Record on computer with microphone

[Zebigboss]

I am trying to record an acoustic guitar and voice on computer, but the sound is very faint. Am I using the wrong sort of mike? It's an Aiwa (ahem!) Karaoke DM h18 1mp 300 ( omega symbol). Thanks for your help. My computer is a Dell Dimension 5150.

[Buenchico]

You seem to have had a classical education rather than a scientific one ;-)
(i.e. you can recognise the Greek letter omega but not know that it stands for 'ohms', which is a measure of resistance/impedance)

Most PC microphones have an impedance of around 2000 ohms but I would still expect a mike with an impedance figure of 300 ohms to be perfectly useable. Check that you've got the mike plugged into a dedicated microphone socket (and not 'line in'). Then check that the input level isn't set too low. Exactly how you do this might depend upon your operating system and sound card but, on most PCs, you can normally access the sound controls by double-clicking the loudspeaker symbol at the bottom right of your screen. (Increase the microphone level setting if there is one. If there's no slider for a microphone, the one for 'line in' will probably share the settings).

Chris

[Zebigboss]

Buenchico, thanks for your reply.
All the recording levels are set at max, and the mike is plugged in to the front input which I normally use for Skype etc without any problem. I use the mike to record on a tape recorder without problems, it will pick up sound from quite far away then. However, with the computer it only really works if you speak into it really closely. Is it the wrong type of mike? It is a pretty crap one I should think.

[Buenchico]

Hmm.

A mis-matched impedance could be the cause of your problems but I've been plugging microphones into amplifiers, etc for years and my experience is that you can usually get away with using most microphones with most circuits (irrespective of what you should 'theoretically' use).

See if you can borrow a microphone with a higher impedance from a friend. (Alternatively, keep an eye open in 'pound shops', and the like for a cheap microphone which states that it's got an impedance measured in thousands of ohms, rather than hundreds. It might not be good enough for quality recording but, if it only costs a pound or two, it will reveal whether the problem is related to mis-matched impedance before you invest 'proper money' in a better mike).

Chris

[rojash]

The problem is almost certainly due to the low impedance of your mic. You could get an impedance transformer for the mic., but it's probably cheaper to simply buy a high impedance mic - especially as the mic you have is unlikely to be of a very high quality.

I have to say though, that you are unlikely to get particularly good results recording via the sound card (unless it's a specialist card). If this is something you intend to do frequently, you might want to look into getting a USB audio adaptor, like this:

http://www.djstore.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.pl?item= numdxm01usb

or this:

http://www.djstore.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.pl?item= behbcd2000