i just bought a USB mic and it isnt working with audacity!

[TOOTALL]

picked up the samson co1u usb condenser mic to try and get some better sound when using audacity but audacity doesnt seem to recognize it. Is anyone currently using a usb mic wiht audacity 1.2.6????

thanks.

[steve]

Edit menu > Preferences > Audio I/O
Check that the USB device is selected for recording, and your sound card is selected for playback.
It may be necessary in Audacity 1.2 to restart Audacity for the changes to take effect.

The USB microphone must be connected and recognised by Windows before you start Audacity.

[SimonXXX]

Ummmm.. I don't know the mike in question, but doesn't it need an amp/pre-amp? Just putting a passive non-amped mike into your PC won't do anything.

[allencmcbride]

Simon, that's true for regular mics, but a USB mic should contain its own pre-amp and A/D converter. --Allen

[tigeranddragon]

I too have bought the Samson mike. It works very well with Audacity. I have a different problem. I am recording voice overs and there is a delay from voice in to voice out to the headphones. Is there a fix for that? Hearing my voice delayed to the headphones makes it impossible to use the headphones.

[kozikowski]

<<<It may be necessary in Audacity 1.2 to restart Audacity for the changes to take effect.>>>

You might also consider resetting Audacity to 44100, 16-bit, Mono. My USB microphone didn't work at all until I did that.

<<<Hearing my voice delayed to the headphones makes it impossible to use the headphones.>>>

Sometimes a really slow or old computer wil do that.

Some sound cards give you the ability to do hardware feedback. Reset in edit > Preferences > Audio I/O selections on the bottom. If you don't show "Hardware Playthrough," then your sound card doesn't support it. Software Playthrough is what you probably have now

Koz

[steve]

<<<Hearing my voice delayed to the headphones makes it impossible to use the headphones.>>>

Sometimes a really slow or old computer wil do that.

Some sound cards give you the ability to do hardware feedback.

Unfortunately this is an inherent problem with USB microphones.
Because you are using one audio device for recording (the USB microphone) and a different audio device (your sound card) for playback, there is no direct hardware route from one to the other. That makes it necessary for the signal to be routed via software, which is considerably slower than hardware routing.

For Podcasters this should not be a problem as they do not really need to hear themselves through the headphones, but for singers it can take a lot more getting used to. The usual technique for singers is to listen to the music tracks only, and leave one ear uncovered or only partially covered by the headphones.

[tigeranddragon]

Would I be better to use a USB to mini-plug adaptor to plug into the mike input? Is there such an adaptor?

[steve]

Would I be better to use a USB to mini-plug adaptor to plug into the mike input? Is there such an adaptor?

I've never heard of such an adaptor, and it would defeat the main point of having a USB microphone.

The primary advantage of USB microphones is that they are completely independent of the sound card, so if you have a computer with a low quality sound card (which most PC laptops have) then you can still get high quality recordings by bypassing the sound card altogether.

Other than the "vanity issue" of hearing yourself through the headphones while you sing there should be little reason why you MUST have real time (zero latency) monitoring. Surely it is better to get a high quality recording.

If you really do need zero latency monitoring and high quality recording, the alternative is to use a good quality conventional microphone with with a micrphone pre-amp or mixing desk and a good quality sound card (or a good quality sound card that has a high quality microphone pre-amp built in).

If the sound quality of the recording is not so important, you can buy computer microphones that plug directly into the computer sound card for as little as a couple of $'s.