Recording voice with USB

[valis]

I will buy an TERRATEC AUREON DUAL USB, a little pen with soundcard and line in for mic, can I register Voice with the this Usb in Audacity?
Thank you

[Irish]

Yes, you can, but you could equally just use the mic input on your computer. The "technical data" section on the manufacturer's website is conspicuously lacking in technical detail for that device, but I would imagine that it expects a standard computer microphone as an input, which is the same as the mic input on your computer expects. There is probably a 50-50 chance that it will have a better quality sound card than your computer. If you are going to buy it anyway, try both options and see which is better.

In general, for choosing recording equipment, a lot depends on what you want to record, and what quality you want.
For speech you will probably get by with a cheap computer mic. For music or singing, you may want a better quality mic, in which case you are getting into the territory of pre-amplifiers, and things get a little more complex. If you do go that way, there are a number of people on the forum who will be glad to point you in the right direction.

PO'L

[valis]

Thank you....but read audacity automatically this external soundcard?

[Irish]

Yes, Audacity will read the soundcard, provided your computer's sound system recognises it.

You will need to do the following:

Plug in the sound card before you start Audacity.
Go to Audacity Preferences (in Version 1.2, Edit > Preferences > Audio I/O. In version 1.3 Edit > Preferences > Devices) and select USB Audio Codec as the recording device and your computer's sound system as the playback device.

PO'L