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Author Topic: microphone on sound blaster blue jack  (Read 586 times)

Offline HomeBoy

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microphone on sound blaster blue jack
« on: September 28, 2006, 01:26:40 PM »
If you have a non-amplified microphone plugged into a blue colored jack on a Sound Blaster sound card (e.g. Live!, Audigy), I'd love to hear about it.  I have a Live! 24-bit that has a blue colored (doubles as line in/mic) and have tried everything I can think of to get it to work.  My mic works very well on my on-board sound card and other sound cards that have a dedicated mic jack.  I am all but convinced that a standard mic will not work on these low end SB cards.  I'm hoping someone here will prove me wrong.

The cost difference between the cheapo SB's (all have the blue mic jack) and the ones that are split out (pink=mic, blue=line in) e.g. Audigy 4 is about double.

Thanks for anyone who can shine a light on this issue.
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The Hay Street Boys

Offline OOZ662

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microphone on sound blaster blue jack
« Reply #1 on: September 28, 2006, 05:38:16 PM »
Back when I had the Live! I had to turn the Mic Boost (under the Advanced button on the Recording mic volume) off, then back on to get it to work.
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A Rook who first flew 09/26/03 at the age of 13, has been a GL in 10+ Scenarios, and was two-time Points and First Annual 68KO Cup winner of the AH Extreme Air Racing League.

Offline HomeBoy

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microphone on sound blaster blue jack
« Reply #2 on: October 04, 2006, 04:31:30 PM »
Just in case anyone is interested....

I solved the mystery of the non-working mic on the SB Live! card  (blue jack)!!!!

It turns out that a microphone with a "stereo" plug works!  You can identify one of these plugs by noticing two plastic bands around the shaft of the plug.  It turns out that the "blue jack" (due to the fact that it is both Line In/Mic I'm guessing) uses the region between the two plastic bands as "+" for MIC and the tip of the plug for LINE IN,  whereas the "pink jack" (Mic only) uses the tip of the plug as "+".

I discovered this when I recently purchased a new microphone that happened to have one of these "stereo" plugs on it.  Just for fun, I decided to plug it into the blue jack on my SB card.  It worked!!   After examining the plug, I then realized that it was using the region above the plastic band.  I proved the theory by finding a stereo plug in my "box of junk" and replacing the old plug with this one.  It worked!

Yea!!!!
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Offline Auger

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microphone on sound blaster blue jack
« Reply #3 on: October 05, 2006, 12:31:10 PM »
I really hate Layer 1 problems.  Usually so simple, yet so obscure.
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