Hi there,
I am having issues when I record myself singing using a microphone on Audacity. The program seems to pick up the sound, but it is really distorted and muffled. I just bought a PA system and have never done anything like this before, so please bear with me. My current setup is:
Fender Passport Conference
Shure SM58 Microphone - Using an XLM to XLM cable to go from the channel 1 input on the Fender to the microphone
A 3.5mm to RCA male to male cable to connect from the L/mono input and R input of the Fender to the headphone port of my labtop.
So what am I doing wrong? When I play music on Youtube and sing, the sound is perfect , but as soon as I try to record this, it sounds terrible.
Thank you!
You’re trying to record whatever is coming out of the PA system/mixer, right?
A 3.5mm to RCA male to male cable to connect from the L/mono input and R input of the Fender to the headphone port of my labtop.
The headphone port is an output (sound comes out). 
Does your laptop have separate mic and headphone connections, or does it have a combo jack?
In either case, the mic input “wrong” for a line-level signal,* but a combo jack needs a cable with a 4-conductor [u]TRRS[/u] connector to make the mic-input connection.
With a desktop/tower computer and a “regular soundcard”, you can use the line-input.
To record a line-level (RCA) signal with a laptop you usually need a USB audio interface with a line input. (The [u]Behringer UCA202[/u] is popular and inexpensive.) Do not buy a “USB Soundcard” because these are like laptops with only mic-in and headphone-out.
What fender system do you have and what is that RCA output labeled? Is that an input or an output?
*** BTW -** The mic input on a laptop or regular soundcard is also wrong for a stage/studio mic (low-impedance balanced with an XLR connector) so the mic input is generally useless for any high-quality recording.
This is a picture of the labtop I have. I don’t think it has any separate mic and headphone connections?
https://cdn2.pcadvisor.co.uk/cmsdata/reviews/3401077/Toshiba_Satellite_Z930_2.jpg
And this is the Fender system that I ha
https://www.long-mcquade.com/files/43283/lg_Passport%20Conference%20-%20Front.jpg
So the RCA output is labeled L/mono input and R input and I guess it would it be an input?
So would I just need to buy a combo jack, 4-conductor TRRS connector, and a USB audio interface?
Thanks for the help!
I don’t think it has any separate mic and headphone connections?
https://cdn2.pcadvisor.co.uk/cmsdata/reviews/3401077/Toshiba_Satellite_Z930_2.jpg
I see a microphone input and a headphone output. You can use the mic input for recording, but a line or headphone signal is about 100 times as strong as a microphone signal, so the mic input is usually too sensitive, plus the mic preamp is usually noisy and low-quality. The mic input is also usually mono, but if you’re recording one microphone, that’s mono anyway.
So like I said, the mic input can “work”, but it’s “wrong”.
I found this on the Fender website:
1/8" stereo output for headphone monitoring and sending stereo mixes.
You can use that output for recording (ideally with a USB interface that has a line-level input).
The PA system also has a similar connector for input… Remember, in this case the sound comes out of an output from the mixer (PA system) and into an input on the computer for recording.
If you wanted to play the computer through the PA system, you’d connect the computer’s headphone-out the the PA system’s line-in.
