Audacity Forum

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has helped me with this. I now have my new Windows 8 laptop. I bought a ProSound 5.1 USB Multimedia Sound Interface from Maplin's, which several people from Maplin's told me would not run on Windows 8, but I plugged it in and away it went, no problem. I...

Right. So the polarising voltage goes on the SAME pin as the signal. I think my mic must be technically a "stereo" microphone, as it has a three-connection jack plug I've just been next door to try my neighbour's Dell, and that is the same - 3v on tip and on ring relative to sleeve (which disappears...

Yes, that's what I mean. I measured relative to the collar (sleeve, I'm not sure of the nomenclature) in every case. I was also surprised - but just as surprised by the 2v on both ring and tip (to collar) on the desktop, I expected it to be just on the ring, but I see your Acer is the same (but 3v i...

Just when I thought this was starting to make sense... I just measured the voltage in the mic sockets on my deskop and laptop: On the desktop (Realtek AC'97) there is 2v between the ring and the collar AND 2v between the tip and the collar. On the laptop (Soundmax HD integrated audio) there is 2v on...

I've made a bit of progress. I've been round so many circles with this I've forgitten what I've tried and what I haven't. Anyway I realised that my mic preamp wouldn't work with the computer mic because it's a condenser mic and the preamp doesn't provide the polarising voltage. When I tried it with ...

I was talking about a balance control on the respective input - is that where you looked? Yes, I think so. I'm still on XP at the moment, but I double-clicked on the speaker icon in the notification area/system tray (whatever we call it these days). The microphone is on the right with a volume cont...

Have you looked in the Windows Control Panel and checked if you have a balance control, as I suggested before? I tried this. On my desktop the balance control on the Windows Volume Control is permanently greyed, don't know why. On my laptop it works, but when I ran Audacity and switched on micropho...

Oh Boy, this is even more complicated than I thought. Steve, please can you tell me what the sound chipset/drivers system is on your Acer 5735. I still have a theory that the IDC sound system "does" stereo, whereas RealTek/Conextant (which I believe are the same thing) doesn't. Koz, really many than...

Whoa - hang on guys. I've been thinking through Koz's explanation of the three connections on the 3.5mm mic jack and it still doesn't make sense. First off, a condensor mic works by applying a voltage (the "phantom" voltage) across the plates of a capacitor. The sound waves then vibrate one of the p...

Koz: Many thanks for explaining the ring connections on a mic jack. I didn't know that and it explains a lot. How does this work with a dynamic mic? I need to look at the jack on mine, I can't remember (I'm in the office), but I would guess it has just the one ring and shield, in which case the phan...