Mike Rophone Posted June 29, 2007 Report Share Posted June 29, 2007 Gee, thanks for your invaluable info, Raintheory and Greenmachine! This must be the best site ever for sorting meself out with wiring up! I'll get, or make, a mono-to-stereo adaptor. For fear of sounding really dopey, may I ask a further question, please? When it comes to transferring my efforts from the Sony R55 to the laptop socket, should I also use a connecting cable with STEREO plugs at both ends? Does a standard laptop mic. input accept a stereo plug okay? I'll then use Audacity for editing it all. I really must look around for a Minidisc that will download through the USB port! Many thanks, again! Johnny, Manchester, England. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobt Posted June 29, 2007 Report Share Posted June 29, 2007 Gee, thanks for your invaluable info, Raintheory and Greenmachine! This must be the best site ever for sorting meself out with wiring up! I'll get, or make, a mono-to-stereo adaptor. For fear of sounding really dopey, may I ask a further question, please? When it comes to transferring my efforts from the Sony R55 to the laptop socket, should I also use a connecting cable with STEREO plugs at both ends? Does a standard laptop mic. input accept a stereo plug okay? I'll then use Audacity for editing it all. I really must look around for a Minidisc that will download through the USB port! Many thanks, again! Johnny, Manchester, England.As far as I know, most puters have a stereo mic/line in, so a stereo 1/8 tp 1/8" should do the trick. As for digital uploading, RH1 is the bestGood luck,Bob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A440 Posted June 30, 2007 Report Share Posted June 30, 2007 Not so fast.Desktops, which have plenty of room for a sound card, often have both line-in (stereo) and mic-in (which might be stereo or mono). Laptops often have no line-in and a mic-in that might be mono.How to check? Get Audacity, install it, change its settings from the default mono to recording in stereo. Plug your stereo mic into the mic plug and then (gently) tap each element. If you see a different response on each channel, congratulations, you've got a stereo mic jack. But that mic jack might have a cheesy preamp behind it. You need to play with the input levels on Audacity and play back your recordings to see if you're getting a good signal--good level, no static or distortion--through mic-in. I had a Toshiba once with a hopeless mic input, and the quality of your mic jack will vary by both brand and your individual luck.What you really want is line-in, and your laptop may not have it. None of my recent laptops have had line-in. A Sony laptop had a stereo mic-in; a HP/Compaq laptop had mono mic-in. However, there is a solution. The Griffin iMic provides a stereo mic or stereo line-in connection (both included, but you can only use one at a time) via USB. You can find them for $35 or under. Try eBay or Amazon if your local gadget purveyor doesn't have it. http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/imic/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Rophone Posted June 30, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 30, 2007 Thank you very muchly, Bobt and A4440! I'll do some experimenting, and, if needed, get one of those Griffin imacs, which I didn't know existed! I've got an Acer laptop, and presumed the socket was a mic. socket - it could be a line in. is that your Citroen in the pic, Bobt? Best wishes, Johnny, Manchester Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.