Need Help on Microphone Input for Laptop

[marklwood]

Originally Posted by ALAN E NORTH

MARK,
I saw that one on E Bay-but didn't want to bid until I knew it was the right one. I went back and did place a bid.

Looks like you got it too

[ALAN E NORTH]

Yep,

I just got an E mail from E Bay confirming that I am the 'winner'. Will probably take a week or so to get it. I'll let you know how it works out.

Appreciate your patience in helping me.

[ALAN E NORTH]

Mark,

The soundblaster card arrived yesterday and installing it was quick & easy. I get the sound out of the laptop all right-but couldn not get the mic to put out any sound.

When I tap it, I hear a 'pop'-but no sound comes out when I speak.

When all else fails, I believe in 'reading the instructions'-so I loaded the software disk and read the manual (didn't load the software-just the manual).

The whole manual has only one line in it concerning microphones. It says 'connect a condenser microphone" and that's it. No troubleshooting comments.

Now I don't know a 'condenser' mic from a hole in the ground-so I went to the internet to find out what it was.

I quickly found out that there are two basic types of mics-condenser and dynamic. The rest of the technical stuff didn't mean much to me.

It turns out that the mic that came with my karoke machine is 'dynamic-so I assume that's the reason it doesn't work with the Soundblaster card.

Does that sound about right to you ? I will look for a 'condenser' type mic on the internet-but I would like to know if I'm on the right track before I do so.

There is also the possibility that the soundblaster card is defective-but I think the problem is the wrong type of mic.

Your thoughts-or anybody else's ?

Thanx for your help !

[ddouglass]

Sounds like you are on the right track. You need a Condenser type of microphone.

[marklwood]

Yep, right on track. I had one from Radio Shack that cost me about $15. It was an incredibly crappy mic, but it worked. I would spend the extra $$ and get a decent one. My suggestion would be to use something like this

http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com...one?sku=277522

I am not suggesting or endorsing this specific mic or vendor. I am merely giving a suggestion as to a way to go. This mic will get you where you need to go. It has a battery power supply so no power from the sound card is needed to run the condenser. This kind of condenser mic without it's own battery is why you have a "phantom power" switch on your PA.

[ALAN E NORTH]

I ordered a Vocopro Mark-CV1 from some outfit in New York; it will take a week to get here.

This is what I ordered:http://www.savinglots.com/lotprod.asp?item=MarkCV1

Like Mark I ran over to Radio Shack and picked up one of their mics-just to see if it would work.

It didn't !

I'm not sure it is even a condenser type mic; it acts just like my Dynamic mic-and the package does not even say 'condenser' although it does require a battery and the guy in Radio Shack assured me that it was.

At any rate, when the Vocopro gets here next week, I'll try that one out.

I hope the problem is not the Soundblaster card.

However this plays out, I want to thank all of you guys for putting up with a relative novice and giving me the benefit of your advice and experience.

Al North

[marklwood]

Originally Posted by ALAN E NORTH

I ordered a Vocopro Mark-CV1 from some outfit in New York; it will take a week to get here.

This is what I ordered:http://www.savinglots.com/lotprod.asp?item=MarkCV1

Like Mark I ran over to Radio Shack and picked up one of their mics-just to see if it would work.

It didn't !

I'm not sure it is even a condenser type mic; it acts just like my Dynamic mic-and the package does not even say 'condenser' although it does require a battery and the guy in Radio Shack assured me that it was.

At any rate, when the Vocopro gets here next week, I'll try that one out.

I hope the problem is not the Soundblaster card.

However this plays out, I want to thank all of you guys for putting up with a relative novice and giving me the benefit of your advice and experience.

Al North

Al, I will make it a point to find that old mic this week and hook it up like your setup. I actually have 3 of those soundblaster externals. (I found another one while cleaning out my storeroom) If it is in fact a problem with your soundcard and mine works OK, I will trade you even swap. I don't need the mic input for my shows, so it wouldn't matter to me. I am currently working on a house I am moving in to and I have stuff scattered over 3 different locations right now, so give me a week to find it.

[ALAN E NORTH]

Mark,

I appreciate your very generous offer; let's wait and see how this plays out after I get the Voco Pro-in about a week.

[marklwood]

Originally Posted by ALAN E NORTH

Mark,

I appreciate your very generous offer; let's wait and see how this plays out after I get the Voco Pro-in about a week.

No problem. It will take me that long to get around to it anyways

[ALAN E NORTH]

Mark,

I finally got the mic and hooked it up w/o installing the software; it didn't work. Then I installed the software and it still didn't work.

Realizing that this was probably an 'older' model, I went to the creative website and downloaded what they say is a vista-compatible upgrade.

Much to my surprise, the mic now works with the laptop-although the volume is pretty low.

At any rate, I want to thank you and the others for your input in helping this novice work through the situation. I especially want to thank you for your offer in exchanging Soundblaster cards. While that isn't necessary at this point, the fact that you even made the offer is testimony to your willingness to help help others.

