Unwanted echo on microphone recording

[Eric Endres]

Okay, please bear with me... I'm trying to help someone who doesn't
live anywhere near me to learn to make some simple computer
recordings, without the ability to look on their system myself to help
them. So it's not easy to explain. Not to mention that this person
is very iffy with computers.

So far, the main problem is that she's getting unwanted echo on the
microphone recording. First of all, yes, the speakers are off. My
guess is it's that crappy soundcard (see below). I did a search for
it online and found someone else complaining about the same echo
problem, but no real solution was offered, and I could find little
else about it other than that Avance doesn't sell or support them
anymore. Could it be a setting in the soundcard's device properties?
I could probably figure something out if I was there on her system,
but that's not an option. Any recommendations/suggestions? New
soundcard? I was going to recommend she get a $30 Soundblaster from
Walmart (good enough for her needs and would probably be a lot better
than what she has), but those apparently aren't compatible with XP
(isn't everything XP compatible these days??).

Thanks,
EE


Here are the specs:

>I went to the control panel and then Sound & Audio
>properties-devices-general and it said that the device for recording
and
>playback is CyberDrv CW 078D CD-R/RW
>
>Then in Voice Recording it said Avance AC97audio is being used.
>
>Does that help at all? Hope so.
>
>Here is the info re system and version etc again to save you
searching:
>
>OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
>Version 5.1.2600
>System Manufacturer Compaq Presario 05
>Total Physical Memory 512.00 MB
>Available Physical Memory 56.32 MB
>Total Virtual Memory 1.72 GB
>Available Virtual Memory 312.23 MB
>Page File Space 1.22 GB

[Rick Ruskin]

On 3 Sep 2003 14:06:46 -0700, (Eric Endres) wrote:

>Okay, please bear with me... I'm trying to help someone who doesn't
>live anywhere near me to learn to make some simple computer
>recordings, without the ability to look on their system myself to help
>them. So it's not easy to explain. Not to mention that this person
>is very iffy with computers.
>
>So far, the main problem is that she's getting unwanted echo on the
>microphone recording. First of all, yes, the speakers are off. My
>guess is it's that crappy soundcard (see below). I did a search for
>it online and found someone else complaining about the same echo
>problem, but no real solution was offered, and I could find little
>else about it other than that Avance doesn't sell or support them
>anymore. Could it be a setting in the soundcard's device properties?
>I could probably figure something out if I was there on her system,
>but that's not an option. Any recommendations/suggestions? New
>soundcard? I was going to recommend she get a $30 Soundblaster from
>Walmart (good enough for her needs and would probably be a lot better
>than what she has), but those apparently aren't compatible with XP
>(isn't everything XP compatible these days??).
>
>Thanks,
>EE
>
>

Are the inputs to the soundcard muted when playing back?


>Here are the specs:
>
>>I went to the control panel and then Sound & Audio
>>properties-devices-general and it said that the device for recording
>and
>>playback is CyberDrv CW 078D CD-R/RW
>>
>>Then in Voice Recording it said Avance AC97audio is being used.
>>
>>Does that help at all? Hope so.
>>
>>Here is the info re system and version etc again to save you
>searching:
>>
>>OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
>>Version 5.1.2600
>>System Manufacturer Compaq Presario 05
>>Total Physical Memory 512.00 MB
>>Available Physical Memory 56.32 MB
>>Total Virtual Memory 1.72 GB
>>Available Virtual Memory 312.23 MB
>>Page File Space 1.22 GB

Rick Ruskin
Lion Dog Music - Seattle WA
http://liondogmusic.com

[Mike Rivers]

In article > writes:

> Okay, please bear with me... I'm trying to help someone who doesn't
> live anywhere near me to learn to make some simple computer
> recordings, without the ability to look on their system myself to help
> them. So it's not easy to explain. Not to mention that this person
> is very iffy with computers.

Such a person should have someone knowledgable looking over his or her
until things work smoothly, then jot down some notes as to what it
took to do that, since it will change - either from something the user
does or something another program does.

> So far, the main problem is that she's getting unwanted echo on the
> microphone recording. First of all, yes, the speakers are off. My
> guess is it's that crappy soundcard (see below).

I'll bet that the problem is that the track she's recording is being
fed back and re-recorded slightly later because of the delay time
through the sound card's A/D converter, the driver and computer
software, and back out again. This can be stopped once you figure out
how to remove the "input monitoring" from the track you're recording.

Be assured that absolutely nobody here has the same setup your friend
has (it's just the way it is) so you'll have to go hunting for the
button yourself.



--
I'm really Mike Rivers - )