Need Help on Microphone Input for Laptop

[ALAN E NORTH]

I just installed Hoster-lite and find the software easy to work with, etc.

I am not a professional KJ or DJ-I just like to fool around with this stuff for Karaoke parties.

No trouble hooking my new laptop up to a second monitor (TV) and the songs play beautifuly from the laptop.

But, I cant' seem to get a microphone to work! Perhaps I just don't understand what is needed.

I simply plugged the microphone from my karoke player into the mike input jack on the laptop. Apparently, this isn't the way to do it as the mike was dead.

I searched the 'help' menu in Vista-no help. The 'adjustments' found in the Realteck driver info seem to be for recording and not for live broadcasting.

Is there any way that I can get the microphone to output along with Hoster ?

Do I need a different kind of microphone ? I'm wondering if I need a self powered mike-since the one I have apparently gets its power from the karaoke machine.

This is probably very basic for you guys-but is a problem for me.

Any help would be appreciated.

Al North

[billyo]

[quote=ALAN E NORTH;88676]I just installed Hoster-lite and find the software easy to work with, etc.

I am not a professional KJ or DJ-I just like to fool around with this stuff for Karaoke parties.

No trouble hooking my new laptop up to a second monitor (TV) and the songs play beautifuly from the laptop.

But, I cant' seem to get a microphone to work! Perhaps I just don't understand what is needed.

I simply plugged the microphone from my karoke player into the mike input jack on the laptop. Apparently, this isn't the way to do it as the mike was dead.

I searched the 'help' menu in Vista-no help. The 'adjustments' found in the Realteck driver info seem to be for recording and not for live broadcasting.

Is there any way that I can get the microphone to output along with Hoster ?

Do I need a different kind of microphone ? I'm wondering if I need a self powered mike-since the one I have apparently gets its power from the karaoke machine.

This is probably very basic for you guys-but is a problem for me.

Any help would be appreciated.

Al North[/q

you need to plug your laptop to your karaoke player using one of the input or the audio out ,and just plug your mic into the mic input of the karaoke player, but the easiest way of doing it is to get yourself an affordable mixer, you need to get a y cable 1/8 to either 1/4 or rca cable, plug the 1/8 end of the cable to your laptop and the 1/4 end to left and right of one of the channels on the board, or the rca end to the cd/tape input.and the mic , plug it into any of the mixing boards channels.

[ddouglass]

Originally Posted by ALAN E NORTH

I just installed Hoster-lite and find the software easy to work with, etc.

I am not a professional KJ or DJ-I just like to fool around with this stuff for Karaoke parties.

No trouble hooking my new laptop up to a second monitor (TV) and the songs play beautifuly from the laptop.

But, I cant' seem to get a microphone to work! Perhaps I just don't understand what is needed.

I simply plugged the microphone from my karoke player into the mike input jack on the laptop. Apparently, this isn't the way to do it as the mike was dead.

I searched the 'help' menu in Vista-no help. The 'adjustments' found in the Realteck driver info seem to be for recording and not for live broadcasting.

Is there any way that I can get the microphone to output along with Hoster ?

Do I need a different kind of microphone ? I'm wondering if I need a self powered mike-since the one I have apparently gets its power from the karaoke machine.

This is probably very basic for you guys-but is a problem for me.

Any help would be appreciated.

Al North

First I would imagine that your Karaoke player microphone is most likely the wrong impedence for the laptop mic input. Unfortunately mics that work directly on laptops are not that good a quality for music but are more meant for spoken voice.
That aside most of the Windows settings I have seen is usually set to mute the microphone input as a default setting. If you have the "volume" icon in the tray (bottom right side) then double click on the icon and look for the microphone input control, unmute it and adjust its volume level to what you need it at. If Microphone is not there then click on "Options" and check the box next to it.
You really are not going to get the sound quality or volume level directly from the laptop. You really need to have an amplifier and speakers. The amp should have microphone input so you can use your karaoke players microphone directly into it or get an inexpensive one from Radio Shack or Best Buy.

[ALAN E NORTH]

Billy O and Dale,

Billy O,

Thanks for the advice; I realize that I could plug the mic into the karaoke player and use it that way-but the whole purpose of using the laptop (for me) was to avoid lugging the karaoke player around if I went to somebody else's house.

I was really hoping to use just the laptop plugged into the TV set. Neverthelss, if that is what I have to do, I will do it.

Dale,

I tried the volume icon in the lower tray. There
doesn't seem to be any mic switch or option box (Vista).

There are some 'mixer' adjustments-but nothing related to 'muting' the mic. I'll keep looking around Vista for some kind of mic control.

I will also try a mic made for computers.

Thanks for trying.

[billyo]

you wont get a quality sound that way, like i said if you get yourself and affordable mixing board, amp & a set of speakers, then buying hoster lite is money well spent

[marklwood]

I use an external soundblaster live box for this very thing. Mic input and better sound quality. About the size of 2 decks of cards.

[ALAN E NORTH]

Mark,

After playing with this thing extensively, I don't think there is any way to get the mic input to come out of the same speakers as the music. It seems that the mic on the laptop is strictly for recording-or maybe for telephone calls. There doesn't seem to be any way to have the mic output join the music output.

My aim here is to not carry a whole bunch of extra equipment around. Your suggestion sounds like it might fit the bill for me.

Please give me some details as to model number-hook up, etc.

Thanks for the help.