Not Able To Get Mic Input On PC To Work

[Steve Haynie]

Audacity was downloaded and installed on my computer.  I have plugged a mic into the 1/8" plug on the back of my computer.  I cannot get any input from the mic to record.  Does anyone want to tell me the secret?  The only mic I have handy is a Radio Shack PZM with a AA battery for power.  The mic works because it can produce a signal through a guitar amp. 

[tomteriffic]

For openers, clonk the little speaker icon in your system tray. I don't know what OS you have, but from there there is usually a way to get to various inputs, outputs, sound sources, etc.  ON Win7 you clonk the speaker icon and in the pop-up volume control there will also be a little "mixer" notation that you can click. The mic input may be hiding under a tab labeled Recording.  Dig around in there until you find the mic section and make sure that the input is enabled.  it may say something to the effect of "use this device (enabled)" or not.  If you have front and rear audio jacks, make sure the appropriate one is selected.

[Ting Ho Dung]

10 hours ago, tomteriffic said:

For openers, clonk the little speaker icon in your system tray. I don't know what OS you have, but from there there is usually a way to get to various inputs, outputs, sound sources, etc.  ON Win7 you clonk the speaker icon and in the pop-up volume control there will also be a little "mixer" notation that you can click. The mic input may be hiding under a tab labeled Recording.  Dig around in there until you find the mic section and make sure that the input is enabled.  it may say something to the effect of "use this device (enabled)" or not.  If you have front and rear audio jacks, make sure the appropriate one is selected.

There is also proprietary shit that is really annoying in PC builds that annoy me to no end. Not only do you have the speaker clonking icon in Windows 7 but you also have software installed from onboard devices like the sound inputs / speaker outputs on the mainboard or card. You have to dig around to find the adjustments / clonking shit / program for those as well.