Using a cheap mic w/ mixer. Am I missing something obvious?

[organic io]

I purchased a cheap headset primarily to use to sing basslines into (and run it through an audio --> MIDI plugin), but I've been racking my brain trying to figure out how to get it to work! (And feeling pretty incompetent in the process)...

The mic from the headset is definitely functional, because it works on an old Maxisound muse soundcard with the red "mic" port on it, and also on my old laptop with a mic port

However, my primary audio interface is an M-Audio Delta 44, which does not have amplified inputs, so I need to amp the mic somehow before I get it into the computer. I have an old 4-channel Radioshack audio mixer with several microphone inputs. I have tried several 1/8" --> 1/4" adapters and all microphone inputs on the mixer, tried running all the line outs to the M-Audio, including the headphones out. Nothing picks up!

But here is the crazy part.... If I just take the plug from the headphones part, and plug it in, the headphones work as a microphone just fine. The computer gets the signal.

I even tried hooking up a guitar amp, cranking it all the way up and plugging the microphone into it... Certainly it would get feedback when it started working... and nothing... (But again, the headphones part plugged into the guitar amp did some seriously ear hurting feedback)

So what am I missing here???

The mic is confirmed working on a "mic" port, the headphones work as a microphone on my mixer or amp, but the mic does not work on the mixer or amp.......

I thought it may have something to do with impedance but I looked that up and couldn't really find anything useful. I have actually tried several cheap mics, one with a stereo jack, one with a mono jack, I have tried them both with stereo 1/8" --> 1/4" adapters, mono adapters.... Nothing.

What the hell?

Please tell me it is something obvious.

Thanks for any help

-Scott

[Capoeira]

check if the mic is a little condenser wich needs "plug in power". These mics only work on mic-ins of cheap soundcards and on MD-recorders

[organic io]

That must be what it is! I actually have a Minidisc recorder somewhere. I wonder if I could use it to amp the signal just by using the headphones out port for "realtime monitoring".... ?

It is either that, or figure out a way to run the Maxisound and M-audio cards at the same time through Jack, and hope that the latency isn't too high on the Maxisound...

Regardless, thanks for your help with this little piece of information that I didn't know existed. Very useful

[spm_gl]

Just for the record, all soundcard and on-board mic inputs supply 5V phantom power for condenser microphones. But the power output is too low to be useful for anything else, except maybe an LED.

[Capoeira]

Just for the record, all soundcard and on-board mic inputs supply 5V phantom power for condenser microphones. But the power output is too low to be useful for anything else, except maybe an LED.

I have this little condenser, it only works with those 5V plug-in power (let's not call it phantom-power)
http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/sto ... reId=10151

I actually have a Minidisc recorder somewhere. I wonder if I could use it to amp the signal just by using the headphones out port for "realtime monitoring".... ?

Yea, you could use the headphone-out to conect to your M-Audio....

It is either that, or figure out a way to run the Maxisound and M-audio cards at the same time through Jack, and hope that the latency isn't too high on the Maxisound...

If you don't need the in's of the M-Audio that is easy to do, just use the Maxisound as inputdevice and the M-Audio as output-device

[organic io]

Yea, you could use the headphone-out to conect to your M-Audio....

I tried it, and this works extremely well. Thank you so much for the help, I would have never thought of using the minidisc player as a mic pre-amp otherwise

It is either that, or figure out a way to run the Maxisound and M-audio cards at the same time through Jack, and hope that the latency isn't too high on the Maxisound...

If you don't need the in's of the M-Audio that is easy to do, just use the Maxisound as inputdevice and the M-Audio as output-device[/quote]

Now I wonder if the latency on the Maxisound will be low enough to use it as some extra inputs for E-drum triggers? I know in Windows this would be impossible (too slow on the Maxisound), but I guess with Jack the latency is completely dependent on your configuration (samplerate, buffers, etc) and doesn't care about the drivers? (I'm somewhat new to Linux... only been using it a year)

[Capoeira]

Yea, you could use the headphone-out to conect to your M-Audio....

I tried it, and this works extremely well. Thank you so much for the help, I would have never thought of using the minidisc player as a mic pre-amp otherwise

for the purpose it works .... that's good

Now I wonder if the latency on the Maxisound will be low enough to use it as some extra inputs for E-drum triggers?

I don't know nothing about drum-triggers. Don't they have line-outs so you can input the to the M-Audio?

[organic io]

I don't know nothing about drum-triggers. Don't they have line-outs so you can input the to the M-Audio?

Yeah, but it's only got 4 inputs.. 1 of which I need for the mic. The drum pad I need to do this with has 6 pads. I plan on running some of them in a different way (through a game controller), but if I can't get that to work perfectly, I may need to use some more acoustic inputs.

Anyway. Rambling now. Thanks again for your help

Edit: Since some of the drum trigger programs allow you to discriminate between different frequencies of drums, I am toying around with the idea of pairing up two drums to go on one mono input via soldering some passive lowpass/highpass filters. Then I can squeeze all 6 into 3 inputs. We'll see what happens