Microphone sound to computer

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Microphone sound to computer

Postby DanDan » Wed Jan 17, 2007 3:01 am

Hi,
Not until recently have I had a need to record with a microphone onto my computer. This is a new area for me, and things are not going well. The comp is a 2 year old HP, with headphone, input, and mic jacks both front and rear. I have two mics, one came with an old cassete deck from the 80's, one came with an electronic keyboard last year. The computer has jacks but when I plug in I get no sound. Neither mic is powered?? Do I need one that is powered? Or USB? do I need some sort of preamp, or sound board? Any Ideas are appreciated. I may need to pm Al Cain, or Peter Frampton, they seem to be the sound gurus. I thought I would try here first. For something that seems a simple procedure why is it so complicated? :oops: :lol:
_Dan

Oh! I have already played with all of the volume controls to make sure mic is checked ad not muted. :lol:

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your problem

Postby Slidewizards » Wed Jan 17, 2007 3:23 pm

your problem is a easy one. The mics you are trying to use are not mend for a computer. The mic you need is made for a computer and can be found on line any where from 99¢ to $99 I check my local RadioShack or Computer store. I would also recommend a headset with a noise canceling mic. Hope this helps Plus one more tip: :idea: Do a search on your computer for a file called Sndrec32.exe ..... It should be located in: C:\WINDOWS\system32\Sndrec32.exe
once you find it make a shortcut by right clicking it and move to a location and say make copy here or make shortcut here.
Now if you need to make a recording the build in Windows recorder pops on. This is a great way to test your recording setting.

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Postby DanDan » Wed Jan 17, 2007 6:18 pm

Hey Slidewizards,
Thanks for the tips! My thinking about the same size plug should fit, (Ha), but it doesn't work. Like I said this was new to me. I was afraid I would need an external soundboard or adapter or something. I did stop by the local "W**mart on the way home just to see. They had an inexpensive headset like you mentioned. I tried it and it does work. I'll be. I wonder what the differences are,...........wait don't reply, it will just confuse me more. I will try your other suggestions too. :lol:
Thanks,
_Dan

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Postby gpsmikey » Thu Jan 18, 2007 7:06 pm

OK Dan, if you take a Fast Fourier Transform of the second harmonic
of the voice passband ... oh, wait, wrong playback. :lol:

If you find a mic that works for you great. Understand that typically,
most computers have fairly poor microphone amplifiers (especially
if it is on the motherboard). If you can not get satisfactory results,
look into using an inexpensive pre-amplifier with a decent mic and
feed that to the "LINE IN" on the computer. Often significantly better
results. Make sure you work the issue of doing your recording in
as sound friendly a location as you can (away from the computer,
use a blanket to help absorb stray sound etc and use a decent pair
of headphones. Nothing like putting lots of effort into your voice-over
only to discover when you play it later that there was
"what.. hummm ... you .. hummm... said" with lots of background noises
(many people have discovered that the hard way when video taping
a relative etc and had no idea about all the background conversation
and other noises that got picked up until later).

In fact (now that I remember where I saw it), the Feb, 2007 issue of
Videomaker magazine has an article called "Room without a view"
discussing the very issue of options for recording voice over tracks
(about 2 pages - worth taking a look).

mikey
You can't have too many gadgets or too much disk space !!
mikey (PSP6, Photoshop CS6, Vegas Pro 14, Acid 7, BluffTitler, Nikon D300s, D810)
Lots of PIC and Arduino microprocessor stuff too !!

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Postby nannybear » Fri Jan 19, 2007 9:46 am

Here is the site for the article. Mikey do you have the magazine to let them know what the password is?? Cheers Jan

Want to read the full story?
Get instant access now!
Magazine Subscribers and
Newsstand Buyers:
Get FREE access to Videomaker.com by entering the password that appears in the middle, left-hand side of the Table of Contents in the current issue.

http://www.videomaker.com/article/12997/
http://www.janstephens.com or http://www.oilswithjananddonna.com/
Graphic Design, Essential Oils, Click and Grow gardening, Cooking and Merge Dragons - PSP latest - Adobe Creative Cloud Suite
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Postby gpsmikey » Fri Jan 19, 2007 10:08 am

tee hee - someone with a sense of humor ... "download"

I should add that the magazine is (at least in my opinion ... )
worth the subscription. Lots of good information in there and
with what we can do with Proshow, the line between "video"
and "slideshow" is VERY blurred. One of the other articles
in this months was talking about how much more natural
the motion of entering a room looked if the subject curved
towards the camera as they entered instead of going in
a straight line -- very true and easily implemented in a
slideshow as you zoom in on something etc.

For what it's worth, a card that just fell out of my subscription
(for new subs only) has it for $11.97 for a year or $21.97 for
two years (plus cool ads so you can find more ways to spend
your money !!).

mikey
You can't have too many gadgets or too much disk space !!
mikey (PSP6, Photoshop CS6, Vegas Pro 14, Acid 7, BluffTitler, Nikon D300s, D810)
Lots of PIC and Arduino microprocessor stuff too !!

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Postby DanDan » Fri Jan 19, 2007 11:23 am

You guys are just so generous, I appreciate the help. I will get a copy of the mag at the news stand. This project may not get off the ground, but you don't know if you don't try. I am still trying to catch up to the 21st century. I done all sorts of recording/ dubbing etc. over the years. Just never had a need to use a mic.
Thanks!
_Dan

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