Increasing input volume levels with microphone?

[Little_Weed]

Hi, all.

I've just started to use Audacity, starting by having a go at recording myself singing, doing harmonies with myself.

I'm using a Dell Inspiron 1300 laptop, with a Sony ECM-MS907 microphone plugged into it. When I sing into the mike my voice is recording in Audacity, but the sound levels seem to be very low - averaging 0.1 on the recorded track waveforms, with peaks of barely 0.2. As a consequence there is a lot of background hiss, which of course only gets worse if I turn up the volume on playback or try to amplify the recorded sound.

Is there a setting somewhere in Audacity (or possibly on my computer?) which I can tweak to boost the recording input volume? How can I get my recording input levels up?

Thanks for any guidance!

[kozikowski]

You could try changing the battery. Electret microphones like this one slowly fade into the sunset as the battery goes flat. If you're using the battery that came with the microphone, that battery could have been in the package for a very long time and lost its poop.

Dig around in the Windows Control Panels > Sound and see if your computer has a +20dB Boost setting in addition to the other volume controls. While you're in there, make sure the microphone control is all the way up and you may have other controls that affect this as well.

Audacity has an input level control that may or may not affect the other adjustments.

Koz

[Little_Weed]

Thanks for your suggestions, kozikowski.

The input level control in Audacity was the first thing I tried altering, I set it to maximum whilst I was recording.

I also thought of the microphone battery; I put a new one in but it made no difference.

I had a fiddle about in Control Panel 'Sounds and Audio Devices', and set all the volume levels for my sound recording default device (Sigma Tel Audio) to maximum, but it doesn't seem to have made a noticeable difference. Couldn't find mention of a "+20dB Boost setting" anywhere - any ideas where to look?

My partner suggested maybe the microphone I'm using just doesn't have enough oomph - that maybe it needs a pre-amp or something to boost the signal going in to Audacity. I don't know enough technical stuff to know if this would make a difference!

Fielding any and all suggestions...

[kozikowski]

It's a little rough to find.

Start > Control Panels > Sounds and Audio > Audio > Sound Recording > Volume > Microphone > Advanced > #1 Mic Boost.

Koz

[Little_Weed]

Thanks for the tip, Koz. I'll give it a go!