Converting mic-in to line-in

[yoshi]

I was wanting to do some sound recording on my laptop so I dont have to drag my PC into the other room but the only problem is that is doesn't have a line-in port, only a mic-in. Is it possible to get rid of the +20dB preamp that is default on mic-in or do I have to find another way to record?

[stringbeans]

if you go into your sound properties > properties and choose recording and click ok, you'll see a bunch of recording control devices with volume bars. under microphone, click advanced and you can turn it off. i think by default though it's already off so you shouldnt have to worry about it.

[yoshi]

Yeah mine was on.... fuck I feel like an idiot now ... was thinking of having to open laptop and put in resistor or something like that ... lucky i asked ...
lmfao

Originally Posted by stringbeans

if you go into your sound properties > properties and choose recording and click ok, you'll see a bunch of recording control devices with volume bars. under microphone, click advanced and you can turn it off. i think by default though it's already off so you shouldnt have to worry about it.

[normal josh]

Originally Posted by yoshi

Yeah mine was on.... fuck I feel like an idiot now ... was thinking of having to open laptop and put in resistor or something like that ... lucky i asked ...
lmfao

external sound card all the way...
soundblaster has one that super basic, rca line in, rca line out, optical in and out, headphones and mic jacks, all through USB i think london drugs has it for $70

[yoshi]

not bad at all
will check into that

Originally Posted by kid icarus

external sound card all the way...
soundblaster has one that super basic, rca line in, rca line out, optical in and out, headphones and mic jacks, all through USB i think london drugs has it for $70

[Crazy Dave]

good lord,,, don't use a laptops mic in for recording... heck I would not want to use any built in sound off of most computers for any thing serious.

hmmmmm here's some thing that would rock the house for sound in and out.
http://www.roland.com/products/en/UA-25/index.html

or

http://www.roland.com/products/en/UA-20/index.html

and the simple moddel
http://www.roland.com/products/en/UA-5/index.html

[yoshi]

I'm not using a laptop mic ... I have a mini to RCA adaptor and plug my mixer into the mic-in port.

Originally Posted by Crazy Dave

good lord,,, don't use a laptops mic in for recording... heck I would not want to use any built in sound off of most computers for any thing serious.

hmmmmm here's some thing that would rock the house for sound in and out.
http://www.roland.com/products/en/UA-25/index.html

or

http://www.roland.com/products/en/UA-20/index.html

and the simple moddel
http://www.roland.com/products/en/UA-5/index.html

[Crazy Dave]

Originally Posted by yoshi

I'm not using a laptop mic ... I have a mini to RCA adaptor and plug my mixer into the mic-in port.

That what I said mic in. It's bad. Not made for any real recording. The noise to signal ratio and distortion is harsh.

[yoshi]

Yeah I hear ya now ... I'm not doing any "real" recording anyways, I just like to be able to sit back and listen to myself afterwards to hear how things really sounded... not what they sounded like to me ... kinda as a learning tool.

[Crazy Dave]

oh ok :) Yea the mic in is good enough for that....

I was taught also that you need to listen to you mixes after it's all done to really see what it was like. It totaly helps. I also found it was easy to use winamp shoutcasting, to save a live MP3 stream to the hard drive. This way you don't over fill the harddrive.

---
just a totaly side stream thought....
meh, it really gets my nerve when people are using the laptops audio out while doing Live PA. Audio quality Audio quality people.... opps I forgot I'm sound tech, I'm freak for making it sound the best it can.

[tvmann]

You can record line-level audio to a device that only has mic-in by using an
"L-pad" attenuator to reduce the line level voltage from about 1 volt to a few millivolts. This L-Pad is just 2 resistors designed to work as a voltage divider, to reduce the signal by about 40 db.

Here is one design: http://www.hut.fi/Misc/Electronics/c...ne_to_mic.html

You will just need 2 resistors (4 if you want to do stereo and you have a stereo microphone input) and some connectors and a small metal or plastic box. All this stuff can be found at Radio Shack, except maybe for the resistors you will need to go to RAE Electronics or a similar electronics parts place.

I built one of these to record live audio along with video on a DV camcorder, for a local rock band. I got line-level audio from the band's mixer, which mixed all the band's guitars, drums, and mics into one signal. I fed that signal into the L-Pad, and then into the camcorder microphone input. Ended up with much better sound than can be obtained from most external microphones, and it only cost me a few dollars for parts. As a test, I recorded music from a CD player onto a camcorder video tape with this setup and the quality was great.

Here is the resulting video, with audio picked up from the band mixer: http://members.shaw.ca/devon7/jim1015.wmv (OK the band and the lighting is not so good but the recorded audio is far better than using the built-in mic or most ordinary external mics).

It is hard to find these L-Pads off the shelf, however there is one available for use with camcorders, costing about $250!