Hi guys, I’m very new to this, I play guitar and sing so thought I would get something recorded just for myself.
I got some gear given to me a while back, a Tascam interface which works great with my guitar and through Audacity 2.2.2., I also have a MXL condenser mic, its a usb.006 so plugs in separately but I cant get it working, it lights up but its not showing up in Audacity.
In the devices boxes I have…first box, MME Windows direct sound and windows wasapi second box, Microsoft sound mapper stereo mix IDT high definition and my Tascam (no sign of my mic)
There are no drivers for the mic, its a plug n play type thing.
I’m running Windows 8.1 and have no other problems
Any ideas ? is there another way to test the mic ?
Right-click the Windows Speaker/Volume icon and select Recording Devices. If the mic shows-up and is enabled, Aduacity should also see it.
…I had an issue once with two different plug-and-play USB audio devices. Apparently, Windows couldn’t tell which device was plugged-in and one of them didn’t work. I don’t remember exactly how I got it working but I had to go through the Windows Control Panel “remove” the device and maybe re-load the driver… or something like that.
just been trying again and the mic isn’t showing up in “recording devices”. I rebooted and connected the mic, windows looked like it was downloading a driver for it which is weird as there is no driver. Then I went to the MXL website and downloaded their free recording software, the mic isn’t showing up there either
After thinking a while I’m guessing that windows has downloaded a driver it thinks is for the mic but its screwed things up, now I have no idea how to put it right, then again I’ve been wrong before ! uhhhhh…more thinking to do .
You might back up a step. Audacity gets its sound from Windows, not the device or connection. So close Audacity and see if you can locate the device or connection in Windows.. My Widows has little ID panels and a sound meter to make sure everything is working.
Right click the speaker (lower-right) > Sound Devices > Recording. Something like that. I’m not close enough to my notes. If it doesn’t appear there, Audacity is never going to find it.
Here it is. These are the settings for my stereo USB device. USB Audio CODEC is its data connection name. Your microphone may be 1-Channel Mono instead of 2-Channel Stereo.
Right-click the speaker > Recording devices > USB Audio CODEC. Tap the microphone and the sound meter should jump.
Select it > Properties > Advances Default Format:
2 Channel/16-bit, 44100 > Apply > OK.
This is from my coffee-stained Windows notes. I really need to do this again and take pictures. This comes up all the time.
Thank you guy’s for the help, much appreciated, I found the problem I went into recording devices and was messing around when I saw something appear for a second, all I had done was move the cable out the way ! aha ! that’s the problem, if I hold the USB plug in just the right place for a few seconds the mic is recognised. I think the port is ok so I’ll sort out another cable.
I looked again for a driver but they dont mention or list one on the MXL site, I’m guessing Windows automatically downloads whatever is needed, anyhow, cable first and go from there, thanks again guys.
I borrowed another mic with an xml cable and plugged it in my Tascam along with a guitar and its working great, in fact I’m very impressed with how good it sounds for such an old piece of kit, its a US-144. This might just help someone, the drivers listed on the Tascam site for this machine wont work on anything newer than windows XP, easy fix, use the driver for the US-144 Mk11, works perfect on my 8.1 system.
I went into recording devices and was messing around when I saw something appear for a second, all I had done was move the cable out the way ! aha ! that’s the problem, if I hold the USB plug in just the right place for a few seconds the mic is recognised. I think the port is ok so I’ll sort out another cable.