I apologize for the noob-ness of my questions, but I was kind of thrust into this and I’ve been trying my best to understand everything in here. I’m using a pisound and am trying to record sound from a microphone. I purchased a 3.5 to 6.5mm converter and a cheap 3.5mm microphone to test, but all I get is static. I can “hear” when I tap directly on the microphone but nothing else.
I am using Audacity, selected pisound (which was installed as per instructions) and the audio out (using the 3.5 to 6.5 with headphones plugged in) works properly.
I’m new to the sound-side of things and there must be something I’m missing, but I’ve been trying to gather data from everywhere and haven’t still found a solution.
If your 3.5mm mic sounds good through such a simple amp, you might try connecting the amp headphone jack to the Pisound 1/4" input and see what Audacity thinks of that (possibly) different signal amplitude…
Hey, this looks like an electret micrphone, in that case the 5V bias jumpers should be soldered to make a contact. First solder the one for the left channel, and try the microphone again. If it still doesn’t work well, try soldering the one for the right channel too (it’s weird that it has stereo connector, so that’s why some small experimentation is necessary). See Soldering the 5V bias jumpers for a photo of their location, we will update the documentation to include a picture in the near future.
It seems like you’re correct. I purchased an XLR microphone and it seems to work perfectly well. I’ve also been researching a lot more on audio, balanced and unbalanced as well as electret microphones and I feel like I get it.
I want to thank you and Scott for answering and helping me find the right answers.
There’s one input port and one output port, no special configuration is necessary, just set up your software to use them. It depends on the audio software how it’s actually done.
Only special case is if you’re using an electret microphone, the solder jumpers on Pisound must be connected together as described here.