Help: Volume on Paltalk

Subject: RE: Help: Volume on Paltalk
From: Noreen
Date: 04 Oct 01 - 06:31 PM

11.35pm now in UK, PalTalk still going strong.

Noreen

Subject: RE: Help: Volume on Paltalk
From: Steve in Idaho
Date: 04 Oct 01 - 05:00 PM

What time is it there now??

Steve

Subject: RE: Help: Volume on Paltalk
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 04 Oct 01 - 04:57 PM

Damn.... forgot about the time differences.... Hopefully we'll still be going at midnight!

LTS

Subject: RE: Help: Volume on Paltalk
From: Steve in Idaho
Date: 04 Oct 01 - 04:53 PM

Wish I could Liz - I'm at work for another two hours. I'd a lot rather be sitting home listening to the tunes!! And playing a few!!

Steve

Subject: RE: Help: Volume on Paltalk
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 04 Oct 01 - 04:49 PM

Hey Norton, come and give us a demo now!!!

Password is DT

LTS

Subject: RE: Help: Volume on Paltalk
From: Steve in Idaho
Date: 04 Oct 01 - 04:43 PM

Good enough Ivan - I'll certainly know a lot more after I get hooked in tonight. With my luck *G* the jack for the mike, were it to have been correct, would probably have had enough volume.

It's certainly OK though. Winter is coming on and it is time to start moving to indoor activities. My partner just smiles and says, "If anyone can figure it out you will." Ah faith :-).

Thanks for all of your help. And Thanks for all of the nice words you folks gave me at my first little gig - so to speak.

Steve

Subject: RE: Help: Volume on Paltalk
From: IvanB
Date: 04 Oct 01 - 04:29 PM

Steve, yes, you can go through the mixer first, then the preamp. And, you need to run the line out from the preamp to the mic jack on the soundcard. I've found by trying to play CD's over Paltalk that the line-in doesn't produce enough volume.

BTW, I was in the room when you first performed on Paltalk and I was able to hear you, although, as you say, your volume level is low. I had to turn my sound all the way up for you, whereas for most performers I have it set at about 30%.

As far as the mono to stereo connection goes, I have my mono mic plug going directly into my stereo jack with no converter, and it works fine. But, as I remember, before I used a preamp, I had to fiddle with the plug in the jack to get enough volume. Seems like I ended up with it pulled partway out.

Subject: RE: Help: Volume on Paltalk
From: Steve in Idaho
Date: 04 Oct 01 - 02:00 PM

dw - So I can put both inputs into a mixer and then into the sound card - Question - input hole or mic hole?

And yes I did crank the mic slider you speak of up all the way. I'm beginning to wonder if my sound card is too small? If that question made any sense!
Thanks - Steve

Subject: RE: Help: Volume on Paltalk
From: Steve in Idaho
Date: 04 Oct 01 - 01:53 PM

Ivan - I went to one of the small music rooms last night, and the guys were incredibly indulgent, and I believe I have the mic on. I've highlighted and copied your advice here and will try it this evening to make sure I have the correct items checked and working.

I'm currently getting some volume but not that nice bassy sound so indigenous to a full bodied acoustic. In other words it sounds like I'm set on the smallest setting.

My local music shop, my town has one stop light, has a small pre amp (I don't know what kind) that they are going to loan me to see if I can figure this out before my concert this month.

If I am reading you correctly I should be able to preamp the sound after the mixer. Put my mic and guitar into the mixer and then preamp to the computer sound card.

Currently my mic is in the mic hole on the sound card and the mixer/guitar is in the input hole. Another problem I encountered was that the mic hole in the sound card is a stereo jack and my old shure mic is a straight mono jack. Will getting a stereo jack converter for the mono on the mike give me more volume on the mic? Or will it need to go through the pre amp also? I'd really like to be able to adjust them independently.

Thanks for your assistance - Steve

Subject: RE: Help: Volume on Paltalk
From: dwditty
Date: 04 Oct 01 - 01:48 PM

This may be obvious, but there is a microphone icon w/ a slider on the Paltalk room screen. Make sure that is up all the way too. IvanB is right, many times the "mic gain" has to be switched on as he descriibed.

For a long time I just used the little pc mic that came with the system, and it worked fine. Now I use a mixer with two mics. The two outputs from the mixer feed into a stereo jack then into the sound card.

As a suggestion, start with the simplest connection and build up from there. Each time I have made a change I have had to spend time to get it right (or in some cases go back to the drawiing board).

Hear you later....

dw

Subject: RE: Help: Volume on Paltalk
From: IvanB
Date: 04 Oct 01 - 01:38 PM

Steve, the first thing to do is make sure you have mic gain turned on on your computer. You do this by opening volume control (it should either be a speaker icon in your tray, at the bottom right of your screen or, if not, click on Start/Programs/Accessories, then either Multimedia or Entertainment, then Volume control. If the microphone volume control isn't showing, click on Options then Properties and check the box next to Microphone in the window labeled "Show the following volume controls." With the mic volume showing, click on Advanced, then check the box next to Mic Gain in the other controls section.

Having done that, you may or may not get the volume you need. I use an old Yamaha amplified speaker as a pre-amp and it works fine for me. Mine has two line-in jacks, but I commonly use a jack doubler to feed two sources through the same jack. For normal Paltalk use, I use just one mic and try to position it to pick up both my voice and guitar. When I did my Paltalk concert last fall, I did use a resistance mixer so I could use several sources and have individualized control over each of them. Both methods have worked well with my 'pre-amp.' I should note that I took the speaker apart and removed the leads to the speaker itself so I wouldn't have feedback problems.

Subject: Volume on Paltalk
From: Steve in Idaho
Date: 04 Oct 01 - 01:17 PM

I'm sure this has been discussed many times but I didn't find anything on the search that met my needs. I'm trying to get enough volume through a micro mixer to be heard in the Paltalk music rooms. I'm mixing a guitar and my microphone and attempting to feed them into the sound card - but even cranked up to the max I can barely hear myself. And I don't want to fry my sound card (been told it is very easy to do).

Will a small pre amp help with this issue? Do I need to use two jacks, one for mic and one for guitar, to get what I want? Anyone who has done these things I'd certainly appreciate some assistance.