Audacity sometimes sees my USB mic, sometimes not

I have a Samson C03U USB mic attached to my Win 10 Surface Book. I have done several recordings with that setup. Whenever I plug that mic into a USB port, the PC notices it immediately in Settings. But Audacity sometimes does not, like right now.

Any suggestions?

  1. Ensure that the mic is connected before you launch Audacity.

  2. If you still can’t connect to the device, try “Transport menu > Rescan Audio Devices” and then check that the USB device is selected as the recording device in the Device Toolbar.

I’ve tried it both ways and also after a reboot. Nada.

  1. If you still can’t connect to the device, try “Transport menu > Rescan Audio Devices” and then check that the USB device is selected as the recording device in the > Device Toolbar> .

That doesn’t seem to do anything. Am I supposed to get some sort of completion message? I get nothing.

I cannot select the device because it isn’t listed in the second dropdown.

Please post the “Audio device info” so that I can see what devices Audacity is recognising: Help Menu: Diagnostics - Audacity Manual

Is there no way for me to paste an image into a post? I see others doing it, but I don’t see how. Over on the right, I see “[ img ]” is OFF.

I went back to Settings to check that the mic known to Windows. This time I noticed that that the symbol next to the C03U is a speaker. Shouldn’t it be a mic?

Anyway, I uploaded the device info and the screenshot of the settings here:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ben698kv381uydo/AAA5HOhkPiyZgzizCRPZmj1va?dl=0

Copy and pasting the text would have been sufficient.


That shows that Audacity cannot see the USB device at all.

Check the USB lead for possible damage.
Check that the USB is securely plugged in.

It may be worth trying a different USB socket on the computer.


Which settings are you referring to?

I did all that.

Audacity could see it yesterday. It appeared in the mic dropdown and I made several recordings.

[quote=“, post:1, topic:59002”]
Whenever I plug that mic into a USB port, the PC notices it immediately in Settings.
[/quote]

Which settings are you referring to?

In Windows, Settings | Bluetooth and other devices, it is listed. That’s the Settings.jpg screenshot. If Windows can see it, how can the problem be in the USB cable or port?

I see others doing it, but I don’t see how.

Prepare the image on your desktop or other common, known location.

Scroll down from a forum text window > Attachments > Add Files.

Audacity can “lose” a connection if it’s expecting Stereo and you deliver Mono, or the other way around.

Koz

While that tells you that Windows has loaded the drivers for the device, it does not show whether it is actually working.

To check that the mic is working, you need to look in the Windows Sound control panel. When you speak into the mic, you should see the meter move in response to your voice, as shown for the “analog connector” in the screenshot below (in your case, the Samson USB device)

wscp.png
To open the Windows Sound settings:

  1. open the run dialog with “Windows logo + R”
  2. enter: mmsys.cpl
  3. press the “OK” button

Check the USB lead for possible damage.

Is this the microphone with the ten foot long, 6 foot maximum USB cable to run 12 inches? Do you have another, shorter cable?

If the connection fails for any reason no matter how briefly, Audacity will drop it like a hot rock, but Windows will build it up again automatically. That’s my guess. You got lucky earlier.

Koz

The mic is working again. I’ll look for a shorter USB cable when I get a minute. I need to make a bunch of recordings that were due yesterday while it’s working.