mic problems...

[Kai-chan]

well, you see, my big problem is in microphone..s
They all make a long beeping sound throughout the entire clip I record. No matter which one I plug in it always does that! Even my new one from christmas!!

So, it must be in my computer. any suggestions on how to fix it?

[Edwyn]

Quick checklist:

- Check if your microphone is in the right jack. You want it in the "Mic In" jack, not the "Line In" jack.

- Check if you're actually recording from your microphone and not from some other peripheral you have installed on your machine. You'll need to go to Start -> Control Panel -> ["Switch to Classic View" if you haven't already] -> Sounds and Audio Devices -> "Audio" tab -> "Volume" button for "Sound recording" -> Make sure the "Select" box for Line-In 1/Mic has a tick in it. You might also want to up the recording volume bar for Line-In 1/Mic, as well. Maybe if you record more loudly, the beeping sound would be softer by comparison.

- Check if you're actually recording from your selected soundcard. You'll need to follow the above steps up to selecting the "Audio" tab - Then under "Sound recording" there should be a drop down list for "Default device". Be sure to select your soundcard from the list of options. If there is only one option, then it's already defaulted to your soundcard

- Install the latest drivers from your soundcard manufacturer.
In the event that does not work, first uninstall, clean reboot and THEN reinstall drivers. Follow the previous steps above after installation to set things up.

- Is the beeping completely obscuring your recordings, or is it a low level sound that can be removed using noise reduction? If it's the latter, check out the Noise Reduction tutorials available in the Tutorials section of "Help, Ideas and Recruitments"

- Replace your soundcard.