mixer tool bar no mic option

[mccspp]

I am trying to make a simple voice recording. Actually, I am trying to create an educational presentation (lecture) as an mp3.

My system is XP and I just downloaded audacity... then I pluged in my Blue mic (snowball)... then I restarted audacity so it would recognize the mic...

When I tried to record I notice there are no options in the drop down menu on the mixer tool bar...The wiki pages say,"To record with your microphone, you set the recording source to microphone in Audacity's mixer toolbar input selector." http://audacityteam.org/onlinehelp-1.2/ ... _mixer.htm

I have never used audio software before...however, I didn't think I would run into difficulties this early on. Can you help me?

[steve]

Go to "Edit > Preferences > Audio I/O" and try and set it there.
If it's still no go, download Audacity 1.3.5 and try it with that.

The problem is that when Audacity 1.2 was written (quite some time ago), these microphones did not exist. Several recent audio devices use drivers that do not play nicely, so you have to select them in preferences rather than through the mixer toolbar.