Line-In is mono, not stereo?

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Burnsy086

New member
I just got a pre-amp to hookup to the line-in of my sound card. When I use the "mic input" it is in stereo but when I use line-in it is in mono (it only comes out of the left speaker). How do I get it in stereo?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!
 
Last edited:
Burnsy086 said:
I just got a pre-amp to hookup to the line-in of my sound card. When I use the "mic input" it is in stereo but when I use line-in it is in mono (it only comes out of the left speaker). How do I get it in stereo?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!
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Your mic preamp is mono. Your mic is mono. What you need to do is add a mono track instead of a stereo one. Then you can route the left channel of the line in to that mono track.

In order to record in stereo, you would need two mic preamps, two mics and the adapter that goes from stereo 1/8 to 2 mono 1/4.
 
If it's just one mic record it in mono as Farview said.

But a Line-In is in fact a stereo input. I use it for binaural recordings (since I don't have the cables to hook them into my preamp). So I hook the 2 little mics into the Line In of my sound card.

You will need to set the track's recording input to [Device Name] Left/Right (Stereo) or whatever it lists.

But again if you're recording with one mic then just record it as a mono track.
 
Alright cool, thanks guys. And would this be done in my audio editor? I use Acid 4.0

By the way, yes it is just one mic and one preamp going into the line-in.
 
Yea somewhere in the Acid settings you'd select the tracks' input to probably [Device Name] Left
or
[Device Name] Right

So that way it's a mono track. I've never used Acid so I'm not exactly sure how you'd do this.
 
You guys were right on, thanks a lot. I switched my recording device to [device] mono, left channel and now it records as a single track and plays in both speakers. Before it would record as 2 tracks and only play in the left speaker.

You guys just saved me about $100 because the last person I asked said my only option was to buy a mixer to split the signals, so thank you!
 
Hey I have another question for you guys since you know what you are talking about. How come I can't hear myself while recording? I checked all my volume settings and nothing is muted....hmm....
 
There are two ways that you can monitor yourself. Through the hardware (your soundcard/interface) or software. If you are using a stock card or soundblaster, it probably doesn't have that option. You will have to consult the manual for Acid to see if it allows you to do it. (I don't use Acid, so I don't know)
 
What kind of sound card is it? My SoundBlaster Live! 24-bit has the option to let me hear what I'm recording, as do most sound cards.
 
Looks better than most stock soundcards to me. Did you unmute "Line In" or whatever it is you're using as your recording source?

A screenshot of the volume control window (with all the little faders) wouldn't hurt either. ;)
 
Everything is unmuted and all faders are definitely at a level where if they were working they would be heard. I checked everything in playback and recording and everything's volume is turned up loud enough. So I'm stumped...
 
Yea I'm a little stumped too.

Unfortunately I'm completely unfamiliar with Acid software. It might be somewhere in its settings but I doubt it. I'd check the Windows volume mixer again once you've set everything up in Acid to record (some software changes the mixer settings when its in use). So hit record and while it's recording open the mixer thing again and check.

If it's not that then I'd check all the settings in Acid.

If that doesn't fix it, then maybe it's not a full duplex card (recording + monitoring at the same time, but it should be).

If that's not the case then I'm completely out of ideas, sorry.
 
Oh and I completely missed Farview's last post. There is a monitoring option in most software that should work. In Reaper (what I use) it's just a couple clicks of a button, and that should even work on most soundcards that are not full duplex (although I've never tried it on one so I could be wrong).

So, look at the manual or search online. Or right click in various areas of the program until you find it. ;)
 
Like this:
 

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