I’m trying to use my new Samson Q1U microphone in Audacity. I’m kind of a newb, so it’s possible I missed a setting somewhere.
The problem: I can record using this microphone, but the stereo option doesn’t actually give me two equal tracks. The right channel is normal, the left channel is VERY low. It basically doesn’t SOUND like stereo at all. I can see little low-level lines on the recording, but that’s not going to work with what I do.
I’m running Windows XP. I’ve tried raising the volume levels, and I do have the Q1U selected as the microphone device. It does this on more than one USB port. The balance control is set in the middle.
The frustrating thing is that I have been able to make this work once or twice in the past, but I can’t figure out what’s different now.
How are you getting a stereo signal out of a single mic?
You should set Audacity’s channel setting (Edit → Preferences → Audio I/O) to 1 channel (mono). You didn’t mention if you are using Samson’s SoftPre software to run the mic, or if you were using standard Microsoft Drivers. Where exactly are you getting a stereo option? You can’t get a stereo signal from a single microphone (unless you’ve got a stereo reverb or chorus effect from somewhere).
OK, that’s not stereo. That’s mono. If you record with your mic set to Mono and leave the track that you get out of it panned to the center, the audio will come out of both speakers at an equal level.
Does the signal from the mic come out of both speakers when you’re not recording (i.e. when you’re monitoring)? It’s possible that you’re setup to monitor* through one speaker only (which is the way The Beatles did it, btw). But once you record that one mono track and leave it panned to center (the default) it will come out of both speakers during playback.
Monitor: Listen to the input while it’s happening. Either while recording, or while not recording.
Hmm, I’ll have to try that. It’s not what I’m doing now.
Does the signal from the mic come out of both speakers when you’re not recording (i.e. when you’re monitoring)? It’s possible that you’re setup to monitor* through one speaker only (which is the way The Beatles did it, btw). But once you record that one mono track and leave it panned to center (the default) it will come out of both speakers during playback.
Well, I’m listening through my headphones, and when I play back my audio it comes out of one channel loudly, and the other channel very softly.
Sorry about my noob ignorance. I’m just feelin’ my way through here. I’ll try that mono/centered thing and see if it works. It’s just annoying that things work one way with one setup, and a different way with a different setup.
Nobody said recording audio was going to be easy. There’s a reason recording engineers make $100+ / hour.
Your equipment can’t read your mind. It’s up to you to have it set up right. We’ll help out as best we can, but be aware that things can get frustrating from time to time.
I’ve been thinking about this, and maybe I’ve sussed it out a little.
My headset mic has a mini plug that looks just like the stereo headphone plug. So maybe for it there are two elements for “stereo” recording? Or maybe they run the same signal back twice or something?
Whereas the Samson with the USB interface is Not Like That. That’s probably why it works differently. Duh.
Your headset mic is probably a computer-style mic. It requires 3 conductors to carry power and signal together. It should only be plugged into a Mic In, you won’t get any results using another port. You will also only ever get mono out of it.
I’m sure the USB mic is also a mono signal.
It’s up to your drivers to assign names and settings to each input and output source that you can access in Audacity. I’d say they’re the most likely culprit.
I have a similar problem. It should be mono but it is somehow stereo. Maybe something’s wrong with drivers? Strange things happen when i mess with panning slider in windows settings. When it’s in the middle i get weak signal form right channel, and normal singal in left channel. When I slide 100% right I get only the weak right signal. So far it’s as expected. Bet When I slide left from the center, both channels go quieter and there’s NO signal at 100% left. WTF?
You’re posting in a very old thread (almost 4 years old) you would probably get more visibility if you started a new thread…
You didn’t say much about your setup (mic used, how you connect it to the computer, audacity version, operating system, etc…). Without that piece of info it’s harder to give any advice.
Assuming you’re using a single usb mic like the original poster of this thread, then you should select “mono (1 channel)” and not “stereo (2 channels)” in Preferences → Devices → Recording. Otherwise you’ll probably only get sound on one channel of the stereo track (in your case, apparently on the right channel).
i’m using samson q1u. The version of audacity is irrelevant as the situation is the same in other audio applications i use (renoise, windows recording tool and so on…). the problem is therefore unrelated to audacity, but still some of you sound recording geeks here may help I don’t get audio in single channel, instead it’s the same as described in the first post here - left channel is louder, right channel is weaker. I did overcome the problem using the method you described, recording only from the left channel as mono, but still - if the default record format in recording application is set to stereo and the input signal is mono, then i should have two equal signals on both left and right channels, just as i had when i was using some other cheap mic on Wavelab some time ago. And how do you interpret the panning behaviour i described? the operating system - windows xp.
I expressed myself in a wrong way - my problem seems EXACTLY the same as the one described by the author of this topic, and there seems to be no solution reply, so that’s why I posted it here.
I was beggining to suspect it was a hardware malfuction but seeing some other guy having exactly the same issues made me wonder.
Maybe the usb cable is damaged? I’m a noob here.
maybe i should just ask samson’s technical support
I still don’t understand why on earth you’re trying to record in stereo from one (mono) microphone…
In my point of view, there shouldn’t even be a stereo option available… sounds more like a driver problem. Search if there’s any more recent driver version available.
Instead of recording in stereo and taking just one of the channels, have you tried setting it to mono and record in mono? That should be the correct way of setting it up.
Instead of recording in stereo and taking just one of the channels, have you tried setting it to mono and record in mono? That should be the correct way of setting it up.
Yes that’s exactly what i want, but i don’t see such an option anywhere! Somehow samson is transmitting stereo signal to my pc. As i understand it usb microphones have their own a/d converters and they transfer finished product so it’s logical that the only thing software can do upon recieving the signal, if this signal is stereo, is to record only one channel (left or right) or both. But it should have been mono in the first place. Something’s not going right inside the mic. What i find curious is that another user had the same problem as me, it suggests that i may be doing something wrong.
I get stereo out of my single mic analog (i.e., non-usb) headset too.
That’s probably why it works differently. Duh.