Podcasting: microphone woes
I recently purchased a professional microphone set-up, called the MXL Desktop Recording Kit, marketed as an all-in-one solution for podcasters. It’s a battery-powered condenser mic and it comes shipped with a nice little tripod and a number of connections, including a standard mini-jack found on all computer sound cards. This baby was £60 plus shipping from the USA.
I’ve got the mic now, and I’m expecting it to be worth the money, except I can’t hear what it sounds like. Why? Because the crummy sound card on my laptop doesn’t have a “mic in” socket. And no, I wasn’t stupid enough to buy this mic without checking. The laptop has a socket with a little microphone symbol over it, but it turns out this is a “line in” socket. So why put a mic symbol on it, eh? Beats me. I tried the mic in another laptop by a different manufacturer, and it was the same story. I tried it in my work PC; same story. I’m seeing a pattern here. Basically, if you’ve got a PC with a basic three-socket sound card labelled headphones, speakers and mic, that really means headphones, speakers and line in.
I checked for support on online forums. Somebody suggested turning on the “mic boost” function in the audio control panel. Wonderful advice … not. All that does is amplify everything, including the background hiss (which sort of negates the reason for buying a professional mic, doesn’t it?). The bottom line is, a proper mic socket is much more sensitive than a line in socket, so there’s no solution except to obtain the right input.
So, what do you do with a laptop that you can’t plug a new sound card into? You get an external USB sound card. I’m hunting eBay for one right now, but they keep going up to around £50. A basic one will done. All I need to see are the magic words “line in” and “mic in” labelled on separate sockets.
This is all pretty new to me. Keep me right on this, DJ Eddie.
September 26, 2006 at 7:46 pm
yep, that’s what you need alright. I’ll have to get one myself sometime soon. dolphin music might be worth checking out, i dunno if it’ll becheaper than 50 quid, but might be worth checking.
September 27, 2006 at 9:36 am
I have my eye on the M-Audio Fast Track. It’s expensive, but it’s the best price-functionality ratio of any of the stuff I’ve looked at. Unfortunately, most of the typical SoundBlaster cards are made expensive because of the extra features, like 5.1 surround sound, that I’m not interested in.
September 27, 2006 at 5:16 pm
yeah they’re generally for musicians, with lots of fancy knobs and switches.
My housemate (when I lived in Belfast) used one for recording everything on. I think he said it was about 75 quid.
October 16, 2006 at 11:28 pm
that email I sent help at all?
I’ve done a Halloween mixtape for a mate that’s throwing a party. You can download it from my blog, take a peek…
October 22, 2006 at 1:03 pm
Yeah, thanks for the tips. However, the mic is on its way back for a replacement. The manufacturers seemed to think it was faulty.
Loved your mixtape. I was out walking at night whilst listening to it. Gave me that childhood Halloween vibe. Aside from that, it was actually just nice to go walking without knowing what song was going to pop up next, rather than a bunch of my own pre-selected MP3s.
From one audiophile to another, I noticed you did a lot of work getting the songs to blend into each other. There was more than basic cross-fading going on. Well done. I’d be interested in more stuff in the same vein.
October 27, 2006 at 1:57 pm
thanks a lot man, means a lot to me that other people my mixes. It’s a harmonically and beat-matched mix. I edited it together on Cool Edit, using stretch and a bit of trial and error.
There were a few more songs I wanted to put in it, but they didn’t quite sound right, but I thought about 35 minutes was okay for a halloween mixtape. A guy from Queen’s is gonna play it at Halloween at the Students’ Union Halloween Ball, which is pretty cool of him.