So I recently picked up a few items to start recording some music at home and these have all been great apart from my Prosound Microphone, http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/usb-podcast-and-vocal-microphone-a99jb?u=podadv_prosoundmic&c=affilwin7018& . Basically it’s very weak at picking up sound even when the input level is turned all the way up. Is there anything I can do to fix this? Thanks.
Use a pop shield http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop_filter
Get close to the mic (try around 10 cm from your face).
Speak clearly as if talking to another person, not as if talking to a microphone.
It’s a directional mic, and it appears to be a side-address mic. So make sure the sound is going into the front side, not the back or end.
So I recently picked up a few items to start recording some music at home…
What kinds of instruments? Vocals? More than one thing at a time?
As Steve said, you generally need to be very close to the mic. Mic positioning and room acoustics are very important. For most music a “dead” sound-absorbing and soundproof “studio” is best. Most of us don’t have real studios at home, but the closer you can get, the better.
Some acoustic music sounds better in a music hall with some reverb, but the amount of reverb that sounds good live is usually too much on a recording, so the mics usually need to be a lot closer than the ideal listening position.