Can a wireless mic be plugged into a PC for VV3 voiceover?

FrankM wrote on 3/22/2002, 5:29 PM

I want to add a good quality voiceover to VV3 video.

I have a Sony electret condenser microphone (ECM-44SPT) that’s part of a wireless mic setup for my camcorder. The wireless mic works fine with my camcorder. I’d like to connect the receiver for that good wireless mic to my PC so I can do the voiceover through that microphone.

My question is: will my PC’s audio input card accept the input from the wireless mic without damaging the PC?

My cheap Multimedia microphone designed for PC use shows a mic output specification of 1.4K (ohms , I think). The spec sheet for the expensive wireless mic equipment does not provide input or output impedance info. I have no specs for the audio card in my Gateway PC.

So is it safe to plug the output from a wireless mic that is designed to connect to a camcorder into the audio card on my PC?

Do you have any other suggestions?

Thanks

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 3/22/2002, 8:50 PM

It should be absolutely fine. Try the line input first. You will probably only get one channel, but you can always fix that later in Vegas. If you can't get a loud enough signal with the line input, try the mic input next. You won't damage the sound card in any way. The worst that will happen is that if the mic puts out too strong a volume level for the input of the card it will be distorted.

FrankM wrote on 3/23/2002, 6:27 PM

Thanks for the reassurance. I appreciate it.

DavidW12 wrote on 3/23/2002, 6:32 PM

It should work fine. Most likely the output from the mic receiver is going to be line level, so be sure to plug it into the line input of your computer's sound card. Even if mic level is available (or switchable), its generally best to use the line out for better signal to noise.

I would keep the receiver as far away from the CPU as possible, to avoid any stray interferance from leaking into the mic's signal.

Bonefish wrote on 3/24/2002, 10:32 AM

Related question for you Chienworks, or anyone. I'm trying to use my external mic (Azden)for voice-over recording directly into VV3. The problem is that it records only at a very low volume (about half "normal", gets completely washed out by other audio tracks in the project). I've searched and read as many posts as possible. I've tried the mic and line inputs, full volume, etc, etc. I've seen some references to using a pre-amp, and I guess that's where I'm going unless you think something else might be wrong. The mike works great capturing into the camcorder, just not directly plugged into the sound card (SoundMAX Digital Audio, came with HP 780n).

Any other ideas? Is a pre-amp often necessary or do you suspect I've got something else wrong? Thanks

Chienworks wrote on 3/24/2002, 1:29 PM

You have to determine if the receiver for your mic has a mic level or line level output. Most wireless mic receivers have line level, except for those specifically designed to use for camcorder work. These usually have a mic level output so they can be connected to the external microphone jack on the camcorder, since few consumer grade camcorders have any other audio input. The level will determine whether you connect the receiver to the line input or the mic input of the sound card. If you plug a line level source into the mic input, it will be very loud and severely distorted. If you plug a mic level source into the line input, it will be extremely quite and mostly noise.

If the recorded level is too low, try increasing the volume in the sound card's recording mixer. It usually defaults to half scale, so you should be able to double it easily by going to full.

Once the recording is made, it can be adjusted in Vegas to increase the volume. A simple step of normalizing the clip will often take care of the level for you in one step. As long as the recording wasn't too low level, you should be able to bring it up to a useful level very easily.

HeeHee wrote on 3/25/2002, 4:10 PM

Bonefish,

I work at a PC Mfg. so I know about SoundMax. You probably have on-board audio on your system board. Typically, these on-board audio controllers are totally software driven (with SoundMax or other AC97 audio drivers) and do not have amplification. I would suggest either preamping or installing an add-on sound card with amplification.

Bonefish wrote on 3/28/2002, 3:40 PM

Thanks Chienworks and HeeHee. I had already tried both the line and mic inputs and had already increased the volume to max before recording. Had also increased the volume in VV3 after importing the audio clip. Had to double it and turn down the other audio clips to about 25% and it was still not adequate to balance the sound properly. Guess I'll have to go the pre-amp route.