Microphone sound problems?

G

Graham492

New member
I am using a Toshiba laptop with the standard 3.5mm Microphone jack. I'm using a Dynamic vocal microphone that came with 6.xxmm connection. I bought an XLR to 3.5mm adapter. I have it going from microphone directly to laptop. The microphone is incredibly quiet; only barely being able to hear. When cranking up the boost I get an unbearable glitchy background noise. Do I need a mixer or something? What's most likely to be at fault? Try to use lamen's terms.

All answers are appreciated.

---------- Update ----------

It has an integrated sound card.
 
In laymen's terms, built in sound cards suck and mixers go in front of them, rather than replacing them, which means the suck is still in the signal path.

You need a USB/Firewire/thunderbolt audio interface to replace your sound card.
Sometimes you see USB mixers which are audio interfaces with extra knobs and buttons, but they key part of the word is MIXer.
If you're recording more than two things simultaneously you don't want them mixed. You want them recorded separately.

What are your goals?
One mic? voiceover? full bands recordings?...

If it's speech/karaoke/voiceover then a USB mixer might do.
 
Graham492 said:
I am using a Toshiba laptop with the standard 3.5mm Microphone jack. I'm using a Dynamic vocal microphone that came with 6.xxmm connection. I bought an XLR to 3.5mm adapter. I have it going from microphone directly to laptop. The microphone is incredibly quiet; only barely being able to hear. When cranking up the boost I get an unbearable glitchy background noise. Do I need a mixer or something? What's most likely to be at fault? Try to use lamen's terms.

All answers are appreciated.

---------- Update ----------

It has an integrated sound card.
Click to expand...

Nothing's at fault - this is normal when using a built-in sound card.

What you need is a proper external USB interface that does all the analogue audio bit and sends high quality audio digitally into you computer by USB.

There are a large number of devices available, depending on what you want to do. Starting off at a little over £100 up to many thousands.

For a simple, high quality, but inexpensive solution for a single mic. I would go for the CEntrance MicPort Pro. :thumbs up:

mpp_main.jpg
 
Cheapest route?

Graham492
Pretty sure I would go with the a USB microphone, such as the Audio-Technica ATR2100-USB Cardioid Dynamic USB/XLR Microphone for under $60,, that is if you are recording spoken word, using the free Audacity software. You will never obtain a decent recording using the built in functionality of the laptop. A preamp, as noted, would work, but they are usually over $100.

I have never been a fan of recording directly to a computer, but lots of people do, I use a mixer, Behringer XENYX which is way more than it need, but the Berhringer Q502USB is about $60. Then record to the computer, or even better still, record to an external high quality recorder such as the Zoom H4N which is about $200. So it all depends on how much money you intend to spend, and how much quality you need in the final product.

Cheapest route, is the USB/XLR microphone to your computer, using free recording software,,, just hope the computer does not have a problem when in the middle of a big recording.

John Hames
 
Graham492 said:
I am using a Toshiba laptop with the standard 3.5mm Microphone jack. I'm using a Dynamic vocal microphone that came with 6.xxmm connection. I bought an XLR to 3.5mm adapter. I have it going from microphone directly to laptop. The microphone is incredibly quiet; only barely being able to hear. When cranking up the boost I get an unbearable glitchy background noise. Do I need a mixer or something? What's most likely to be at fault? Try to use lamen's terms.

All answers are appreciated.

---------- Update ----------

It has an integrated sound card.
Click to expand...

You probably have the wrong adapter. What does the 3.5mm end look like, one or two plastic bands separating the metal contacts? Do you have a meter to check how exactly the XLR is wired to the 3.5mm plug? With the right adapter it should work "sort of okay", but the right solution is to get a USB audio interface.
 
arcaxis said:
John, while this device is about as simple and compact as it gets, the price in the US is higher than a Focusrite 2i2 or similar which would appear to have much more functionality/feature set than the CEntrance MicPort Pro. Other than it's compactness, why would this be recommended over a something like a 2i2?
Click to expand...

No reason - it's a high quality buss-powerd unit.

The 2i2 is also good and I would not strongly suggest one over the other.
 
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