4.6 and follow the on-screen instructions.
