This has nothing with Avast, but kindly I ask you for help, because this is a great forum and also because I tried on 5 other forums and didn’t get the right solution.
The thing is - I have a Lenovo 3000 N200 laptop and I want to record some vocals with my external microphone, but I’m unable to disable the internal (integrated) mic. And then those two interfere and make a lot of noise so the recording is not possible. If I turn the mic down in windows’ volume settings, then both are disabled. There must be a way to disable only the internal one, but I don’t know how, the Lenovo forum shows me no support.
A friend told me to download SiSoft Sandra and analyze my PC and try to disable it with Sandra. What do you think about that program (Sandra), is it any good?
Plugging in an external mic doesn’t turn off the internal one?
Sisoft sandra is a good program, although I haven’t used it much so I can’t offer any advice for it.
I’d be more inclined to look at the device manager to see if I could just disable the internal mic hardware (maybe tell it to show hidden devices too), or go into the BIOS and disable it from there. Provided of course, that you don’t really use the internal one often.
You can see hidden devices by clicking the “View” menu in device manager, then by clicking “View hidden devices.”
It’s strange that it doesn’t turn off when you plug in an external device. I’m starting to think that there might be a specific driver for your laptop that would give you some sort of control panel applet or something so that you can control it further.
Did you install windows from an original microsoft disk, or is it a factory install? If you installed it from a disk, it might just have a generic driver loaded. Can you look on IBM/Lenovo’s website for some sort of driver/utility for your laptop that pertains to the microphone? I’ll look for you, and see if I can find anything, since you posted your model number.
Yes, I figured out how to see the hidden devices, but the microphone is not listed among them. I have a Realtek HD audio driver and Windows were already installed when I got the laptop. But now I think it’s not the internal mic that’s causing the trouble… It seems it’s the cooler. It’s really weird. I’ll record it when I’ll have time and post it here. Thank you for helping me!
Sound recording is a tedious process. I say it because I do a lot of it. Here are my takes on your issues based on the inputs provided. Though there can be numerous other reasons.
A laptop isn’t the best device meant for recording sound unless it has been created specifically for that purpose.
The extra sound you are getting in your recordings may or may not be due to cooler fan but may be an integral part of the onboard soundcard itself. Most onboard soundcars aren’t of top quality so you can’t do much about it.
When you want to record, use a software specially meant for the purpose of digital recording - there are many available, both paid and free. Check fillehippo.com for a free one.
While recording, try and keep the background absolutely noise free.
Keep the microphone away from your mouth so that you don’t breathe into it.
After you press the record button, wait for a few second and then start to speak.
After you have finished and saved the file, you can easily view the recorded file through the software you have used.
Then, go to the beginning of the recording where you will see a sample of noise that has been generated by your soundcard. This will be flatter in look as compared to the recorded voice.
Using the noise removing option from your software, select this noise sample and get a noise profile from this selection. Once you have done so, apply this profile to the entire recorded sound which will then clean the audio file of this extra unwanted stuff.
Be warned though that cleaning the sound also affects the overall quality of the file, so use you judgment about how much to clean and how much to leave. A good software will always give you an option to make that decision in percent form.
Then save the file in any format that your software supports.
Sound recording is an art and you will need to understand a lot more before you can start doing acceptable quality of work.
That way, you have dedicated hardware that should allow better recording quality, and of course a high-quality mic will help as well.
As pnt stated, software that allows for noise removal may be a big help too, as long as it doesn’t remove much of the “wanted” recording, while it’s removing the “unwanted” part.
Hi scythe944. Thanks for your thanks and your suggestions.
I fully agree with you that a good soundcard will produce great result. But then it may not behundred percent true.
I personally feel that it is the person who is holding the tool who matters and not the tool alone. If you give a million dollar tool to a novice, it’s a complete waste. Similarly, a $300 or even a $60 soundcard may not be the right one for our friend at just the beginning of his sound recording hobby. What’s important is that he learns to hold the tool and become sensitive to its feel in his hands before he jumps into deeper waters.
I say it from my personal experience because my country India is a very price sensitive place. And not many of us can afford to invest that kind of money. Still we manage to produce good quality work with our limited resources. I started to learn how to record with a free sound recording software using my 386 and a creative sound card which cost me only $8. Now that I have a few years of experience behind me, I sure have invested in a mid range computer with a mid range sound card with a mid range software and doing very high quality work matching best of the standards. That’s why I had said earlier that sound recording is more of an art that fully depends on ones sensitivity.
So my suggestion to Bellzemos still is to go for a free product first, dirty your hands, learn the tricks and then graduate to the level your pocket allows. So after a while if you don’t like what you are doing, then you won’t have much to regret. Otherwise if you have money t burn, the sky is the limit.
Friends, I hope you will take my reply in the right spirits. Bless you.
I’m running Windows XP, but disabling mic doesn’t do the trick.
Anyway, here are 2 recordings of what’s happening - one is a screen capture (with no sound unfortunatelly), so I recorded another one with a camera, just to hear the sound. If anyone knows what this could be and how to solve it - I would be really grateful!
The problem is with the Realtek software. I had this problem. I think you need to change some setting in there. If you don’t have the realtek software then you need to install it from their site.
If you installed it from a disk, it might just have a generic driver loaded. Can you look on IBM/Lenovo's website for some sort of driver/utility for your laptop that pertains to the microphone?