Audacity Forum

I own a headset (both earphones and mic). I bought a 1 dollar adaptor and plugged the headset into the front of my compaq presario which runs a windows vista operating system.
I then started audacity 1.2.6 up (which I have been using successfully for 3 years. however, I have been broadcasting an internet talkshow on "talkshoe" in which the headset plugged into a mixer. sound quality was excellent).
My recordings are muffled. They sound too bass heavy.
I have fiddled with my computer's sound controls and with audacity's preferences. All to no avail.

Can you suggest a way to make my recording postable. The way it sounds now is not acceptable.

Thanks,

hank hammer

Not quite enough to go on. Which headset? Model numbers. What did the adapter do? Does the headset have a pink and green separate audio connectors?

Are you totally sure you're recording the headset? Scratch the microphone with your finger. That should give you a very loud noise in the show.

Which was the mixer that the headset was plugged into before you moved it?

The Mic-In of a computer and the microphone connection of a sound mixer can be very different animals. You can't always adapt one to the other.

Koz

headset = sennheiser hmd 280-13 (300).
no separate pink & green audio connectors: just one plug for both mic & headphones.
adaptor allowed me to plug headset into front of computer
(without the adaptor, it fits into the behringer henyx1204 mixer.
however, i'm not using mixer now).
I did scratch the mic and it was recorded on audacity - as was my voice.
It is the poor voice quality of the recording that is my problem.

if these mics are incompatible (different animals)
could you give me some pointers on how to go about creating a podcast?
I got some tips online and thought i was doing it right, but maybe not.

I need to have the ability to create podcasts in times of emergency, like now:
I can't produce my podcast on talkshoe because my dtmf tones
aren't being sent properly by my long distance provider.
so until they fix it (assuming they can) i have been out of action
and losing listeners that took years to build up.

Thanks for taking the time to help me.

hank hammer

I don't think there's anything wrong with the headset or the application. I do think there's an adapter problem. I think the adapter is applying the microphone show between the ring and tip of a "stereo" 1/8" plug. This will produce an awful sound quality if it works at all.

One of the trials of looking up this microphone is the connector style. Some versions come with raw wires, some come with 4-pin XLR for an intercom system. It's a very good headset.

Since you already had this plugged into a sound mixer with good success, you probably need of of these...

http://kozco.com/tech/audacity/UnbalBalAdapter.jpg

I've never seen one of these for sale. I made that one to plug my much larger "dynamic" microphone into a sound card. The numbers on the illustration are the wiring diagram.

From here, the options go nuts. Get your own mixer. Get a USB microphone. Get a USB Mixer. Sorry I can't be more helpful. You can plug your headset into one of these...

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/PV6USB/

That will produce a USB connection to the computer and avoid the noisy sound card electronics. I would not give up on the microphone.

Koz

Again, keeping your microphone, you can use one of these...

http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... =20#p81588

It's 3-pin XLR on one end and USB-B on the other. I wasn't completely thrilled with this thing (I wrote the review), but in your case, it would work.

Koz

All this is assuming I'm right about the faulty adapter, but if the adapter were correct, the full quality of the microphone should be available -- possibly low volume or slightly hissy-noisy, but it should sound OK.

I'm also ruling out a broken sound card, which may not be a good idea. The computer is too old to have those modern ... wait, you said you had Vista. Vista does have those silly sound services.

Windows Enhanced Sound
http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... 79&start=0

If Windows thinks you're trying to make a conference call with a low level microphone, it may think your voice is background noise and try to cancel it/muffle it.

Koz

I complained previously about a muffled recording.
Here is how I got my audacity recording to sound normal again:
I removed the adaptor I bought
and plugged my headphones/microphone combo set back into my mixer
and plugged the mixer into the usb port as I normally do when broadcasting.
I then noticed a new option in the audacity preferences under recording devices.
It referred to my mixer.

Selecting the correct input really made a difference
(say it, and I will find out where you live).

But now I have a new problem which I am hoping you will know how to fix:
My recording appears so tiny in audacity
that it would be very difficult for me to edit the recording.
How can I increase the size of audacity's display to allow editing?

Thanks Koz,

hank