Music recording

Has anyone here tried to do any recording just with a mic straight into their computer. ive got a 6000 and im having trouble getting any volume out of the mic. I have gone into the sound settings and cranked the mic volume it still gives me next to no volume when recording an amped guitar and its quite loud. any suggestions ive got the mic volume turned up everywhere where i can in the recording software too maybe there is something i have overlooked?

 

what software are you using?

Also, Are you talking about these settings:
control panel-->sound & audio devices-->voice tab-->volume under voice recording.

 

im using audacity to record but i still get next to no volume in the windows recorder thing. and yes those are the settings i am refering to. Its also strang that i can not turn my volume down either for my speaker. I find it a little loud on the lowest setting for playing music when it is quiet but every time i set the master volume under the advanced audio settings it goes right back to normal when i use the media buttons on the front of the computer. something strange is going on

 

It could be the microphone itself. Try using a different one.

 

Probably the mic. If it's not top quality, it's not going to pic up much sounds unless the guitar is close to literally touching the thing.

 

hmm yeah well its no amazing mic its just a cheap sony vocal mic but i have used it on my desktop and i had to turn it down so maybe it has something to do with the sound card. I have had much better results recording to my mini disc and directly to another computer

 

Hmm, try reinstalling the sound drivers.

 

I think there are at least 3 different ways to edit the mic settings on Windows, have you went through them all?

 

ok further testing confirms that it is not the mic i just recorded onto my minidisc no problems i have updated the driver from dell didnt work. I have change the volume from the control panel options and also in audacity which i am using to record. I have tried the stereo volume and mic volume with no luck. And i have gone throught the hardware test in which the meter doesnt move when it is plugged in however it does move a little when i play with it and its half in sort of thing. this leads me to believe it is the computer im not shure what else to check or what to do now. And yes i did try both jacks just in case.

 

Hmmm, interesting. So the mic is still not picking up your recordings 100% (or they are not being played back at full volume). Could be a faulty motherboard. Try just recording your voice close up. Compare that to your other machine.

 

I really have no idea what it could be now unless theres other suggestions it looks like i might need to call dell oh no!

 

Uh oh! Goodluck with that

 

Don't call, use Tech support through Chat.

 

Let us know what ends up happening...will be interesting to hear the problem.

 

I didnt bother contacting dell Ive done some asking around in other places and it seems that its just the quality of the sound card. I mean i have a 6 year old desktop with a better sound card that is why im so amazed at how horrible it is. I tried every driver possible and did the dell diagnostic thing, it would work just fine for recording voice but for some reason it just doesnt have the power to pick up my guitar well, im suprised no one else has noticed this. Anyhow it looks like if i want some decent sound out of this thing im going to need an external sound card. If anyones got any knowledge on this id like to hear it .

 

I'm assuming that the 6000 also has Express Card on it. I wouldn't think it'd be long before there are Sound Express cards becoming available.

 

Im not quite sure what an express card is and what would be the advantage over a usb sound card

 

There are such things?

 

Yeah there are USB sound cards.

Express Card is basically an updated version of the PCMCIA. Much faster than its predessor.