Microphones generate much less signal than say electric guitars which generate less signal than CD player sending info to an Amp. It is critical to have the correct amount of signal going into the correct input or your recording will either A) sound dreadful or B) damage your kit beyond repair. This is why you can’t hear anything when you plug your mic into a line level input. You could look up impedance matching if you want to know more.

If you are serious about recording stuff with a microphone the best thing to do is get a microphone preamp and a reasonable microphone.

Preamps range from about 100 to a 1000 USD depending on the quality you want. Behringer occupy the bottom of the pile with Avalons (and others) at the top. I use a Focusrite platinum voice master pro cos I like the way it sounds. For vocals most people use condensers (100 to as much as you want (Blue bottles come in at about 4.5K)) however if you can get away with a dynamic mic like an SM57 or SM58 well cool!

You should be able to get recordable signal if you plug the mic into the mic input and crank the pre on your sound card as Noticingthemistake and SPL have suggested. Don’t expect to sound like Meatloaf or Brian Ferry !


[Edited by Dr_simon on 09-21-2003 at 09:30 PM]