i need help on answering why cant i record with a typical samson dynamic mic for preformances on audacity thru my michrophone port next to my headphone port on my harddrive please help me with figuring this out thank u
Your very own
-terse
Microphone sockets on soundcards are wired up differently to “normal” microphone sockets so as to support cheap computer microphones. Even if you get a suitable adaptor, the sound quality will probably be rubbish. You would be better to go through a mixing desk or a microphone pre-amp and then into the “Line In” (unless it’s a laptop and doesn’t have a “line in”)
sorry im a rookie at this what is a sound card or pre amp mic?
A straight dynamic microphone (Sure SM-58, ElectroVoice RE-20) can sometimes be forced to work with a computer “Mic-In” connection, but it can be pretty painful. Dynamic microphones usually work very, very well, but their sound level isn’t very high. The older computer sound systems had a microphone boost control to make up for this, but all the computers I’ve seen lately don’t have that.
Strike two is that the Mic-In connection on most computers sends a battery voltage up to a computer microphone on one wire, and bring the resulting sound signal down the other. This lets computer microphones sound louder because they have electronics inside them to make it so.
Dynamic microphones don’t need that battery voltage, so you need to provide connection adapters to go from dynamic microphone to Mic-In.
This is a web site I wrote to describe the difference between Line-In and Mic-In. It’s not just that one is louder than the other.
http://www.kozco.com/tech/audioconnectors/audioconnectors.html
Most grownups try to amplify, manage, and mix microphone performances in a device (mixing desk, field mixer, MicPre) before the computer gets to it. How to best do that is the subject of several vigorous debates on the forums. Your particular application will determine the direction. What, exactly, are you doing?
Koz
wow thanks for the reply… and i am trying to record a song using the samson dynamic mic and it lets me record perfectly i just cant hear it and no sound waves appear as i speak into the michrophone.
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Samson makes USB Condenser Microphones. That’s their hero product line, not dynamic microphones, although they could. What’s the model number?
Koz
That is perhaps a little confusing - there are “Dynamic” microphones, and “Condenser” microphones, and “Electret” microphones, and “Ribbon” microphones and … These describe the workings of the microphone capsule.
Some microphone capsules are “active” and require power (Condenser microphones, Electret microphones,…) which may be supplied by batteries, or through the microphone lead, or through a USB lead…
Some microphones are “passive” which means they do not require power (Dynamic microphones,…)
Conventional microphones (example: Shure SM58) use a normal microphone lead (shielded twisted pair)
USB microphones (example: Samson C01U USB Studio Condenser Mic) have a built-in A/D (Analogue to Digital) converter) and a USB interface. These do not use a conventional lead, but use a USB lead instead.
Since terse has emphasized that this is a “non usb microphone” I guess that he was trying to make it clear that it was not one of the famous USB microphones made by Samson, but one of their lesser known “non usb” dynamic microphones such as the Q6, Q7, Q8, R21 …
If your particular microphone has a 3-pin XLR male connection like this…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XLR#XLR3_connectors
…then you can plug your microphone into this…
…and then plug that into this…
…and that will plug into the MIC-IN of your sound card. This combination will automatically take care of the battery problem in the computer, but you may still have level problems and there will be a quality change any time you go through a transformer like that. But I have done that and it does work.
Koz
yes i have tried both of the items showed in your links but as i try them i cant hear my recording and it does not show signs of recording at all. thanks alot for all your help and support guys and for future reference it was the Q7 dynamic mic, DO you have any suggestions for a better mic, sound card, recording program, to make vocals sound extremely incredible?
-terse
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No. It should not be dead-dead. It should work at low level. Dead-dead is something broken.
This is where we tell you that you posted in the wrong part of the forum because we’re going to start asking you about your setup. Which computer? Which Operating System. Which Audacity? For example, there is a Windows forum for Audacity 1.2. We don’t have to ask you what you have there. We already know.
Q7 appears to be a perfectly lovely microphone. You need to know that dynamic microphones have no practical limit for sound volume. It should be possible to produce a normal recording with this microphone by bellowing into it while you’re recording. That is a perfectly valid thing to do with dynamic microphones. Not always practical, but it does work and it’s good for troubleshooting.
So tell us all about yourself.
Koz
ok well im workin with a compaq with windows vista and im a hip-hop artist and im tryin to record vocals. and the mic is not dead its jus that when i speak into the mic im guessing it dosent hear me beacause i tried it on an amplifier and it works i could speak but it seems i cant record with it and i adjusted my mic settings to full play back volume full recording volume using Realtek HD audio manager… What is bellowing?? thank you for your help and support
-terse
and the mic is not dead its jus that when i speak into the mic im guessing it dosent hear me beacause i tried it on an amplifier and it works i could speak but it seems i cant record with it and i adjusted my mic settings to full play back volume full recording volume using Realtek HD audio manager
OK, you’ve tested the mic, it works. Good.
You’ve got the input and output volumes turned up with your driver software. Good.
The only other two places you might have a problem are in Audacity’s setup and the audio input jack on your computer.
First, figure out which audio input jack you’re using. It sounds like you’re using the Mic In. So open Audacity and click edit → preferences → audio i/o tab. In the Recording Source menu, select Mic In (it may not say that exactly, it’s up to your sound card drivers to name the inputs and they are not standardized). Now as long as everything is plugged in right, you should be able to record something. Even if you aren’t being very loud, it should be obvious that you’re recording. If you get nothing on your recording, then something is not plugged in correctly or set up right, it is not a problem with the Mic.
Instead of using this adapters, you might have better luck if that amplifier you’re talking about has a Line Out (or Aux Out). You can plug that into your computer’s Line In and set Audacity to use the Line In source. You’ll get higher sound quality.
hye thanks aloy for your advice the audacity settings worked thanks alot!!!