Recording Heartbeat Using Doppler

Hi all,

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?

Thanks,
Aisling

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.)

Sorry it’s taken me so long to respond, I’ll try to get one of those then. Thanks for keeping it simple and for your response :smiley: