Trouble recording in stereo with external mic.

[brian1000]

I just bought a laptop with windows 7, and am experiencing problems recording in stereo.

The first strange problem happens in the windows 7 IDT audio control panel. I set the default to an external microphone (I have a Sony F-V120, 1/8th inch stereo jack, not USB), match these settings in audacity, and the machine records through the internal mic. I set the default to internal in the audio control panel, and audacity records through the external microphone, but only on the left channel. The right remains silent until I normalize the audio, then the right channel is full of static while the left plays what was recorded.

I've been successfully using Audacity for years on other machines and have not encountered anything like this problem before. I haven't found anything in the Wiki tutorials that relate to this, and I've run out of the extent of my knowledge trying to fix it.

Any help/suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Brian

[steve]

I set the default to an external microphone (I have a Sony F-V120, 1/8th inch stereo jack, not USB), match these settings in audacity, and the machine records through the internal mic. I set the default to internal in the audio control panel, and audacity records through the external microphone,

That sounds like a bug in the sound card drivers - it's got internal and external microphones the wrong way round. Updating the sound card drivers (if newer drivers are available) may fix that, but otherwise it is at least easy to work around.

audacity records through the external microphone, but only on the left channel.

If I've got the correct microphone here: http://www.sony.co.uk/product/pam-vocal/f-v120 it's a mono microphone.
If you set Audacity to record 1 channel (mono) then it should record correctly (in mono).
You may also need to set recording to mono in the Windows Control Panel (just guessing on this point - I don't have Windows 7).

[whomper]

i thought someone here said once that that plug was mono only
so it could never record stereo
even if it were a stereo mike plugged in

were we misled or not

[kozikowski]

Many times the internal microphone records in stereo. This is usually so convenient, people naturally expect all microphones to do that and that's when they get burned.

Koz

[whomper]

stereo ?
or
dual mono ??

can't see that little mike doing real stereo

pc makers would have to pay to double the mikes
and mount them just so at 90degrees
maybe on a really high end
but not the low end
and not when they are biz machines?

[steve]

i thought someone here said once that that plug was mono only
so it could never record stereo
even if it were a stereo mike plugged in

Some laptops have only a mono microphone socket.
If the microphone input is mono, then it can not record stereo through that socket.
The audio input socket on an Acer 5735 is stereo. (this is not a recommendation for using the input socket on an Acer 5735 - the sound quality is rubbish).