I have a Radio Shack dynamic microphone with 1/4" mic connector and I bought a 3.5mm adapter to plug into my PC which runs WIndows Vista.
Will this mic work on my PC and with Audacity? So far I am not having any luck.
Thanks
Did you buy these new? Do they both work? (have you tested them with anything other than your computer?)
Does the mic require a battery?
Which Radio Shack mic is it? (model number?)
Yes bought it new, takes no batteries, model # 3303043
http://www.radioshack.com/black-chromatic-plated-super-cardioid-dynamic-microphone/3303043.html#.VOnyx3zF98E
I assume this is made to plug into an amp or something and a PC?
Many Thanks
Yes, it should work. The signal may be a little weak compared to an electret condenser “computer mic”.
Make sure you’ve plugged into the mic input, not the line input. Make sure you’ve selected the [u]mic input[/u] in Audacity.
If you have some adapter cables, try plugging something else into the soundcard’s mic input… The output from a CD player, the audio from a DVD player, or the headphone output from an iPod, etc. Note that all of these alternate sources are line-level, so they will overload and distort the microphone input, but you can confirm if the computer is configured correctly and if the mic input is working, etc.
A stage/studio with an XLR connector won’t work, because it’s low-impedance balanced. But, a high-impedance unbalanced (2-wire) mic with a 1/4" connector should work,.
I’m with him. That should have worked.
You did turn it on, right? There’s a switch on the side.
There are some soundcards inside the computer that will fail if they don’t see a perfect computer microphone plugged in.
I had a microphone adapter system fail once because of that. Mic-In isn’t just a hole that your pour sound in. It also supplies battery current to run a “computer” microphone which is expecting it.
Second Illustration.
http://www.kozco.com/tech/audioconnectors/audioconnectors.html
I don’t know that we’re going to be able to solve this from many time zones away. The microphone is probably fine.
Koz
Here’s what I’m working with. 3.5mm adapter for the 1/4" mic plug, both only have 2 connections, unlike the 3 you have shown above. Is that my problem?
In Audacity, the mic drop down is blank
.
http://webpages.charter.net/akelliott/Radioshack%20mic%201.jpg
Check in the Windows Sound Control Panel that the mic input is enabled. If Windows can’t see the mic, then Audacity has no chance.
Yes I have checked that. The microphone has the green check mark as shown in your link.
Still no luck. I am thinking of ordering a USB mic for recording guitar. Can you recommend one good with Audacity for low end budget?
Thanks
Do you get that little green bouncing sound meter to the right of the Windows icon? There’s something really strange going on here.
A stage/studio with an XLR connector won’t work, because it’s low-impedance balanced. But, a high-impedance unbalanced (2-wire) mic with a 1/4" connector should work,.
Low impedance, balanced microphones such as SM-58, SM57, 635A and others work fine. The adapter unbalances the signal to match the connection. Balanced microphone amplifiers work by being impedance mismatched. The mismatch in this case is just larger. The sound may be slightly low compared to a consumer grade microphone, but they do work. You can get a very healthy signal out of one of these things by yelling into it. It doesn’t just fail.
Back in the paleolithic, we used broadcast balanced microphones into unbalanced consumer tape machines with adapters for news gathering.
This particular problem has to do with Audacity “finding” a microphone even though Windows knows all about it.
I am thinking of ordering a USB mic for recording guitar. Can you recommend one good with Audacity for low end budget?
A low-end USB microphone is probably not the answer. The forum is full of people who have low volume problems with them. The champion long posting on the forum was held for a very long time by Bruno who only wanted to record his acoustic guitar…
This isn’t the easy problem it seems. I need to go find the Windows setups. I’m a Mac elf.
Koz
Here it is. The toolbar on the main Audacity screen is a shortcut for the preference settings.
Audacity > Edit > Preferences > Devices.
http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/devices_preferences.html
Do you have MME set as your Host? Further down, what are the options for Recording Device? I think that connection is mono, not stereo.
Koz
I am thinking of ordering a USB mic for recording guitar. Can you recommend one good with Audacity for low end budget?
I can’t recommend a particular mic, but get a [u]Studio Style USB Mic[/u] (AKA Podcast mic).
These generally run from $100 to $300 USD although some are under $100. This may not seem “cheap”, but for a couple-hundred dollars, you can get nearly professional results (if you had a soundproof studio with good acoustics, and a nearly-professional performance to record. 
)
If you want to monitor yourself with headphones while recording, get a USB mic with a built-in headphone jack for zero-latency monitoring. If you monitor through the computer’s headphone jack, you’ll get latency (delay) and it’s often difficult to get the latency down to where it doesn’t interfere with your playing (or singing).
With a USB mic you are bypassing your computer’s internal soundcard, so the sound quality depends entirely on the microphone and the quality of the sound hitting the mic.
If I was buying one, I’d probably get the Blue Yeti. It’s got the headphone jack, a gain control, and an optional stereo setting. (There have been a few people here reporting problems with the Yeti, including problems getting stereo, but Blue is a reputable company and it’s probably no more problem-prone than any other computer recording set-up.)
The downsides to USB mics are - You can generally use only one mic at a time, so you can’t use two for stereo, or one mic for guitar and another for vocals, and you can’t multi-track. And, it won’t work with a P.A. system or mixer.
Low impedance, balanced microphones such as SM-58, SM57, 635A and others work fine. The adapter unbalances the signal to match the connection.
Yes, with a TS connector into the computer and the right connections, you can get a “signal”. But it’s not the right connection. And, often often people will use an adapter with a TRS connector and then the Tip & Ring can get shorted-out into a mono mic input (shorting-out the signal), or if the laptop/soundcard has a stereo mic input the Tip goes to the left and the Ring goes to the right with no ground reference and that can cause other problems…
The right way to do it is with a [u]microphone transformer[/u] which unbalances the connection, matches the impedance, and boosts the signal-voltage. And, then where back to what polarred21 has now!