hopin' mic
December 10, 2010 10:19 AM   Subscribe

All I want to do is record from my microphone to Audacity. Help! M-Audio Producer USB mike.

I got a microphone. It is an M-Audio Producer USB mike which plugs into the computer by USB. Unfortunately, it performs very erratically. Oftentimes, it will record fine, but I can only play it back through the headphone jack in the mike, and then when I unplug the USB, the file is unplayable; Audacity gives me an error message! Now it's being even weirder; when I plug it in it will either record nothing, or record through my internal laptop microphone, which is not what I want. And I'm afraid I've randomly mucked around a bunch with my preferences in Audacity and my Devices settings in my Control Panel, and now it's all messed up.

Help please! Thanks.
posted by threeants to Computers & Internet (3 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
1. Make sure the mic is plugged in before you start Audacity, the program won't recognize it after it is running
2. Check the inputs/outputs in the program - you want the mic listed as an input, and your regular soundcard as the output
posted by InfidelZombie at 11:12 AM on December 10, 2010


You don't say what operating system, but if it's Windows, note that Window's volume controls have separate controls for playback and recording -- doubleclick on the little speaker icon in the tray, go to "Option" => "Properties", and switch over to "Recording". You'll get a whole new set of "mute" and sliders just for the recording inputs. This is where I've gone when I've had troubles getting the right inputs to work in Audacity, after Audacity's internal controls seem to not work right.
posted by AzraelBrown at 11:36 AM on December 10, 2010


- Don't plug in / unplug the mic while audacity is open.
- Set the windows sound input to the USB mic.
- Plug into the usb ports on the back of the computer, the front ports and unpowered usb hubs don't always get enough power for some devices)
posted by jjb at 1:16 PM on December 10, 2010


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