Using your Singstar microphones on a PC (and record in Audacity)

Hi everyone, and welcome to this Instructable !

With the release of open-source alternative to Singstar Ultrastar, as well as the tendency of a certain librarian (yours truly) to come up with projects for his school that require cheap hardware and software solutions, it occured to me that it might be interesting to some to have a quick, step-by-step Instructable to how to setup your computer to work with a pair of Singstar microphones and their USB adapter.

Interested ? Then grab a cup of something to drink, and let's take a look at the next step and the list of requirements ! If you spot anything that could use some clarification, let me know once you're done reading and I'll do my best to update it and make it better as soon as possible.

[Disclaimers]
- I am SO not responsible if anything bad happens to your computer and/or your microphones. Try this at your own risks !
- The title image is just a placeholder until I can make one a little more Creative Commons compliant !

[Thanks]
- To MasterCheese, for helping confirming my theories about these microphones and their adapter, and keeping me company during testing.

Step 1 Requirements and preparation

Let's start by making a list of what we're going to need for this little project :
- A computer running Windows Vista or 7 (sorry, haven't had the time to try it under Ubuntu or any other Linux flavours) ;
- A pair of Singstar microphones, along with their USB adapter ;
- A copy of Audacity.

That's it ! Start the computer, install Audacity - but don't start it yet - and let's move on to the next step !

Comments

[djzeratul]

For people not able to get both mics to work, check your recording sample rate and make sure its set to 2 Channels - CD Quality (44.100 KHz). XP, 7, and Vista all set microphones to 1 channel by default so in that case you will only get a doubled up mono signal (doubled to stereo) from one microphone (blue). Setting it to Stereo 2 channel input will allow you to record a separate L and R channel from Red and Blue mics separately. This is also the way to get it to work with the UltraStar open source SingStar port.

[paulsydney]

Hi djzeratul My sample rate is correct but still only the blue mic records. I've never done anything like this before so in layman's terms, the 2 different charts/graphs appear. Each graph has 2 bars. The one for the blue mic has the blue line running through the middle of each bar and it reacts to sound. The one for the red mic doesn't have any line running through it, regardless of whether there is sound or not and is not recording anything. Any suggestions?

[Drawgasm]

Hello there, I've bought these mics but I'm having trouble having bothmics be picked up. Your guide is very useful but I'm using XP and Icannot find some of the features you are talking about. I wondered ifyou knew how to do the same thing but for Windows XP?

Thanks in advance! :)

[Deslivres]

Hello Drawgasm, and thanks for your question ! Sadly enough, I donot use Windows XP at the moment - at least not on my homecomputer. I do use it at work though and I'm going to bring themikes over there next week for some testing. I'll try to give youthe information you need then !

Until then, good luck - here's hoping you figure it out on your own !
All the best, T.

[Drawgasm]

Thanks, I'm gonna try my best but any help you can give me would begreatly appreciated. Have a great day :)

[Neilgal]

Good stuff! Thanks for posting this. Does anyone know if there is music-tuition software to make your PC go one step further and actually mark you as you play a particular bit of music on an instrument? I.e., behave like Singstar does to your voice?

[Deslivres]

Thanks for your comment, Neilgal !

I'm afraid I do not know of such a program. There is however, a free open-source alternative to SingStar called Ultrastar. Maybe you could derive something from their code, or ask the developers team if they can help you with this or point you the right way ?