USB -> 3.5 mm Microphone

[DNAyres]

My Fiancee is using my USB Microphone. I know when recording with a 3.5mm microphone you can hear the feedback in your headphones, but you cannot with a USB. I was wondering If I bought a USB -> 3.5 mm adapter if he would be able to hear feedback, or should I just get him a 3.5 mm Microphone? The type of Microphone I have is a Logitech.

[Charling]

I think you are confusing the terminology man!

feedback is when the signal from a mic (or similar) is coming out of a speaker near the mic, so the signal from the speaker feeds the mic, which feeds the speaker, which feeds the mic, which feeds the speaker etc, this results in a quick build up of a certain frequency from the speaker repeating itself over and over! It happens regardless of type of mic used!

you may be talking of background noise, like hiss or hum, that can come from cheap mic amps like those found on the inside of normal computer 3.5mm jacks.

A USB mic takes care of amplification and conversion to USB (ie conversion to digital) in the mic then send it out of a robust USB digital cable. As such they can be quieter than a cheap analog system. You cannot go USB to 3.5mm without a special converter. USB is a computer 'language' essentially, a 3.5mm jack is a basic analog signal much like the one your bass gives out. they are not the same thing in the slightest! If you are happy with the results of a usb mic then maybe thats the answer, as you will not get too clean a signal from a cheap mic into the cheap mic in of a stock soundcard. However many find the quality is good enough to work with.

[m_bisson]

I don't think she's a man

[DNAyres]

No...When he uses a 3.5 mm Microphone he can hear himself in his headphones, but he cannot hear himself in his headphones with the USB microphone. I was wondering if I had a USB -> 3.5 mm Converter if he would be able to hear himself in the headphones, or if I should just get him a 3.5 mm Microphone.

[Charling]

Originally Posted by DNAyres

No...When he uses a 3.5 mm Microphone he can hear himself in his headphones, but he cannot hear himself in his headphones with the USB microphone. I was wondering if I had a USB -> 3.5 mm Converter if he would be able to hear himself in the headphones, or if I should just get him a 3.5 mm Microphone.

Ah sorry about that

No it's not a job for a converter as such, they are 2 very different sorts of sound info! The USB connection just transmits computer language (it digital), plug that into a 3.5mm socket (which is analog) and all you'll get is silence or maybe horrific static!

A usb mic takes the audio going into the mic and converts it into a computer langauge, this goes into the usb input of a computer and a little program in the computer decodes the info and sends it to a larger program where you can organise it to go to the speakers, sounds complex but its not to bad

If you want to convert a 3.5mm mic into the sort of signal that goes into a USB socket you need an interface, which is extra cost on top of buying the mic etc (though you may want to buy an interface if you ever plan on recording demo's etc).

The USB mic needs to be set to work on the computer, you need to go to the computers control panel, go to 'sound' and select what input you want the computer to listen to. It sounds like the compute is set to listen to the onboard 3.5mm input, but you want it to be set to listen to the USB mic, for this option to be available you will need to have installed any software that came with the usb mic. This software is the instructions for the computer to decode the usb signal from the mic!

[DNAyres]

The computer recognizes the USB Microphone and he records with the microphone, the only problem is that while he is recording he cannot hear what he sounds like while he is recording. He uses Acoustica Mixcraft 2.5 to record.