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Microphone Problem- Advice Needed

C

Captainfirst

So, when I plug my external microphone into my laptop and fire up Audacity, it gets both the sound from the external mic and the one built into the laptop. Has anyone else out there run into this problem? Are there any programs that will ignore the laptop's mic and just take the input from the external one? The problem, as you may have guessed, is that the laptop mic picks up all the noise from the back of the laptop- the fan and such.

Many thanks to anyone who can help with this.
 
What Operating System? Have you tried going to the mixer properties or to the "Sound" option in Control Panel and looking at "Recording Devices"? It's possible that you're recording the "Stereo Mix", and that both mics are active. You should be able to disable the internal mic there.

Also, look at "Preferences" in Audacity (under the File menu) and see what's selected as your input device. If's it's "Stereo Mix" or something similar, you may be able to select "external mic" alone. Audacity can use different settings than the system's audio mixer.
 
Okay, I'm on a laptop running Windows XP. The control panel won't let me access Advanced Properties in sound recording- that box is grayed out. Nor will Audacity give me any options other than stereo mix or microphone (the latter being what gives me both mics). I appreciate the advice though and am sure I'll be able to figure something out. Will keep you advised as to how it goes.
 
Captainfirst said:
Okay, I'm on a laptop running Windows XP. The control panel won't let me access Advanced Properties in sound recording- that box is grayed out.
Click to expand...

Yes, Windows sound can be frustrating at times. I'm not sure what you are looking at when you say "Advanced Properties in sound recording". Sound Recorder is an accessory program that allows you to record.

Control Panel -> Sound and Audio Devices -> brings up a tabbed box of "Sound and Audio Devices Properties". In the first tab (Volume) in the middle of the box (vertical middle) you should see [Device Volume]. Click on [Advanced] and you should see the Playback volume controls. On the menu bar click [Options] which will give you a drop down menu. Select [Properties] and then select recording volume. At this point you should individual volume controls for each input. One of those inputs should be for your built in mic. We don't know at this point how they label the different inputs when you have a choice of two or more mic inputs. Experiment.

While you are on that five-tabbed Sound and Audio Devices window, check the little box that says "Show Volume on Task Bar". Now you can come back to this Master Volume panel without all these mouse clicks.

I hope this will take you to a window, a panel that works, and is not grayed out.
 
This is a great COMMUNITY. Sometimes when we discuss opinion-based topics the fur seems to fly. But for the kind of help you asked for, this is a special spot.

I don't know how far along you are with Audacity and other programs, but there is a LOT of learning to do.

Isn't it a great feeling when something finall works the way it should!

I just downloaded and installed ColdFusion9, Developer Edition. I'm going to do maintenance of a web site built using Cold Fusion. I may be looking for a web builders forum by this time tomorrow!!! ;D
 
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