I have a little TV show. Well, not too little. When we record the show for TV, we alos put the audio on the PC using Real Producer. We use the mic in, 1/8'' jack, and it worked fine with our old computer, a COMPAC 2.4 gig Windows XP. That computer didnt last too long and instead of fixing, we bought a new HP, 2.96 gig with front and rear jacks. The audio with mic in, is terrible. No matter how high we set the volume, the meter only goes half way up, even if we bang on the mic. Front or rear jack use doesnt matter. Playback, has a loud buzz almost as loud as the signal. Line-in from a mixing board gives us no signal at all. In the Windows Tools section we tried the audio test and the meter only goes 1/2 way up there too.

Frustrated we ordered a new Dell with their best sound card, but not only do we have the same problem, the 20db mike boost box doesnt show up, so the signal is even weaker, but the nosie is still there. A cheap voice mic that came with an old Dell works fine, which leads me to think that good mics are overloading the circuits.

Now we have 2 new computers and no way to get the audio onto the machine. Need advice

Buy good quality professional soundcard. Buy good quality professional micrphone. Disable and uninstall the audio on the PC, fit and install the good quality equipment instead.

If you want a good quality job done, don't try to do it with cheap tools. And don't rely on someone like Dell to tell you what is good quality. I'll leave it to others to recommend suitable alternatives, because there may be some audiophiles here more discerning than myself.

Our mics are good, not great but good and they worked fine with our older computers, but cant get anything but low audio and loud buzz on the new Dell and New HP computers. Taking a ride out to CompUSA today to see what they say.

Audigy 2 Platinum was recommended to me, but if I get that how does the sound get from there to my Real Producer program, so that I can use a low bit rate of 8.5kz and forward on to my webmaster?