I received an Audio Interface. It's a Roland Duo-Capture. I also had a female-to-femal ShurePG58 microhone.
I wen't to best buy to get the LAST female-to-male mic cord adapter. And when I hooked it up, the mic volume was extremely low and the noise would amplify if I added a positve gain. And if I amplify the gain so it can mix well with an instrumental, the "noise" would make the recording experience horrible.  

Would a pre-amp fix this problem? If so, I need a cheap and decent pre amp. Like a Behringer pre amp for $20 bucks. 

Do you have the Duo-Capture or the Duo-Capture EX?
The Duo-Capture has un unbalaced (mono) 1/4-inch input. You need an XLR to mono 1/4-inch cable, turn HI-Z off and set GAIN to HI. (see page 16 of the user manual)
The EX version has standard, balanced XLR input, i.e. the cable should be XLR female to XLR male. 

Neither interface requires a pre-amp for microphones. 

Wilko
 

Shadow of The Wind


Do you have the Duo-Capture or the Duo-Capture EX?
The Duo-Capture has un unbalaced (mono) 1/4-inch input. You need an XLR to mono 1/4-inch cable, turn HI-Z off and set GAIN to HI. (see page 16 of the user manual)
The EX version has standard, balanced XLR input, i.e. the cable should be XLR female to XLR male. 

Neither interface requires a pre-amp for microphones. 

Wilko

I have a Duo-Capture (non-EX)
That's why I bought the XLR to 1/4-inch input for it.
I set the gain to high and the the Hi-Z is off.
And it is still acting up.
Perhaps it's my computer. It's so weak it can't even handle Sonar Software with an instrumental track recording with no mic input. The system will crash in 20 seconds at the latest.
And on Audacity, the recording constantly clips and pops everywhere. Horrible, horrible lag, non-stop.
Maybe me computer can't fully power the Duo-Processor....

So, the noise is not background noise, but you hear crackles and pops? And even with Audacity?
And your computer crashes all the time? 

It is unlikely that your computer is really too slow. I was able to record 4 tracks in parallel on my computer 10 years ago. However, it might well be that your Windows has accumulated so much junk that the drivers and the software don't work properly. Is your computer working fine otherwise?
Programs that are running in the background can also cause headaches. This is why quite a few people have two Windows installations and a boot manager so that they can start a 'clean' and optimized installation for music recording.

You fill find tutorials on the Cakewalk site that explain how to set up audio interfaces. Sharing the driver between Sonar and Windows can cause problems. You may also experience dropouts if you try to make the buffers too small. You may want to give ASIO drivers a try.

If you search for crackle, dropouts etc. in the forums here, you will find tons of threads related to such issues.

Wilko

http://www.cakewalk.com/support/hwsetup.aspx
Wilko

No, the noise is not crackles and pops, but an electric humming sound. 
And there are many audio drop outs when i'm recording. Like the audio will "clip" out for like a 1/4 of a second. 

My computer is fine. And it doesn't crash with audacity, just with the SONAR software. When I record with  SONAR software, a dialogue box appears, telling me the engine has just crashed. And it constantly tells me that every 15-20 seconds I record. On the other hand, audacity just gives me audio clips. 
Maybe the computer does have too much junk. Should I restore it or what??
And will cleaning out my computer really help with the super duper low microphone volume and high input hum noise, and with the horrible recording capabilities of my laptop?

I mean my PC is a Dell Inspiron 1520, it's the crappiest thing you can get, it doesn't even have a battery.... 

But with everything I mentioned; cleaning the junk up off my computer will alleviate all of my problems? If so, I'll clean out the computer immediately 

An electric humming sound is usually either a ground loop or a dodgy cable.
The other problem sounds like your hard drive buffers to me. Go into sonar preferences and increase them. I think the default is 64, but try 128,256,512 etc, its a case of finding the best setting for your HDD.
Also post all of your equip/pc specs in your signature. Will help the good folks on here help you get up and running so you can enjoy making music.

Bibs

wizard71


An electric humming sound is usually either a ground loop or a dodgy cable.
The other problem sounds like your hard drive buffers to me. Go into sonar preferences and increase them. I think the default is 64, but try 128,256,512 etc, its a case of finding the best setting for your HDD.
Also post all of your equip/pc specs in your signature. Will help the good folks on here help you get up and running so you can enjoy making music.

Bibs

What's a ground loop and a dodgy cable. The driver is set to 32-bit. My buffer is at 192 at the moment. I dropped down from 256.


Here are my PC Specs.
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) Dual CPU T2330 @1.6GHz 1.6Ghz
Memory Ram: 2.00GB 
System Type: 32-bit Operating System 

Equipment: Shure PG-58 Dynamic Microphone, Hosa XLR to 1/4 cord. XLR-toXLR Shure cord. And a Duo-Proceesor Audio Interface (Non-Ex)

Also, when I connect my microphone in, the input signal blips on for a split second, then it goes out? 
Is my product defective. 

The manual says that if the volume for your microphone is too low, simply adjust the knob of the input level higher. But I don't have an input signal? Why? 

It sound like you are not getting a signal from your microphone at all.
Is this the cable you are using?
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/PXF105/ 
Can you confirm that your 1/4-inch connector only has 2 contacts, tip and sleeve? This is what is shown in the manual.

The microphone you have may not be very loud, but you should get something.


Wilko

From most likely to least:

bad cable
bad mic
bad interface
user error on the duo.  I'm not familiar with it so it is hard to help.

Try inputting a line signal.  From the look of it it accepts line in.  See if you can get a signal from a iPod or mp3 player or whatever you  have lying around via the line in.  then you have reduced the problem area.

I would think the cable is at fault, if it is popping when pluging in and then nothing.  the roland only has +45 dB gain from the mic, which means turning the roland way up.  And there seems to be no way to see if the roland itself is getting a signal.

Can you play back a file from sonar.  Can you hear it?