I don’t know the first thing about using Audacity and tech so I’m sorry if I’m in the wrong forum and for the lack of technical terms. I’ve tried to record with a doppler with sound recorders on my phone and on my computer but it only picks up sound from my mic on both. I reached out to the company who sell the doppler I bought and they said to try and download Audacity (when I open it it says 2.4.2) then told me they can’t tell me how to use it and to contact Audacity so here I am.
I’m trying to record a heartbeat using a doppler. The connection I was given with the doppler to record has an MP3 connector that goes into the doppler and a headphone jack that connects to the computer. Could anyone give me an idea as to what settings I need to have audacity at to record using these inputs?
The connection I was given with the doppler to record has an MP3 connector that goes into the doppler and a headphone jack that connects to the computer.
There’s a headphone output built into the Doppler system, right?
On the computer side, you need an audio line-input which is normally color coded blue on a soundcard. A line-level or headphone-level signal is about 100-1000 times higher (voltage) than the microphone input on a laptop, phone or soundcard.
If you don’t have a line-input, you’ll need a USB audio interface with line inputs. Most of these have “different” connectors than a regular soundcard so you’ll need the appropriate adapter cable. The Behringer UCA 202 or UCA 222 is popular and (relatively inexpensive.
A microphone input will “work”, but generally with poor quality. And, smart phones and most newer laptops have combination microphone/headphone combination jack that requires a 4-conductor TRRS plug with the “extra” microphone contact. (A regular 3-conductor headphone plug will work if you are just using headphones and no mic.)