Improving Microphone Quality

Today, I tried to record myself playing the piano with my laptop, since it has a built in microphone and camera. Unfortunately, there is a very narrow range of volume that I can record clearly. If I play loud segments, the sound turns out scratchy (think of broken radio), where as if I play softly, or quickly, the microphone doesn't catch it at all. To alleviate this problem, I got a microphone from my room and stuck it behind my piano. This hardly helped fix the problem. All it did was increase the clarity range from a mezzo piano to a maybe a borderline mezzo forte to forte. This was even worse than before. Whenever I use the pedal, it sounds really dry, like I'm playing staccato.

This is extremely irritating. I'm wondering if there's a setting I can adjust to make it better. :[

What kind of microphone did you get from your room?

If you want to get a decent quality recording, it probably can't come from a really cheap mic, because it probably can't handle loud noises (and will clip).

If you have any karaoke mics hanging around, you can buy a converter for the plug (it's like a dollar or so) and try recording with that.

(I don't think you're interested in recording in high quality if it'll cost you a bit of money, right?)

I don't have a karaoke mic. The only other mic than the one I stuck behind the piano is the mic for my GameCube, and that's hardly a viable option.

Have you tried putting the stuckbehindthepiano mic elsewhere in the room and letting it record the room sound?

Yes. Moving it around doesn't do anything other than change the dynamics at which it can record. When I put it on my sofa (approximately 10 feet away), it still doesn't catch anything when I pedal, though the forte segments become less scratchy.

How are you so sure that it's my microphone and not my laptop?

Do you have an iPod touch? I use that to record my piano playing using Memos and send it to myself on my email to share with others.

I only skimmed this thread but it sounds like you're using a cheap ass mic, which is probably why it isn't very good quality. You're gonna need a professional mic if you want really good quality.

I'm assuming your sound card is from the past decade, so it probably shouldn't be your laptop. The worst I've had is a laptop integrated sound card which couldn't capture frequencies of around 100 Hz and below. That doesn't sound like your case.

However, you can test out if your sound card has issues if you have a 3.5 mm male-male cable hanging around. (One of these. I got a couple from monitors or something. I'm not sure if you might have one hanging around.)

If you do have that, plug one end into your sound output and the other end in your sound input. Open up some sort of sound recording software (I use Audacity) and hit record. Play a song on a media player. You might need to adjust levels. After you're done recording, unplug and take a listen. If it sounds noticeably worse, then it's something wrong with your sound card. Otherwise you just need a decent mic.

Since I don't have one of those cables you are talking about, if it helps, this is the laptop I have:

http://laptops.toshiba.com/laptops/satel...L635-S3020

Here's the microphone I stuck behind my piano:

[spoiler=][/spoiler]
The only information I have on this microphone is that it's made by Labtec.

Do you have an iPod touch? I use that to record my piano playing using Memos and send it to myself on my email to share with others.

Um. I'm trying to make a video.

crappy piano i mean...mic X_X just woke up. You an TRY recording and then...using audacity or something similar to fix it, don't know how much better it will become.

I think it's more likely that it's the mic instead of your laptop.

My old laptop had the same sound card and it recorded audio fine.

If you're interested in decent quality recording, get yourself an intrumental mic. I think you can get an entry level intrumental mic + a mixer for quite cheap, around 150 bux. If you get a condenser, you will need phantom power as well, so dont get a condenser if you want a plug and play mic.

As for your problem, your mic is probably a gaming mic, which were designed to pick up those range effectively and .... nothing else.

not quit sure, see if this can help?

1. In the [Volume Control], [Options] -> [Properties]
   
2. check [Recording]
   
3. make sure Advance is checked
   

1. click [Advance]
   
2. check microphone boost
   

these are for the software issue;

for hardware, you may borrow a nice one from your friends, and try it?

Thanks. ^^

 This is what I see.

I changed it just now to the highest possible. I can't test it until morning though since it's now midnight.

As for the borrowing the microphone thing, that's not really feasible since nobody I know (except maybe my band teacher) has one.

I tested it. It sounds awful. Even worse than before. T_T

It's already been determined that it's the hardware, so idk why you're testing other stuff. New mic or nothing.

What XL said.

What you did there is basically increasing the "gain" of the microphone. All it does is increase the sensitivity. Boost + 100% volume is never a good setting. At that kind of volumes, there is a lot of distortions. Try boosting at 60% volume or something, but you're likely to need a better recording device.