Microphone Recognition Problems

[fieldengrey]

Hello,

I am using Audacity1.2.6 on WindowsXp operating system. The microphone I am trying to use is 1/8" mike from an Olympus DS-30 DVR. The problem I am having is that I cannot get Audacity to recognize the mike. I cannot record anything live through the mike.

Is there a way to do this? From what I can tell (which isn't much), Windows XP requires either Office XP or Word2002 in order to recognize/activate the microphone. I do not have either of these programs, yet would very much like to be able to use the microphone without having to purchase one of these programs. Does anyone have any suggestions? Am I SOL? Is there a way to get audacity to record without these programs?

Any suggestions would be wonderful.

Thanks.

[fieldengrey]

A brief update...

It looks like Audacity will actually record with the mike that I have, however, it only seems to pick the loudest of sounds, and those only if the mike is held directly to the sound source. I can get it to record snaps and whistles, but not guitar. Is this just my mike? The cable? Again, any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

[steve]

No you don't need Office XP or Word.

A microphone from a DVR may not be compatible with your computer microphone input, however, before you give up on it, make sure that you do actually have it plugged into the microphone input and not a "line input".

The microphone inputs of most sound cards are very poor quality, so if you want good quality you may need to invest in a bit more hardware, such as a good qualitty microphone and a little mixing desk, or alternatively a USB microphone.