Trouble with mics

[mfox32322]

Hi. I recently got a webcam that came with a mic so I thought I had to change mics. BAD MOVE !!! The next time I tried to record with Audacity, it recorded like the microphone eitehr way (I had it set to stereo mix and it recorded my voice like when it's set tomicrophone). So I hooked up the old mic hoping that would solve it - instead it made things worse. It recorded very, very, very low with intense hiss and even after a few amplifies and noise removals I couldn't get it to sound even close to a normal recording. It won't do stereo mix anymore either. I've researched the myriads of wikis forums blogs etc. etc. and since I'm soooo not The Designer (whoever he/she/they are) I have no idea what I'm doing. Did something break, in terms of hardware? Did my mics "weaken" somehow? I've played with Preferences too - no chance of a lead on getting it back to a working state. The audio thing on the control panel says my microphone iw "working properly" (yeah right) and I have the mic volume up full-blast. I use Windows XP and have tried both mics and several preferences experiments. Nothing seems to lead to anything that could lead to anything that could lead to something like a solution. It worked before... did I "confuse" it somewhow by adding another mic?

Anyway for all you Certified Audio Geniuses out there I'd truly appreciate any insight into this myseriously bizarre and extremely frustrating turn of events. I'm afraid I've made a SERIOUS mistake on this thing by daring to change mics and I'm in way over my head. thanks in advance for your time and for putting up with this long message (lol).

Thanks,
mfox32322

PS - Is there some kind of resource, besides the wiki, that explains the inner workings of audio mechanics? Every blog, forum etc. I've seen uses some kind of technical jargon that I simply don't understand. I have a good education and speak two languages, but it's all just pure techie-talk jibberish to me. So if you know of any English-to-Audioese dictionaries (just kidding) or "Audio mechanics for dummies" type materials I'd sure like to know.

[whomper]

i do not believe you have hardware problems
sounds like the webcam software hosed your settings
but if you have skype or similar then that could do it to you too

hunt them down and put them back the way they were
there are up to 7 or more places in win where they get set
some of them also set otehr places so you only need to track down the right 2 or 3 and put things back like they were

midi terms are all total bull****
you need to tranlslate what they are talking about
in old hardware terms where they came from
into what software might be doing now

controllers dont control squat - they enter data into scorewriters
patches dont patch squat - bullstuff term for sounds
sequencers dont sequence anything - they play back midi
trackers dont track cowboys or indians - they record
samplers dont sample anything - they contain audio samples
synthesisers do synthesise sounds but now its done in software
rewire doesnt fix your wiring - it connects midi and real audio aps

google audio detroit dictionary and you will get the best explanation that is available

all the books i have read speak gibberish and just contradict the previous book if not themselves and never explain anything useful

if you have one specific term try asking on various bbs/forums
for what it means. you may or may not get a clear answer.

most books are very wide and too shallow to tell you anything
but start with bartletts books and then get the freeby at recordingreview.com

[mfox32322]

Thanks for the quick response! I've played, tinkered, experimented, googled, etc. etc. and managed to dupe and/or/sweet talk and/or threaten the dumb thing into making stereo mix work and microphone kinda - the mic has a very radio-esque thing goin on... lots of noise and voice is like distorted. It kinda sounds like a phone conversation in the car or an amateur radio broadcaster doing his thing. As to the 6-7 ways to modify audio settings, I'll have to google that. Everything readable says the mic is up at full volume, but why the sudden clarity change?

Also as far as terms go, thanks! I'll have to look that site up and check it out. I guess I mean more stuff that everyone assumes you know... codecs, sample rate, bit rate or bitrate, spectogram, etc. I think they might deal more with software than hardware, but even the Audacity documentation doesn't seem to have any good, solid definitions of what the heck these things are and do. (btw that's interesting about controllers lol).

Thx agian

[mfox32322]

Thanks all so much... as it turns out it did seem 2b something with my webcam software! Or at least I think so. Anyway the 1 reply I got was right-on and that's exactly how I fixed it (going into the different ways to edit audio options). Thanks again!

Also... I don't know ANYTHING about the technical elements of audio editing, but I do know how to use Audacity effects and also how to record just about anything, so if YOU have a question about any of that just ask. =D

[steve]

PS - Is there some kind of resource, besides the wiki, that explains the inner workings of audio mechanics?

There is also the manual available through the Audacity Help menu or on-line here: http://manual.audacityteam.org/index.ph ... =Main_Page
and a glossary of many technical terms: http://manual.audacityteam.org/index.php?title=Glossary
The "W"s at the beginning of many of the definitions are links to relevant articles on Wikipedia.

There is also an introductory tutorial that attempts to explain in non-technical terms many of the basic concepts of digital recording: http://manual.audacityteam.org/index.ph ... ital_Audio

If there are any specific terms that you don't understand, you are welcome to ask here on the forum and we will do our best to explain in non-technical terms.

(btw that's interesting about controllers lol)

Interesting perhaps but not correct. However we do not need to go into a discussion about MIDI as Audacity is not a MIDI program and does not use or respond to MIDI.

[whomper]

how is it not correct?
that is exactly what my "controller" does
it allows me to type in via a piano like keyboard
the notes that then appear in my scorewriter/notation program
it is a data entry device pure and simple
if it "controls" anything i cant see where it is doing it

[whomper]

http://www.recordingeq.com/reflib.html

this has almost all the terms and they are 99% correct

both characteristics unlike most other audio dictionaries on the web
(although there are a couple that are decent - most are too small andor have too many errors)

it points to other sources that are also good
like the RANE audio dictionary
http://www.rane.com/digi-dic.html

wikipedia often has a good explanation of a given term