Hello! I am an audiobook narrator with a home studio and have been audio recording and engineering for myself for over 20 years, so I am not an amateur, but I’m not computer expert. This has me and several pro friends stymied. I hope there may be some help here! In Jan, I hadn’t been in the booth in a while and had several updates pending, so I updated everything, including MS Windows and Audacity. Here’s the rundown:
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When I went into Audacity to record, it did not recognize my mic.
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Nothing I did would get the computer to recognize that the mic was plugged into the proper jack, nor would it work in any other jack.
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Supposedly, this is a common problem (according to many forums) and a simple driver update from Realtek would fix it. My computer would not download the update.
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I brought in a trusted IT expert and he came to the same conclusion above, so we decided a new sound card might do the trick (hence, new drivers).
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I now have the Creative Z SE Sound Blaster card (installed by previous expert).
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Now the mic is recognized, but the sound just isn’t good quality.
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My system consist of:
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-AKG C3000 mic
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-Symetrix 528E Voice Processor
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-Dell Desktop:
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-Processor 11th Gen Intel(R) Core™ i7-11700 @ 2.50GHz 2.50 GHz
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-Installed RAM 32.0 GB (31.6 GB usable)
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-System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
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-Latest version of Audacity
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I have checked all the cables and connections and tried my Rode NTG2 that’s in good working order, but the sound issue is the same. I also switched out the Symetix for a Behringer board I have and the problem still exists, so I am certain it’s a problem in the computer somewhere.
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I uninstalled and reinstalled the drivers and still this sound is a little distant or compressed…?
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There was an issue when I disconnected the mic. There was a lot of noise, but I reduced the mic boost from the computer from +30dB to +10dB and that seemed to clean it up.
I am at my wits end and REALLY need to get back to work but don’t want to replace a computer that’s only 2 years old. Help? Thank you in advance!