VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

mcm · Last edited by mcm on Thu Jan 19, 2006 6:13 pm; edited 2 times in total

I've got a little problem - I have a 66-page narration and my microphone is getting only minimal signal to the computer. Everything is plugged in, gain settings are okay, the mic has its own phantom power & all those settings are okay, the mic gets signal to the headphones but between the mixer (I'm using my old Behringer at the moment, not the Symetrix) and the computer something is amiss. I have not knowingly changed any settings recently but I'm thinking somehow something got changed in the software -either Audition or my sound card settings.

We lost power the other day (although the computer was turned off) maybe something blipped because of that....

Any ideas at all? Rebooting didn't help. Smile

Bruce · Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 8:06 am Post subject:

The surest thing is to start from the ground up. Unplug everything, let it rest for a minute or two, and then start everything up again. If the problem persists, go through your software settings one by one like you're starting from scratch. Something's likely to come to your attention.

Hang in there!

mcm · Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 8:12 am Post subject:

Thanks Bruce!

I have solved the problem. I went into Control Panel/Sounds and Audio Devices/Voice/Voice Recording/Volume and the wrong thing was selected. I can never remember what it's supposed to be but the first thing I tried ("What U Hear") worked.

No time to wonder how that little dickens got itself mixed up...

Gotta run!!

brianforrester · Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 8:54 am Post subject:

Mary,

Just a quick word of caution... be very careful recording "what you hear" on your computer! It not only records into your software the input from your microphone, but it also records any sound that the computer itself generates, ie a bad mouse click, a reminder or "You've Got Mail"... Most of the time, it's not an issue, but before I switched to PT I made the mistake and almost missed a little mouse blip that was in an unedited file that I was sending. I always record from the "LineIn" or "Microphone" tab, which one you use depends upon your sound card.

I hope the narration goes well (or has gone well if you're recording as I type)... I'm sure you've nailed it!

All the best,
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778.668.5715

mcm · Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 9:20 am Post subject:

And that, boys and girls, is why it's always a good idea to describe what you have done to solve yer problem, not just say, I did it. Thanks Brian.

Microphone is what was selected when it wasn't working. I just changed it to Analog Mix which works also.

I've recorded 9 pages. Miles to go before I sleep. Kilometres to you my friend.... but probably a lot fewer than if I'd had to rerecord over the sounds of computer burps!

brianforrester · Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 9:24 am Post subject:

It probably wouldn't have made much difference, but I'm glad that I caught you before you got too far into it... you just never know what might happen, especially when you're dealing with 66-pages.

Chat with ya later,
_________________
Brian Forrester Voice Overs
www.brianforrester.com
brian@brianforrester.com
778.668.5715

mcm · Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 6:15 pm Post subject:

So, it's resolved for today, but when I reboot, my recording volume settings change back so that "microphone" is checked. Anybody know why XP Pro would start doing this?

Hart · Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 8:56 pm Post subject:

mcm · Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 11:23 pm Post subject:

Yes, that's correct.

It did occur to me that Skype might be the culprit, since that's new and certainly audio-related, although I haven't configured anything for a telephone. I haven't knowingly configured anything, actually, in installing Skype.

How does one go about being "careful"?

Hart · Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2006 5:48 am Post subject:

Here's my experience with Skype, and why I mentioned it:

The morning guy/program director had installed it on his workstation so he could talk to his brother across the country or whatever. I didn't know this when he called me at 5:05 in the morning in a panic because he couldn't record some coach or somebody for that morning's show.

So as I always do, I had him reboot, then reboot again. Didn't help. So I got dressed and went into work to fix it. To make this long story short, I screwed around with that computer for a bit and saw that the windows mixer settings had changed. When I finally thought to ask him if he had installed any software, his first answer was "not anything that would have messed up Audition" so I dug around and found Skype. I changed the the settings back for Audition and Skype no longer worked. So my resolution was to uninstall Skype and tell him he couldn't put it on that computer again. I'm not really sure about a "fix" to have both but I'll look into it when I get to the office today if I have time.

Other than putting it on a different computer, one suggestion I have is to use two sound cards. If I were to install Skype on my home DAW, I think I would renable the onboard sound card and use it for that, letting the "pro" card do it's thing for Audition. Not positive that would work but I don't see why it wouldn't. It's something you could try if you have an onboard card or one that came with your computer that got upgraded.

mcm · Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2006 2:20 pm Post subject:

Brian, anything you find out will be of great interest to me - thank-you! I had to leave the computer on last night to upload files, and it still managed to reset itself despite not being rebooted.

And Brian F., thank-you so much again for your warning. I did indeed manage to record an incoming email - befuddled me for a few seconds since nothing was showing up in my inbox - then I realised I was listening to the ghost of email past. Thank goodness I changed my setting before I got too far into the project.

Hart · Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2006 8:45 pm Post subject:

What we did with my guy was put it on a different machine (his email, surf the net, whatever computer). So that doesn't really help you. I talked to our 19 year old wiz kid hoping he had an idea, but his suggestion was the two soundcard setup like I mentioned earlier. Another similiar option would be to hop on ebay and buy a USB phone. At that point the phone becomes the input and the output for Skype so it no longer tries to hog your audio interface.

So there are the "spend money" choices. I've been digging some in the Skype support forum. Not being familiar with your exact setup, and having 0 real experience with Skype I don't have a "this will work solution." Read through this and see if it makes any sense and if it offers any insight. There's also the general support forum. I've done a few searches and found some short mentions that may or may not be helpful. There's a lot of people with very broken english on there so it's hard to follow at times.

Hope some of this is helpful. Sorry I can't be more so Foot in Mouth

Hart · Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2006 9:06 pm Post subject:

kgenus · Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2006 6:31 am Post subject:

Audio generally takes more resources than one would expect, if your computer's bus is slow, running a program like Skype may cause digital artifacts in the audio you are recording.... Just another thing to think about.
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Hart · Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2006 7:23 am Post subject: