USB microphone TOO MUCH GAIN

[RyanRussell]

I seem to be the only person to have the exact opposite problem as most people with mic volume problems.
Mine is TOO LOUD. Ive tried everything.

I have a Samson go mic USB condenser mic. I use it to record singing.
Recently I have been getting a lot of distortion when I record, especially when I sing really loud.

I tried to turn the mic gain setting down in widows to prevent peaking but I still get distortion.

The mic gain lvl setting DOES WORK. it makes the input lvl of the mic higher or lower BUT all of a sudden it seems that it has lost the low range.

when I first got the mic I would slide the vertical lvl tab ALL THE WAY DOWN and then the mic would be "muted" like it is supposed to and not pick up anything. I sing very loud and would usually record at about 10-20% to keep from peaking and still being able to be close to the mic to pick up the full range of tones.

Now all of a sudden when I turn the mic gain slider all the way down THE MIC STILL WORKS! and at about 50%. it's like the slider went from controlling 0%-100% to 50%-100%. And even when I don't sing loud there is still distortion.

I thought that maybe the mic diaphragm was damaged (which would explain distortion at low volumes) but I don't understand why I am still getting about 50% signal with the windows mic gain slider ALL THE WAY DOWN. I think there may be something wrong with the internal electronics on the microphone itself that windows controls with the gain setting.

There is a pad switch on the mic, it works but still gets signal and distortion with the windows slider all the way down.
I tested multiple USB ports.
And I also tested my webcam mic. it works fine and like it is supposed it doesn't pick up any signal with the windows mic gain slider all the way down. But I plug back in my Samson and I get signal even with the gain slider is all the way down.

The input is set to the Samson go mic and the peak meter goes up and down relative to when i slide the gain up and down while humming a constant note so I know it's working. It just has lost it's low gain ability, is distorted all the time and still records at a high lvl when the mic slider is all the way down.

I uninstalled other programs that I thought might be conflicting with it. I unplugged my webcam to make sure It wasn't picking up audio signal. I did a system restore. nothing. I still get high gain input signal with the mic slider all the way down and extremly high gain when I slide it up. It was not like that before.

I reinstalled all drivers for the soundcard and mic

It does the same thing no matter what program I'm using to record whether it's the simple windows sound recorder, windows movie maker or cake walk or Reaper mixing program.

Sorry this post is so long but I'm trying to make sure I list everything I've tried.

It almost has to be faulty electronics in the mic.

Any body have any ideas? because I am going nuts.

Ryan

[Gale Andrews]

Is the Audacity input slider turned right down too, or does it have no effect?

What version of Windows are you on? If Vista or 7, you are better off with 1.3.12 Beta. If the Audacity 1.2 input slider has no effect on the Go, the 1.3.12 slider might do.

If you still get the same problem in 1.3.12, does Cakewalk or Windows Sound Recorder have the same issue? If so, it isn't an Audacity problem. A few people report that USB audio inputs on recent Windows 7 machines are too hot, but that doesn't explain why the problem just got worse.

What do you mean by reinstalling the mic drivers? The mic is plug n' play, so all you could try is unplugging the mic, uninstalling the drivers from Device Manager in the Windows Control Panel, then plugging the mic in again.



Gale

[kozikowski]

You can get what appears to be too much gain if you have Mix-Out or one of the Internet Recording services running and effectively record the microphone twice by accident.

Since the microphone is in feedback, all you would need is some sound and the volume would go nuts and the controls would seem to have no effect.

Make sure these setting are not made...

http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Recor ... e_computer

The other magic things Windows machines do is conference mode. Newer Windows machines like to manage their own volume for business conference services. You can't manage the volumes when four people in different cities are all trying to talk to each other in conference, so the microphone volume is handled automatically -- even when you may not want it to be.

http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... ncellation

Koz