need help seting up equipment

[southerncash]

ok fist off i have a behringer c-1 condenser mic which is plugged into a behringer micropower ps400 power supply to get phantom power. the out put of that it xlr to 1/4 to 1/8 pluged into my sound card. i am using cool edit to record. and when i first hooked it up like that it was only recording in the right channel then stopped after i unplugged it and plugged it back in. trying to get stero. i noticed that it was a mono plug so i went and bought stero now i plug it in the same way and i cant get the mic to pick up anything. what am i doing wrong? just some info i am running windows 7 if that helps any. please help

 

[gecko zzed]

ok fist off i have a behringer c-1 condenser mic which is plugged into a behringer micropower ps400 power supply to get phantom power. the out put of that it xlr to 1/4 to 1/8 pluged into my sound card. i am using cool edit to record. and when i first hooked it up like that it was only recording in the right channel then stopped after i unplugged it and plugged it back in. trying to get stero. i noticed that it was a mono plug so i went and bought stero now i plug it in the same way and i cant get the mic to pick up anything. what am i doing wrong? just some info i am running windows 7 if that helps any. please help

Forget about the stereo business. A mike is a mono source, so you can only record it via one channel (either left, or as appears to be the case with you, right). You need to set up a track in Cool Edit as mono, not stereo.

Having said that, your problem is not really solved. I don't know why you were able to record, then after unplugging and plugging back in, you can't. I would check the connection to the soundcard carefully . . . this is the most vulnerable spot.

In any case, if you want to get reasonable quality recordings you should forget about the internal soundcard and get an audio interface specifically designed for rercording.

 

[southerncash]

ok thanks but i ceecked all my connestions and soundcard and they are inorder but for some reason im still not getter and sound through the mic i get some feedback when i mess with the connection from 1/8/ to the computer but that is. i also trie audicity and cant get any responce either while trying to record.

 

[southerncash]

thanks for everyone that helped but i believe i just need a mixer. cuz i can scream into the mic and it will pick it up slightly but it will also be all distorted and stuff

 

[mattr]

You can't expect to run the mic straight into the 1/8th" jack on a consumer computer soundcard, which isn't designed for that purpose, and for it to work that well. Even if it works without a preamp, it would probably require a lot of digital gain to get it to a usable level ( = noise!) and the quality is likely to be poor. Also the possibility of an impedance mismatch causing some quality issues.

You need a mic preamp to 'boost' the mic signal in the correct way, and then some higher quality AD conversion (than the computer's soundcard) is also preferable.

This is quite a good page with quite a lot of detail...
http://www.shure.co.uk/ProAudio/Products/us_pro_ea_connectingmics