Why isn't sound card mic input working?

Clancy · #1 April 2nd, 2007

Kirk has been using just his inbuilt soundcard for years now, but a while back we bought a external soudblaster card... never could get it working. It had sound coming through the speakers, was recognised by as a recording device but we could never get any sound in. Today he went out and bought a new internal Soundblaster card, had it installed and still there is the same problem. Speakers working, inbuilt soundcard disabled... still can't get it to record.

Has anyone got any idea why this would be happening?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Cheers

Clancy

karcey · #2 April 2nd, 2007

G'day Clancy,

It'll be a very brave person or a fool who'll claim to be able to fix your computer remotely. However, being a bit of both, let me offer a few thoughts.
1). If you're using a sound card, you may want to go into the bios and disable onboard sound.
2). In the Control Panel/Sounds you'll have the opportunity to select your recording or playback device. It's not necessarily the default that you want.
3). Computers need to be told which devices to use ... they can be smart but they don't read minds.

These thoughts may start the ball rolling for your investigating or other members contributions. I'm sure we'll get the sound card operating ... eventualy.
Rgds
Karcey

jon_stggt · #3 April 2nd, 2007

When I use adobe audtion the default is set to mic so I have to access the options and recording mixer to select line-in to record from my Korg PXR4.
Down to the individual machine I guess, what has been set at where for whatever software/hardware it's been running in its life.
Running through the basics never hurts, often problems are found in the simple stages where it's just a case of ticking the right box.

Clancy · #4 April 2nd, 2007

Thanks Jon and Karcy, I've actually tried all those things, disabled the inbuilt sound card, the new one is the default (the only one there now) - tried selecting the line-in instead... nada. It really has me stumped.

We'll keep working on it. It's an odd one.

Thanks again guys,

Clancy

twilli227 · #5 April 2nd, 2007

Clancy, did it come with a set-up cd? Maybe all the drivers are not installed? Just throwing out suggestions. Are you using XP?

knight46 · #6 April 2nd, 2007

Clancy,
Don't know if this will help but there is a diagnostic in XP. If you open Control Panel and open the hardware devise that you are using the program will run you through a couple of paths for correction. Sometimes the troubleshooting will help.

Rockerbob · #7 April 2nd, 2007

I can solve this! Get a Mac and an external, firewire audio I/O.

Done!

karcey · #8 April 2nd, 2007

OK, thinking out loud. You have a mic plugged into onboard sound ... and it works. Replace onboard sound with a card, and the mic doesn't work. You've tried a few different mics, and none work with that card? You've probably tried that card in another computer, so we know the card doesn't have a fault? A second card behaves exactly the same. You've probably also used speech settings in control panel to set the mic volume, and obviously the computer couldn't hear the mic. So maybe you're using a fancy mic, stereo perhaps, different adapter?
Either the computer knows it has a mic and doesn't like it, or it doesn't know the mic is there at all. Device manager should indicate this.
Do you only use the mic for one application or have you tried to set up something like Skype with it as well?
I'll keep thinking

knight46 · #9 April 2nd, 2007

Karcey,
You must be a Teckie with a thought process like that, I agree narrow the problem down to what works and what doesn't work and eliminate the differences.

Doug · #10 April 2nd, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by karcey

So maybe you're using a fancy mic, stereo perhaps, different adapter?

hmmm, just on the off-chance - it's not Kirk's condenser mic is it? The condenser would require phantom power... (But you'd have to have some kind of xlr to 1/8" adapter for that.)

X4StringDrive · #11 April 2nd, 2007

OK background - I'm using soundblaster live 24 bit external card, so I don't know for sure if software is the same as internal card.

This is my set-up maybe something you can use maybe not but anyways...

open creative player/ play/ recording source/ enable "line-in - mic-in"

test and/or...

in player go to ---tools/ mixer/ under "line-in - mic-in" there is a mute box, under "my" set-up if the box is ticked{muted} the microphone is recordable and silent thru the speakers &/or monitors, if the box is not ticked the mic is still recordable and also plays thru the speakers/monitors at the same time. I hope that made sence.

test and/or...

r. click vol. icon select "adjust audio properties" then voice tab and be sure soundblaster is the default device for both playback and recording.

also under audio propeties is audio tab, select it and make sure all devices there are also selected "soundblaster"

well I hope that offers something, least I can do after all of what you both offer...Good-luck

Clancy · #12 April 3rd, 2007

Thanks so much for all the tips. I am getting somwhere I think... my problem is that plugging a mic in the mic input doesn't work... it does work in the line-in input (I get sound from the mic through the speakers)... BUT there is no option to select line-in in the windows recording control panel... strangely enough there is an option for line-in for playback but not for recording... Any ideas on that?

Cheers

Clancy

OldG · #13 April 3rd, 2007

Am I right in thinking you have tried to enable recording like this, Clancy?

Clancy · #14 April 3rd, 2007

Yes I have OldG (thanks for the screenshot) - I actually had to enable something in the soundblaster software that brought up something (not line-in) but similar that worked for me. I can record now... BUT now Audition is recording the first track onto the second track. I'm not sure how to get that fixed, but maybe I'll start a new thread for that. I think maybe Matty22 might be able to help out with that. I think he knows a bit about it.

Thanks everyone for your help. It really is appreciated. X4StringDrive you pointed me in the right direction in going into the creative soundblaster settings instead of trying to get it working through the windows recorder. Thanks!

Cheers

Clancy

X4StringDrive · #15 April 3rd, 2007

Hi Clancy,still at it?
I don't know if this will help, found it and thought it might offer some in-sight for you, from a Audition forum, I don't have any experience with Audition, but since I'm just killing time...Well anyways heres the link.

Kenny

http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx/.2ccd2a56