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06 May 00 - 04:37 AM (#223961) Subject: Mike doesn't work From: BlueJay Folks- I'd like to join in HearMe, so I bought a cheapo mike, that sounds terrible. I'm copying this from the recent Autoharp Hear Me thread: Subject: RE: Reminder Autoharp friendly hearme 5/14! From: BlueJay Date: 06-May-00 - 03:19 AM
JAB- I'm happy that this is coming about! I will listen if nothing else. But I need some help. Are you a "Computer Enhanced" individual? I'm megabyte challenged, and having some sound trouble. Briefly, I want to participate in "HearMe" so I bought a ten dollar mike at WalMart. When trying recording in "Sound Recorder", it sounds terrible. Static and distortion are really bad. I tried using "Help", changing from radio quality to CD quality with no improvement. I even went to Control Panel-Multimedia and messed with the audio settings, still no luck. My speakers are cheapos, but they've always sounded pretty good with other things, so I don't think it's the speakers. Unless you or someone else has any ideas, the only thing I can think of is that the mike itself is no good. Thanks for any help you can give. BlueJay |
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06 May 00 - 08:02 AM (#223977) Subject: RE: Help: Mike doesn't work From: Jeri My guess is it's the mic, but I think others are using cheap mics without much of a problem. Before you give up, try adjusting your sound levels - your record volume may be too high or too low. Every computer is different. Probably the best way to find out how to adjust levels is to go to Settings, Control Panel, click on "Help" then select Help Topics. Type "sound" into the search box. Also, please not that HearMe does something different with levels. The only way to check HearMe is to go there and try it when someone is available to listen and give you feedback. There's and "audio configuration" thing at HearMe, but in my opinion, the thing doesn't work very well - it's telling me I'm red-lining all the time, and my mic is set on the lowest setting... |
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06 May 00 - 10:18 AM (#224007) Subject: RE: Help: Mike doesn't work From: GUEST,flattop Try starting with your line-in level very low, BlueJay. Overload levels sound terrible in digital audio. If it doesn't sound good at low levels, take the mike back to Walmart. (Overload levels can sound great on tube amps but your autoharping may sound more like a Jimmy Hendricks recording.) If low levels sound good, bring the levels back up a bit at a time until you find the limit. Also, if it sounds good, try taping the mike to the instrument with masking tape and recording at low levels. (Fold both ends of the tape under for easy removal.) Again, bring the level up until just before it hurts for best sound quality. Fastening the mike to the body of the instrument works well with cheap condenser mikes that use batteries. Cheap condenser mikes often outperform more expensive dynamic mikes costing $200 - $500 Canadian. I've seen clipon condenser mikes advertised for as little as $1.50 on the internet. Clipon mikes are not directional so they pick up room noise. If you can't find a cheap condenser mike, you can buy the condenser cartridges and build you own mike. Condenser cartridges cost (approximately $5 Canadian = $3.50 U.S.) at Radio Shack or ($1.50 Canadian = $1.00 U.S.) at Electrosonic and Active Surplus in Toronto. The mikes are made from one condenser cartridge, one resistor, one capacitor and one battery. The larger cartridges sound better. You can make your mikes directional with toilet paper rolls or cans and cotton swabs. Cover everything with cotton except a recessed opening at the front of the cartridge. I have never made a condenser mike myself. I bought cartridges for experiments but haven't yet found time to spend with them. I have mounted cheap condenser mikes with cotton puffs in old dead mikes and mounted them on instruments. The results were pleasing. Also, I bought four discontinued, decent quality, directional, condenser mikes from Radio Shack a few years ago for $70 Canadian each (about $50 U.S.). They seem to be identical to Shure studio condenser mikes that were selling for over $300 back then. In tests, the Radio Shack condenser mikes sounded noticably better then a $500 German mike and much better than Shure SM58s, the most commonly used stage mike. Yet, $22 condenser mikes with large cartridges (no longer carried by Electrosonic) sound even better than the Radio Shack mikes and cotton is cheap. Check out you local electronics stores and anyone selling cheap used equipment. Experiment. Have fun. Playing with mikes is very safe from an electronics standpoint. You can't do much damage. You'll need to record at least 16 bit, mono, 22k, for decent sound quality. Chews up the hard drive at about 1.25 meg per minute though, I believe - 16 bit, 44k, stereo, gobbles about 5 megs per minute record time. |
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06 May 00 - 10:32 AM (#224012) Subject: RE: Help: Mike doesn't work From: BlueJay Thanks, Jeri. Thanks also to you Guest, Flattop??? I thought you were a member. Anyway, I'll try adjusting the input level. Thanks. BlueJay |
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08 May 00 - 01:20 PM (#224698) Subject: RE: Help: Mike doesn't work From: late 'n short Sorry. Thought this was about my next door neighbor. |
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08 May 00 - 01:37 PM (#224713) Subject: RE: Help: Mike doesn't work From: Bert Hmmm, I bought a $10 mike from WalMart and it's a dynamic made by Magnavox and it's pretty good. Check it first using a cassette recorder. If it checks out OK then I would suspect some type of matching problem or your sound card. Borrow a condenser mike from someone and try that. |
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08 May 00 - 05:55 PM (#224858) Subject: RE: Help: Mike doesn't work From: McGrath of Harlow Have you checked you're plugging it into the right input? With my pc I found that the input marked "mike" on the speakers doesn't do anything, the input marked "mike" at the back sounds terrible, and it seems to prefer the one marked line-in. I don't understand these things. |
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08 May 00 - 11:09 PM (#225000) Subject: RE: Help: Mike doesn't work From: Night Owl LOL..."late 'n short"!!!! |
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08 May 00 - 11:17 PM (#225001) Subject: RE: Help: Mike doesn't work From: Dulci46 My mic didn't work either, found I had it plugged into the wrong place. |
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08 May 00 - 11:55 PM (#225010) Subject: RE: Help: Mike doesn't work From: Night Owl Dulci...where WERE you plugging it in and where do you have it plugged in now that its working???? |
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09 May 00 - 08:21 AM (#225122) Subject: RE: Help: Mike doesn't work From: Dulci46 Got it plugged in right now. And it works, when I can get up enough courage to use it. |
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09 May 00 - 12:22 PM (#225233) Subject: RE: Help: Mike doesn't work From: Grab A few problems I've found with microphones and PC sound cards... First off, the microphone may just not be giving a big enough signal out. I bought a cheap mike for talking into for the PC, and that needs a separate preamp to work with anything. If the mike is an active type (ie. it has a battery in it) then this shouldn't be a problem, although then the problem may be a too-large input. Second off, sound-cards mounted in a PC just aren't a good move. Digital electronics is very electrically noisy, especially at high frequencies (the metal box is to keep the noise in, not to keep external noise out!) And into this noisy environment we're sticking a soundcard and expecting it to work .. the surprise is that we get anything decent at all! Thirdly, you get what you pay for. As I've found out to my cost, all-in-one motherboards with the sound card included don't work well - they're even closer to the digital bits and suffer very badly from noise, and they're probably not too good in the first place.
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09 May 00 - 12:51 PM (#225257) Subject: RE: Help: Mike doesn't work From: McGrath of Harlow Grab - so what do you advise? I hadn't realised there was an alternative way of doing things... |