Microphone jack only outputs harsh static

Matin Mohebpoor

New member
I recently upgraded from a USB C-1U to an Antlion Audio ModMic 5 which uses an aux cable instead. So after it arrived from Amazon I plugged it into my computer, fired up Audacity to test it out and all I heard was this ear breakingly loud and harsh static that plays back no matter what is plugged into the jack, be it the mic, an empty male to female aux adapter or a pair of headphones even. The jack is located on the front I/O of my NZXT S340 Elite Computer case, which is connected to my ASRock Fatal1ty Z370 Gaming K6 motherboard of course. I tried all of the rear jacks (that are directly from the motherboard) and none of them worked. Does anyone know how I can solve this without spending too much more money? Is the issue the front i/o of my case? Is it my motherboard? Should I buy an amp/preamp/dac and plug that in instead? Give me your suggestions and tell me what you think the issue is. I don't know much about audio but I can find my way around a computer as I put it together, if that helps solve the issue.

It's my first time posting here so I can't post links to my products, but feel free to google them if need be.

Thank you!
 
Just a quick glance at the 1star reviews on Amazon, it looks as if the mic comes with an unshielded cable. You might check that and read those comments. There are quite a few reviews talking about static, pops and clicks with this mic. I figure a product with 1/4 of reviews at 1 or 2 stars may have issues.
 
You mention plugging it into the jacks???? isn't yours the USB version that goes into a USB socket? It mentions it doesn't need a driver. On Windows this is often the cause of much annoyance because Windows 7 and 10 will load up the generic driver for a USB audio device, and if sample rates are wrong, the driver Windows chooses is the wrong one and other reasons white noise, or nothing at all is the usual problem. If you are indeed using a non-USB version with a 3.5mm mic connector, then this also needs there to be a polarising voltage on the input socket (5V or thereabouts) and this could be missing? An aux cable confuses me - what do you mean an aux cable? The mic has a normal plug doesn't it? If you are using a cable to convert to phono/RCA style connectors this won't work because line level aux inputs do not supply the voltage to power the mic.
 
- Was the computer built by you and have you rechecked the cables that go from the motherboard to the front case connections to ensure the cable header has the correct orientation on the pins and seated properly (it may be and is probably keyed for orientation, but I can't tell from the image I'm looking at.)
- Assuming Windows 10 and if so, have you looked at the privacy setting in Windows that can disable audio/video devices like a mic? https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4468232/windows-10-camera-microphone-and-privacy
- Is there software (SoundBlaster?) specific to the soundcard on the MB that controls the audio functions and routing for the audio. It may control which mic jack is active and whether plugin power is enabled or not which your mic evidently requires. Windows may have some settings also to look at.
- Do you have a camcorder or digital camera with an audio input that you could try the mic with to be sure it works. Either will have to have plugin power for the mic.

Below are screenshots for my ASUS soundcard software....
 

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