Microphone recording into vegas audio track..

jboy wrote on 1/31/2003, 6:47 PM
I've been unsuccessfully trying to record with a microphone onto an audio track in Vegas, on two different computers, both of which have onboard sound chipsets-(Asus A7V333 w/C-Media, and Epox 8K3A+ w/Advance AC97). I've entered and played with all the configuration utilities I could find, related to these devices, but nothing seems to get the microphone feed into Vegas. I've tried different mikes,known to work, condensor and dynamic, to no avail. I'm beginning to wonder if there's some basic incompatability between Vegas and these onboard sound cards. I've succeeded in doing this on another computer some time ago, which used a pci sound blaster card, so I'm not making any procedural errors, I'm taking the proper steps to make this work. I know some of the guys on this forum have good backgrounds in sound recording, so I'm hoping someone can tell me how to get things working..

Comments

DataMeister wrote on 1/31/2003, 7:16 PM
I'm wondering exactly what steps you are using? Perhaps the microphone is not the default selection for recording on the integrated sound system, but was already selected on the SB system.

JBJones
BillyBoy wrote on 1/31/2003, 7:18 PM
V3-V4 works fine with onboard audio. I have two such computers, one a ASUS board like you. Did you install ALL the drivers that come with the motherboard? You got to or XP at least won't work right in record mode. Or grab them off their web site.

Next for CMedia on the mixer control (on taskbar lower right bottom of your desktop there are two tabs. A red one for recording. The second slider button has a microphone icon, you got to move the slider up some, how much depends on your microphone. Also be sure Windows hasn't muted your mic somewhere else, you may have to look in control pannel. Once that's out of the way you could get feedback. If you do, go back to the mixer control and under the other tab, volume turn the mic slider all the way down.
jboy wrote on 1/31/2003, 9:40 PM
JB, I haven't seen any choices about source in all the configuration screens I've visited. To record, I simply plug a mike into the mike input on the sound card, open up an audio tract in Vegas, clk. on the red arm button-and at this point I can see theres no thru put. The only choices I'm given in the configuration screens are MS Sound Mapper or some kind of MS Wave jobby. I've maxed out all input sliders I've run across, and made sure none of them is muted. Do you know if somewhere in Vegas there's a place to select a mike input ?

BillyBoy, I'll try your suggestions tomorrow, that box isn't up and running at the moment. Have you actually tried recording with a mike to an audio track ? And if so, what steps did you go thru to get it going ? I think I have all drivers installed on the Asus, but it was a refurb without an install disk, so maybe I overlooked something, or maybe the install disk contained more that what's on their site.
BillyBoy wrote on 1/31/2003, 10:24 PM
Sure. Record to audio tracks all the time. You do know its a two step thingy right?
There a little red arm button on the audio track you got to set, click that first, then there is another record button next to the scrubber bar, just left of the loop playback button.
RonR wrote on 1/31/2003, 10:29 PM
JB. Have you tried this? It fooled me a couple of times. Double click on the "Volume" icon at the bottom right of your desktop screen. Click on "Options". Click on "Properties". Check "Adjust volume for Recording". Click on "OK". Select "Mic Volume". Close Recording Control. Good luck.
RonR
DataMeister wrote on 1/31/2003, 11:46 PM
In my first reply I was assuming you were having a similar problem as RonR suggested, but then I had to sum up the message quickly and leave.

On my Windows XP machine in the system tray I have the little grey speaker icon which opens up the Windows Mixer when double clicked. When you click on the "Options" menue and then "Properties" you get a window that allows you to pick which volume sliders show up in the main windows mixer. There are separate mixer displays for play back and recording.

So, what you need to do is select the Recording dot and then look in the list below it to make sure that the "Microphone" box is checked. Then you can click [OK] and the Windows Mixer will change to the Record Control. From there you just need to make sure your "Microphone" input is selected and your volume is adjusted. Then you can go back into Vegas and do all the recording you want.

The same instructions apply to any other input you want to record (CD, Wave files, Midi, Line in, etc). I know, the interface is not very intuitive. I wish Microsoft would make the mixer a little easier to operate for recording, but it has been this way since Windows 98, so I'm assumeing it's to keep the stupid people from accidentaly messing things up or something. Fool proofing techniques.

JBJones
HeeHee wrote on 2/1/2003, 2:03 AM
Jboy,

Follow both BillyBoy and Jbjones' tips. They are right on. also, to make sure it isn't a VV problem as you suggest, try doing a test record thru the mic in Sound Recorder. to run Sound Recorder click on Start then Programs/Accessories Entertainment or something like that. I'm on a 98 system right now so I don't remember if its the same for XP.

On a side note in response to jpjpnes, I agree that MS needs to rethink the multimedia controls. With a multitasking OS, why can't we record from the mic and line-in at the same time? Frustrating! Oh well! I'm still happy with my XP system.
mikkie wrote on 2/1/2003, 8:05 AM
>>why can't we record from the mic and line-in at the same time?

Believe this is more to do with the sound card. You can have multiple sound cards installed, go with an USB box, use a soundcard with multiple inputs, or record through some sort of mixer. Starting with the Live! series I think, Creative offers the option to record "What U Hear".

mike
TorS wrote on 2/1/2003, 10:54 AM
Some sound cards will block the mic input when you plug something into the line in. You might have more luck with the aux.

jboy, are you sure you have selcted mic in the track head (rightclick on it, you'll see a recording select option or something similar).

Tor
VideoDentist wrote on 2/1/2003, 11:41 AM
Is the audio quality better when you record the audio from a mike into a dv recorder than into a pc sound card? You then render it and add it to the video
jboy wrote on 2/1/2003, 1:21 PM
OK JB, I'm gonna overlook that crack about "stupid people messing things up", cuz your suggestions solved my problem. "Counterintuitive" isn't the word to describe the way MS buries some of this stuff, (BTW-I'm using W2000). I'm just continually amazed at how seldom the so-called "help" file helps in circumstances such as these. Anyway, thanks a million folks, so happy I got things going..
DataMeister wrote on 2/1/2003, 4:21 PM
That "Stupid people messing things up" crack wasn't intended at you, jboy. I guess you've never met any of those stupid people I was refering to.

Those are the kind that sit down to the computer and can't remember how to get control panel open even though the've done it 10 times since they bought the computer last month. Or they call up and ask why they can't hear anything out of their speakers which you eventuall figure out is because they had the master volume muted (or worse, the speakers are turned off). You can name just about anything and it would apply. It just makes you wonder how in the world did these people learn spoken language.

But anyway I was just complaining because it's a pain to go through all of those settings just to change which device input is the active recording input. Seems to me that Microsoft could put both the mute and the record selector on the same mixer view. Of course then you have the problem of adjusting the input volume and the ouput volume on separate sliders. And that is what, I assume, Microsoft was trying to keep away from the "stupid people that mess things up".

JBJones