I find the lyrics to be a little behind the sound-but I see that other people are having the same problem -on another thread.

Frankly, I am really fed up with Vista. I took it off my office computer a year ago and I just may do the same thing here. XP is so much more reliable and ALL my software works with XP. Can't say that about Vista.

Thanx again !

[marklwood]

Originally Posted by ALAN E NORTH

I find the lyrics to be a little behind the sound-but I see that other people are having the same problem -on another thread.

We have found a work around if you need it. If you open up ver 3.4 there is a setting for playback offset. It is under the tools menu. These changes also effect 4.06. You could adjust this if all of your songs are behind the same rate. The good news is in the next release (don't ask me when) the sync seems to be rock solid even in Vista. You may just hang on for a little while longer and see if the next release will fix things for you.

As far as the mic low volume, what kind of battery does this take? You may be able to get a little more out of it if you use a stronger battery. Not all batteries are created equal. If it takes one AA battery and you are really industrious, you might try this.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Doub...ur_AA_Battery/
Sounds like a good little project.

[ALAN E NORTH]

Mark,

As for 'juicing' up the power by connecting two mini-1.5 volt batteries in series to get 3 volts, it looks easy enough to do, and while I might try it for a nose clipper or something similar, I would be reluctant to try this on a microphone.

While I am not an engineer, I do know enough about electricity to understand that excessive voltage can quickly burn out any device. I've done that often enough with things like light bulbs. I don't know if the mic is so sensitive that the extra 1.5 vots might burn it out-but I don't think I want to try. Do you know anybody who has done it ?

How do I 'open' version 3.40 ? The manual tells me it is included, but I can't find any way to 'open' it. I would think it would have to be installed separately, but the installation program doesn't give me any option to do that.

[marklwood]

Originally Posted by ALAN E NORTH

How do I 'open' version 3.40 ? The manual tells me it is included, but I can't find any way to 'open' it. I would think it would have to be installed separately, but the installation program doesn't give me any option to do that.

In the directory c:\Program Files\Micro Technology Unlimited\Hoster There is a File called Hoster34.exe. That is how you open it. I right clicked and made a shortcut on the desktop for quick access.

[marklwood]

Originally Posted by ALAN E NORTH

Mark,

As for 'juicing' up the power by connecting two mini-1.5 volt batteries in series to get 3 volts, it looks easy enough to do, and while I might try it for a nose clipper or something similar, I would be reluctant to try this on a microphone.

Now would be the perfect time to try it. It's still under warranty and it is not a critical operations item.

[Roy Dennis]

Originally Posted by ALAN E NORTH

Mark,


Much to my surprise, the mic now works with the laptop-although the volume is pretty low.

One other thing have you checked the volume from the microphone properties ?
Try control panel/sound then double left click your sound from the list, from the next window click levels tab. there should be a slider for microphone.

[billyo]

Originally Posted by marklwood

just have a suggestion about " still under warranty"..you would just be able to exchanged the mic, you wont get your money back..( at least in Florida " Guitar Center " ) i had a mic that i didnt like, i only had it for a few hours and i tried to return it and they wont take it back, due to "health safety reasons"..either i get the same mic or buy something that i like and pay extra...

[marklwood]

Originally Posted by billyo

due to "health safety reasons"..either i get the same mic or buy something that i like and pay extra...

You were just using this for your voice weren't you? Any other uses are not approved, nor advised

[billyo]

Originally Posted by marklwood

yup..and the other uses maybe you can tell me about it

[marklwood]

Originally Posted by billyo

yup..and the other uses maybe you can tell me about it

"no sir" I said, "that is a latex windscreen used for waterproofing"

[ALAN E NORTH]

Mark,

Don't know why I couldn't find 3.4 last night; I am very familiar with DOS file structure snce I wrote many of my accounting programs in Microsoft Basic which runs under DOS (a long time before Windows). Maybe it was just my bleary eyes at 3 AM in the morning.

I loaded 3.4 and retarded the sound a whole .5 seconds and now everything is in sync.

I will not take a chance on 'super-volting' the mic. It may not even be necessary since I found something else that works fairly well.

A while back I bought a little 'amplifier' from Radio Shack that runs on two
AA batteries. I used it to boost the ouput of my DVD player when watchng movies on airplanes. It worked well, but after the first try, I found out that I still needed noise reduction earphones.

I put the amplifier on the input side of the Soundblaster card and nothing worked; apparently, the mic needs to have its' output run through the card.

I then put the amplifier on the output side of the Soundblaster and I think this setup could be used to break your eardrums if you wanted to.

The drawback is that it also amplifies the music output from the laptop.

I didn't try adjusting the sound from Hoster; that might be a way to adjust the music output from the laptop relative to the voice output from the mic. . I'll have to try that next.

At any rate, I can now put this thing to bed.

Thanx again to you and to all the other guys who had suggestions.