Microphone Trouble..?

[nal1200]

I just purchased a Sennheiser 815 S-C evolution cardioid vocal mic..

I've used a cable and audio jack converter to hook it into my mic jack on my laptop, but when I try and record something, it seems like there is no sound picked up.

This is odd because there isn't any sound picked up on my amplifier either.

I have no idea what could be wrong, any help is appreciated! Thanks

 

[scrubs]

The mic input on your laptop probably doesn't have enough gain for that microphone - it is designed for those little headset gaming mics. Check to make sure that the mic input is enabled on your soundcard and that the input volume is up. However, I suspect you're going to want a better preamp/soundcard/interface for any real recording.

 

[nal1200]

The mic input on your laptop probably doesn't have enough gain for that microphone - it is designed for those little headset gaming mics. Check to make sure that the mic input is enabled on your soundcard and that the input volume is up. However, I suspect you're going to want a better preamp/soundcard/interface for any real recording.

Thanks, so how do you suggest I go about doing this? I believe the mic input is enabled.. the sound quality is set to 24bits and 192000 Hz. The volume is set at 100 and the dB boost is at 20.

There just doesn't seem to be any sound at all..

 

[nal1200]

Ok, so the computer is picking up sound, but it's just noise, and it doesn't pick up really anything that goes INTO the mic. I'm wondering if this is a problem with the mic, or possibly my sound card? Though the sound card I have no plays music wonderfully, and worked well with the other, cheap mic I used.

 

[scrubs]

Ok, so the computer is picking up sound, but it's just noise, and it doesn't pick up really anything that goes INTO the mic. I'm wondering if this is a problem with the mic, or possibly my sound card? Though the sound card I have no plays music wonderfully, and worked well with the other, cheap mic I used.

If you're getting no signal through the mic, double check the cables first. If you have any other way to test the mic, that would be good, too - or take it to a music store and try it out there.

 

[Herm]

I doubt that a laptop sound card will work with 24 bit. try 16 bit 44k and see what happens

 

[cusebassman]

Sounds like its a matter of gain. You need a mic preamp to boost the signal to the line-level input on the computer. If you use an interface, which is essentially the mic preamp with a converter to digital, you can plug the interface into a USB port, and the mic level will be fine. Do some research on the board, and especially in the computer recording area, to find some good, inexpensive interfaces - this topic comes up a lot over there

 

[XLR]

Double check the on/off switch.