| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 3001.1 | It's possible, adapter City, Tho! | LUDWIG::LPIPER | | Wed Apr 30 1997 10:21 | 16 |
| Hi-
If your 'audio mike' is a low impedance (3 pin XLR connector), you
might get away with an in line transformer, which goes 3 pin XLR
(lo Z) to unbalanced (Hi Z) 1/4" line, then adapt it to the 1/8"
connector most likely on the sound card's input. You won't hurt
anything. The transformer can be found cheep at Radio Shack, of all
places. You'll most likely have a lot of fun sorting out all the
(excuse me) sex differences between the adaptors, M to F, etc.
The Lo-Z microphone outputs to a balanced line, and simply doesn't
have enough "drive" to directly interface to the sound card input,
which is expecting a Hi-Z source. I *think* this solution will be
ok, however, I am not sure if "computer Mikes" are of the electret
condensor style, if so, then it's easier to break down and buy the
direct hookup "computer" mic. Hope I helped.
Loren
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| 3001.2 | It can be done | BOOKS::RAPHAELSON | | Wed Apr 30 1997 10:25 | 28 |
| Most cards I've worked with are set up for unbalanced low impedance
mikes. To use a low impedance performance type dynamic mike with the
standard 1/4" phone plug or canon type 3 pin plug just requires an
adapter to the 1/8" unbalanced mini jack on the sound card. This is
similar to many consumer cassette tape machines.
Some sound cards are set up with 1/8" stereo mini jacks for the mike,
to support using an electret condenser type mike element. One contact
will supply a nominal DC voltage to the mike, one is a ground, and the
third is the positive audio output. I would guess that you could also
use a performance type dynamic mike here as well, and it would ignore
the nominal voltage.
There might be a problem if you want to use an external condenser type
performance mike with a board that is set up to supply nominal voltage
to a computer condenser mike - the voltages might be wrong, wiring
might be confusing, etc.
In any event, the mike preamp is usually the worst performing part of a
sound card, in terms of signal/noise ratio. If you have a performance
type mike, you may also have a mixer or tape deck with a better mike
preamp than the sound board. Connecting an external higher quality
mike preamp to the sound board's line input would yield better quality
results. On the other hand, if you're just playing around to get the
feel of wave file recording and editing, audio quality may not matter
much.......................................Jon..........................
Check the specs for your board to see what it supports
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| 3001.3 | Why aren't more things this simple????? | APACHE::ROY | It's fun to be me!!!!! | Fri May 02 1997 08:32 | 33 |
|
Update report:
It worked! First time, no fuss.
I have two mikes. One is the 3pin XLR (? if I remember correctly)
and the other is a non-detach cord to 1/4". The latter is
audio-technica (I think). Anyhoo, just attached my 1/4 to 1/8 adapter
that I had already picked up, plugged it in, did a quick scan of the
instructions to record, and lo and behold, me and my guitar on disk!
Used the lowest resolution bit/sampling choice and it still sounded
fairly decent. Approx. 48 seconds took up approx .5M of space, so I
can see that this will have specialized use only. I do know that if
you increase the sampling frequency and # of bits, the amount of space
used goes up. The volume for the mike input was all the way up, but
didn't play with that to find it's limits.
.2 mentioned checking the soundcard for specs. HA! Sorry. This
is a clone. Specs? We don't need no stinkin' specs. 8*) The manual
is real basic, so I couldn't find input impedance req'mts etc. But,
at least I did RTFM.....
So, thank you notesfile(s). What better way to tap into a wealth
of information. I've always hated having to physically hunt down
answers by trying to find that one or two persons that happens to have
the experience that you're looking for.
again, thanks for taking the time to reply....
Glen(n)
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