Stereo recording

[gemius]

I have a Sony 'one point stereo microphone' which belonged to an old Music Centre. I would like to use it to experiment with recording myself on Guitar as I am having difficulty in getting the correct balance of voice and music with the mic I bought for this purpose.
My problem is the mic has seperate leads for left and right but the computer only has one port. Is there an adapter or simple device that could combine them and enable Audacity to record both channels.

[steve]

Is there an adapter or simple device that could combine them

Probably not. Most likely you would need to use a sound card that has two microphone inputs.

Some PC microphone inputs do support stereo microphones, but it also depends on whether your microphone is of a "dynamic" or "electret" type. Electret microphones require power supplied by the microphone socket, dynamic microphones do not. For a stereo dynamic microphone you would need to use an adaptor of the type "2 x mono female 3.5 mm to stereo male 3.5 mm". For an electret type you would probably need a special "2x stereo female 3.5 mm to TRRS 3.5 mm" but (a) I'm not sure if that is actually correct, and (b) I don't remember ever seeing such a thing, so they may not be commercially available. It is most likely that your computer microphone input does not support more than one microphone, and if it does then it's likely that it only supports stereo dynamic microphones. You really need to know exactly what specification the microphone and the microphone inputs are.

[gemius]

Thank you for that Steve. It's a Dynamic Mic and as you say I'll have to enquire if the sound card will support sterio before I can take it any further. I was trying to use minimal equipment to start with but it looks as if I may have to invest in something else. A mixer for example, which I think would give me better results. Do you have any recommendations?
I only want to record myself playing and singing but at the moment I have to get the amp, the microphone and my voice too close together before I can get any volume in the recording. The slightest difference in position and one part fades away. I thought the sterio mic would give a better balance as it naturally records sound sources on opposite sides seperately.

[steve]

If you think that you may upgrade your microphone(s) later, it may be worth getting a small mixing desk that has "phantom power" available. Many recording microphones require phantom power, so although a mixing desk with phantom will cost a bit extra now, it could save you needing to upgrade the mixer later on.

[gemius]

Thank you Steve