Hi, new here and hope somebody will be able to help me out. I’ve been using Audacity for about 6 months. I got a new laptop recently and can’t get either of my microphones to work properly with it. They both worked fine on my last laptop. In my sound settings, and in Audacity preferences, the correct mic is selected. But when I try to record I get a horrendous feedback buzz throughout. At first I thought I was picking up feedback from my speakers or something, but I’ve turned them off and it doesn’t help. I’ve been trying diferent things for a few days, to no avail, simply can’t work out what the problem is. Any suggestions?
How do you connect your mics to the laptop? USB? Mic/Line-in?
USB port.
if you told us the make model and serial nr of both laptops along with info on the opsys and all the settings/options you used and what you did to try to use it to record then maybe someone might have some ideas.
I’m assuming here you use windows… My windows knowledge, specially regarding sound and usb devices is very very limited… I’m afraid I won’t be able to be of much aid on this matter… sorry
Buzz.
Current laptop’s an Advent Roma 2001 (so says the sticker on the front) running Windows 7. No longer have access to the last laptop so don’t know what model that was, but was running Vista. In ‘Control Panel’, ‘Sound Settings’, mic selections are right. In Audacity, mic selections are right.
Fantastic 
Unfortunately I’m not getting a good feeling about this… can we just run through a few checks:
Could you say exactly what settings you have in those locations.
When you try to record, are you getting any sound from the USB microphone (proper sound, such as your voice, not just buzz)?
If you are getting sound from the microphone. are you 100% positively certain that the sound is from the USB microphone and not from the laptop’s internal microphone?
Are you able to change the settings in Audacity and in “Control Pane > Sound Settings” and make a recording using the laptop’s internal microphone without the horrendous buzz?
Thanks for the replies. I’ve only just been able to get back to looking at this problem tonight.
I’m running Windows 7 by the way, don’t know if that makes a difference to any of this - my last laptop, which recorded fine, was Vista.
In Control Panel, Sound/Recording, I’ve set the default as ‘USB Headset’ which is what my laptop calls my headset mic.
In Audacity, Preferences, Devices, Recording, I’ve set it to ‘Microphone (USB Headset)’.
When you try to record, are you getting any sound from the USB microphone (proper sound, such as your voice, not just buzz)?
If you are getting sound from the microphone. are you 100% positively certain that the sound is from the USB microphone and not from the laptop’s internal microphone?
Are you able to change the settings in Audacity and in “Control Pane > Sound Settings” and make a recording using the laptop’s internal microphone without the horrendous buzz?
Yes, I get voice too. Yes, the voice/recording is coming from the microphone as it gets louder and quieter as I move it towards and away from my mouth.
Have I been sold a duff laptop?
My guess would be that the headset has gone faulty.
Have you still got that Vista machine, or any other computer that you could test the headset on?
No, I don’t have the Vista machine any more. I don’t think it’s the headset as I’ve tested another headset and have the same problem with that one.
May I just backtrack a little to check that I’m not looking in the wrong direction.
Are you saying that the buzz is only when you record?
Is the buzz only while you are recording, or is it also when you playback things in Audacity?
Is it only in Audacity that you hear the buzz?
Do other things play normally?
Is this just a microphone? (not a microphone/headphone headset)
When you hear the buzz, it’s when you playback through your loudspeakers?
hmm - the more I’m thinking about this the less clear I am about exactly what you are experiencing.
Did you try that test of recording from the laptop internal microphone? What results did you get?