Audacity Input Levels too High

I tried on a few occasions last week, with two different PA systems, to take a line output from the system into the mic input on a laptop and record using Audacity. Only probem was, both times, the input levels were way too high, even with the input level on the toolbar turned down to the bare minimum!

Anyone else had this problem? Am I doing something wrong? Do I need to put something in front of the laptop to modulate the signal?

I'm assuming this is a Windows based laptop . . .

Check the settings for the mic input on the control panel and make sure the "mic boost" is turned OFF or all the way to it's lowest setting.

Even then, you'll probably need to double click the volume icon on your status bar to adjust the input level from there.

Hi
On most Laptops you can use the mic input as an Line Level input.
You need to use Windows Sound Control panel and goto Record control and select input as Line-In.
Normally you can select Microphone, Line-in, What U Hear (SB cards), Auxiliary(some SB cards).
The same applies for selecting sound devices in Audacity
/Kalle

If you have a line-in socket, use it. Your PA will give you line out levels, which are totally different to microphone levels - line level is about 40dB higher than microphone - which is why you are getting loud input into the "mic in". On that basis, I suspect that you also have a line-in socket - normally, if they are combined the internal circuitry takes care of the input differences

Well, I was browsing around on the laptop I was using- it's one of those small Acer Aspire's, got it because of its portability. Anyhow, the audio runs off of this thing called Realtek HD Audio Sound Effect Manager. There's really no help file or documentation or anyhing that came with it to tell you how to use it, but when I was looking at all of the settings I noticed it has one called "Microphone Boost". Seems that the default setting is "on". I bet if I unchecked that it would lower the input levels. I'm going to try it next time. Another open mike tomorrow- we'll see if it makes a difference.

Anyhow, the audio runs off of this thing called Realtek HD Audio Sound Effect Manager.

Just curious. What OS are you using? I cannot get that to run at all. Not the mic part that I see screen shots of. I've got my mic volumes all cranked and you gotta be really loud for Audacity or anything else to pick it up. I understand that Realtek and m-soft have been at odds over responsibility.

A small update on my previous post.

For whatever reason, my PC's mic level got improved quite a bit by installing the lasted beta version on Audacity. (version 1.3.7 on Jan 28th, 2009) It actually seems quicker too.

So, all is well again. :D

In case anyone's interested, release notes at: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ About 1/2 way down.

[Just curious. What OS are you using?

It's Windows XP, Roy. Also, when I turned that mic boost setting off last week, the input levels came down nicely. I forgot to start the recording for my set, but that's okay, because i didn't like the set, anyhow. but I did record a friend's set. I haven't listened to it yet, though.

Not sure which version of Audacity. it might be the latest beta, because for that computer I downloaded it recently.