JPF Home Page Forums Musician Gear and Techniques Microphone and Vocalist Forum Help! please on USB mic and Audacity

Hi you all,

I finally got a different mic, and it is a an MXL USB.006. I am having a great big problem, and hope that someone has experience with it and can guide me.

I am using Audacity, and I have just got a new computer but it is Windows Vista instead of XP.

The microphone will record just fine, I can see the recording gauges working and see the vocals, but the problem is, in order to hear the sound, I have to unplug the mic from the usb port. That would not be a problem, except that I cannot hear the reference track to sing to when the mic is plugged in.

I have my preferences set to play other tracks while recording.

Nothing is muted.

Volume is up.

Does anyone at all use a USB mic and audacity? I want so badly to use it, and I hope that someone can advise me.

Thank you so much for listening and any help you can give me,

Letha

Came back to update on my experimenting. I discovered, that if I start the track in Audacity first, then plug the mic in, that the sound remains and I can record.

I guess I can deal with it like that if I have to, but it doesn't seem right to have to. Still would appreciate anyone with any advice at all.

Thanks again and good night,

Letha

Hi Letha...BAH HUMBUG....VISTA. I feel your pain. Sometimes Vista does weird things for no explanation. You are lucky that it even works at all. I cannot really help as I do not use USB mics. I would suggest however that you insert a few seconds of silence at beginning of track to allow time to plug in USB etc. This can always be deleted post record. One other thought is to alter the sound recording input source option from the pull down tab. You never know it might be on the wrong setting for your USB mic.

Jim,

I sure appreciate you taking time to help. I was hoping you might have some insight, as you are so good at advising on audacity. Adding the silence is a great idea if I am going to continue having to deal with it this way.

I will take a look at the settings and see what I can see. It sure would be nice to just have it work right instead of having to rig it all of the time, that takes away from my recording mood lol.

Hate to say it, but I sure liked xp better, lol. Wish I had had a choice.

Thanks so much Jim, I will take a look and if I get a fix I will let you know.

Have a beautiful day,

Letha

Letha,

I don't have a USB mic, but i have read that the soundcard is trying to send the existing sounds out through the USB port which of course goes nowwhere but the mic.

I don't know the workaround but I would email MXL and anyone else who makes USB mics (Blue is another one).

Hi Letha,

I don't have Vista, but what I have found with Audacity and my USB mic is that I have to go to:

Control Panel
Sounds & Devices
Audio

Then I change the default recording device to my mic.

I have to do this every time I want to record. Learned this the hard way after getting frustrated trying to figure out why it wasn't working!

Hi Colin and Michelle,

Thank you both for your help. Talking things through always helps, and I believe you have helped me find the problem.

I went to control panel like you suggested Michelle, although it looks like Vista is a little different. I had to go to "Sound",then "Manage audio devices".

In "Playback"
"Speaker HP" was listed, but "speakers USB audio device" was checked for the default. I changed that to "Speaker HP">

Then I went to "Recording", and the usb mic was listed. I went to advanced, and there were 2 boxes checked."allow applications to take exclusive control of this device and give exclusive mode application priority". I unchecked those.

I don't know if it was only one of the things I did or both, but it seems to be working right now, and I will see if it continues. I wanted to put what I did after getting Michelles great help, in case someone else has the problem, or in case something goes wrong so I can come back and backtrack what I did lol.

This I why I love this place, so many good people willing to go the extra mile to help each other, I appreciate you all,

Letha

Hi again Letha. Another solution would be to ditch Vista altogether and install XP. You can use the licence and installation disc from your old computer to install it on your new one. Alternatively contact your supplier/manufacturer and ask if you can downgrade to XP. I got my XP pro installation disc from Dell free of charge because I complained that Vista was useless for music production citing that certain music production programs that I use eg Audacity, Cubase and other Steinberg stuff were not Vista compatable and the pre-installed Vista was not fit for purpose. They gave in because they did not want the hassle of me pestering them and causing a "stushie" (Scottish word meaning creating a huge fuss and causing much annoyance)

Oh my gosh Jim,

I would love to "down grade" to XP, lol. I never thought of asking that. I am not too good at being a "Stushie", but maybe I will try to contact them and see if I can get anywhere being nice, and if I get nowhere, you might have to give me a few "Stushie" lessons lol.

Thank you for the idea,

Letha

Hi Letha. Every time people buy a new computer they pay Windows for another licence. That is OK if they still use the old PC or sell it on/give it away but if it is thrown away as junk think of all the money wasted. I always use my old licence and insist that I am reimbursed for the cost of a licence that I already have paid for.
Better still do not buy a PC with an O/S already installed. It can save you a lot of cash.

Letha,

Glad I was at least somewhat in the ballpark.

After all I've read about Vista, I guess I'm glad I still have my old, old XP version.