USB Condenser Mic Recording Volume Level

That would say that you were sold a "dud".

I would write it off as "lessons learned" and go buy a good brand USB mic such as a Shure or Samson. You will pay more but "you get what you pay for".

Lesson definitely learnt.. So what would you do with mic? I'm kind enough to not sell it to another victim..

Edit: I took a look at the USB cable and it has lots of words one of them being "30v", could this mean the cable isn't delivering the 48v required?

Nevermind I tried my pritner cable which said 150v and it didn't help, I guess these numbers on the cables meaning nothing..

If Behringer will do something for you, go for it. Since you are not the original owner you may run into warranty problems. From what I hear from other musicians Behringer is tough to deal with and you will have to send it to them for warranty repair.

USB ports do not have 48VDC, they only have +5VDC. If the mic needs 48VDC it is converting it internally in the mic. 5VDC is standard for "computer mics" that use the standard mic port on a sound card.

fireberd said:

If Behringer will do something for you, go for it. Since you are not the original owner you may run into warranty problems. From what I hear from other musicians Behringer is tough to deal with and you will have to send it to them for warranty repair.

Yep and I read on their website somewhere you have to pay for postage and packaging..

The seller has said they have a soundcard..it would definitely be worth investing in one but it is still a problem with the microphone if it doesn't work with onboard audio..as other USB microphones do not have the same issue whether it's with onboard audio or a soundcard

Edit: So how come the mic works perfectly for some people? Also how do other USB mics operate?
And so a soundcard won't help?

Hey,

I just bought a usb condenser mic yesterday (T.Bone SC440), which is in the same price range, and I also had the volume problem. The quality was good, but the volume was way too low.

As I'm not really a "microphone guy", I simply tried to change the settings everywhere, including the ones in the recording software. I'm NOT sure what did the trick but most likely it was the settings from control panel (using Windows7, 32 bit):
> start -> control panel -> Hardware and Sound -> Sound -> Recording -> select the USB mic as the Default Device, then try playing with the settings. I clicked the mic -> properties, and there are 2 important tabs:
- Levels (you can set recording levels higher)
- Advanced: I played with "Default Format". By changing the values there, I found one that fixed the problem (I think I selected 1 channel, 24bit, 44100Khz - can't remember as i dont have the mic plugged in atm - but I suggest you try them all). Hit Apply and Ok before you test it.

Now, if i set the recording volume to 100% it can even pick me up from a few meters (of course, it's not recommended to record like that). I'm using it at about 30% i think, and staying reasonably close to it while playing mah guitar =p (Using Audacity as a record and edit tool, works awesome).

PS: I know that what I said isn't exactly rocket science, and you probably already did this. I'm not trying to insult you with cheap advice, but I'm thinking it MIGHT help you, so worth a try.

Good luck!