I record a podcast occasionally. I have been using a mic and a mixer/pre-amp with the output going to the line input on my sound card. I use Sony Sound Forge. With this setup, I was able to set the pot on the mixer channel with the mic at about mid range and get audio into Sound Forge that ran high but almost never exceeded 0 db.
Then, my desktop computer was damaged and I replaced it with a laptop which has only a mic input. So of course the mixer/preamp completely overloads the mic input. I found that I could eliminate the mixer/pre-amp and run the mic directly into the mic input. However, I have to speak much more loudly than I want to in order to get peaks at more than -15 db. Of course, I can use Sound Forge to boost the levels after I finish recording, but somehow I would rather solve the problem instead of patching the results.
I guess my two options are (1) reduce the gain substantially in the mixer/pre-amp or (2) build a low gain mic pre-amp. I can build either solution but I don't know where to even start a design. Can someone point me in the right direction?
Thanks in advance.
Then, my desktop computer was damaged and I replaced it with a laptop which has only a mic input. So of course the mixer/preamp completely overloads the mic input. I found that I could eliminate the mixer/pre-amp and run the mic directly into the mic input. However, I have to speak much more loudly than I want to in order to get peaks at more than -15 db. Of course, I can use Sound Forge to boost the levels after I finish recording, but somehow I would rather solve the problem instead of patching the results.
I guess my two options are (1) reduce the gain substantially in the mixer/pre-amp or (2) build a low gain mic pre-amp. I can build either solution but I don't know where to even start a design. Can someone point me in the right direction?
Thanks in advance.
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