Im new to audacity and I was wondering if i need an actual interface in order to record. Can i just plug a mic into the microphone jack on my laptop? And also, do i need an interface to directly record into the computer?
You can indeed just plug a mic into the microphone jack on your laptop. If your laptop does not have a line input (and it probably doesn’t unless it’s a Mac), you’ll need a line-input USB interface.
This might help: http://manual.audacityteam.org/index.php?title=Tutorial_-_Your_First_Recording
– Bill
<<< Can i just plug a mic into the microphone jack on my laptop?>>>
You can just plug a computer microphone in there. Computer microphones are powered from the computer and use a special connection very different from conventional microphones. Second illustration…
http://www.kozco.com/tech/audioconnectors/audioconnectors.html
…I saw they have a special name for those now, like, 5 volt phantom microphones. Something like that.
If you do have a conventional microphone like a Shure SM58…
http://www.shure.com/proaudio/products/wiredmicrophones/us_pro_sm58-cn_content
You can do that, too, but it’s a lot harder because you have to build the adapter…
http://kozco.com/tech/audacity/UnbalBalAdapter.jpg
I’ve never seem one of these commercially available.
So past that, you’ll be wanting a USB adapter to get one of those into your computer.
Koz
alright thanks ill look into one of those