And The Confusion Continues- Microphone Problems

Author
Post
Essentials Only Full Version
Xfusion
Max Output Level: -89 dBFS
  • Total Posts : 84
  • Joined: 2006/10/30 20:22:04
  • Status: offline
2007/01/08 02:36:45 (permalink)

And The Confusion Continues- Microphone Problems

I have a Studio Projects C1 mic and a preamp that I have connected to my built-in soundcard on my PC, and whenever I have the audio cable plugged into the soundcard, I only get sound out of 1 speaker. It's not a problem with the speakers because they both work when the cable isn't plugged into the soundcard.

Does anyone have any idea what could be wrong? A few of you may have read my thread the other day where I was confused about what to get to connect my preamp to my soundcard. Well, I bought a RCA Stereo 1/4" adapter to go into the preamp and a Mini-Stereo Audio cable where I have one end plugged into the adapter and the other end plugged into the soundcard. Did I buy the wrong cable or adapter or something??

As always, thanks again for any suggestions or help you can give! I'm so frustrated with all of the technical things that keep delaying my work.
#1

4 Replies Related Threads
    Jim Roseberry
    Max Output Level: 0 dBFS
    • Total Posts : 9871
    • Joined: 2004/03/23 11:34:51
    • Location: Ohio
    • Status: offline
    RE: And The Confusion Continues- Microphone Problems 2007/01/08 04:05:15 (permalink)
    Sounds like you're monitoring straight off your audio card's input. (direct hardware monitoring)
    That being the case, you need to open your audio card's control applet, and pan the input channel to 'center.'

    Your other alternative is to monitor thru Sonar using your audio interface's low-latency ASIO/WDM-KS driver.

    Best Regards,

    Jim Roseberry
    jim@studiocat.com
    www.studiocat.com
    #2
    jiroe
    Max Output Level: -89 dBFS
    • Total Posts : 73
    • Joined: 2007/01/03 18:23:48
    • Location: New Orleans, LA
    • Status: offline
    RE: And The Confusion Continues- Microphone Problems 2007/01/08 11:11:08 (permalink)
    I feel your pain man really, I would reccommend if you got some upgrade money, get yourself a recording interface to by-pass your on board PC soundcard and this will likely make your recordings better and save you the head ache of cofiguring a recording system around a general sound card...

    and one more thing, you might have herd before but... invest in hi quality cables and wiring for every connection even somewhat related to you recording process, and I stress the importance of a "power conditioner" to filter you power and make it nice and clean, which has great advantages in recording, especially digital

    http://www.soundclick.com/jiroe
    #3
    ohhey
    Max Output Level: 0 dBFS
    • Total Posts : 11676
    • Joined: 2003/11/06 16:24:07
    • Location: Fort Worth Texas USA
    • Status: offline
    RE: And The Confusion Continues- Microphone Problems 2007/01/08 12:12:03 (permalink)
    A single microphone is a mono source so that would be normal, it should only be attched to one input or the other (Left or Right). So in your recording software you would select the same channel to record. At playback time a mono track (paned center) will play through both speakers.

    However, it sounds like you also want to be able to hear it in both speakers (or headphones) while the recording is being made (monitoring). For this you will need a way to send the signal to both inputs or send a "copy" of the signal to the other input. Many sound cards have a way to do this. They have a software mixer that controls the built in digital mixer on the sound card so you can patch (copy) any channel to another channel and also control the volume you hear at the outputs of the sound card. Check to see if your sound card can do that. In most cases you access the mixer buy double clicking on a system tray icon, either a logo of some kind or a little speaker. On M-Audio cards it's a little "M" looking icon.

    If your sound card doesn't have that feature you can use a simple Y cord to split the signal from the preamp to both sides (not the best solution) or use a small mixer outside the computer to monitor with or even use input monitoring in your recording software. However, input monitoring is last choice in most cases because of the delay that will drive you crazy. If you can get the latency low enough you may be able to stand it.

    The best solution would be to get a quality sound card designed for this type work and worthy of a mic like that, any of those will have the software mixer I was talking about so you can set up your monitoring any way you want with zero delay.
    post edited by ohhey - 2007/01/08 12:32:43

    Frank Coffey - Songwriter
    http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=790131
    #4
    Xfusion
    Max Output Level: -89 dBFS
    • Total Posts : 84
    • Joined: 2006/10/30 20:22:04
    • Status: offline
    RE: And The Confusion Continues- Microphone Problems 2007/01/09 03:50:56 (permalink)
    Thank you all for your suggestions! It's working now!
    #5
    Jump to:
    © 2024 APG vNext Commercial Version 5.1