I have a task that I am pretty sure is possible to accomplish with my laptop. This is to use one of the headphones ports (I have a standard and an SPDIF microphone port, and both can work at the same time to have two pairs of headphones getting sound at the same time) and make my computer's sound come out of external speakers. I don't mean external computer speakers; I'm thinking of amplifiers and such. I'd use this to play CDs at a party for my grandmother a week from today.
At the same time, I want to get a microphone (or use my computer's internal microphones, which are good, but I don't know if people'd want to sing with a laptop right in front of them) and somehow make it so the computer's monitoring the sound all the time, even if there aren't programs using the microphone running, so people singing with CDs I'd be playing could be heard through the external speakers as well. I know that this is possible; I know it worked in XP, I could just pick up a microphone and start talking and it'd come out of the computer speakers as I talk, but I haven't found out how to do it with Windows Vista yet.
So what I'd be doing is having people sing karaoke, basically, with my computer being the director of sound. The sound would come out of speakers that I want to connect to my computer somehow. I'd be playing CDs with the sound coming out of the speakers, and also have the microphone signal coming out of the speakers as well.
To break it down even further, here's a list of the things I'm wondering how to do:
1. Get an amplifier to carry the sound out of my computer through the headphone port. I'd probably need to get a cable that converted headphone jacks to the kind of jack that guitars use to input in to amplifiers.
2. Get a microphone (either my laptop's internal or an external to be plugged to the Mic In port) and have the microphone's signal be sent out of the speakers all the time (I wouldn't record, then play, I'd want the noise to come out of the speakers live, as it's made).
3. Put music CDs in my laptop and play them as people are singing with them.
I'm pretty sure this is all possible, but I'm not sure how to do it, or whether I have the right equipment. I'm willing to buy a cable to go from my computer to an amplifier; that shouldn't be a problem. Although my biggest fear is if Vista Home Premium will let me live-play the microphone, like I described in #2 in the list above.
I know this is wordy, repetitious, and kind of confusing, but I'm sure y'all are perfectly capable of dissecting the most important details.
Thanks ahead of time, everyone!
At the same time, I want to get a microphone (or use my computer's internal microphones, which are good, but I don't know if people'd want to sing with a laptop right in front of them) and somehow make it so the computer's monitoring the sound all the time, even if there aren't programs using the microphone running, so people singing with CDs I'd be playing could be heard through the external speakers as well. I know that this is possible; I know it worked in XP, I could just pick up a microphone and start talking and it'd come out of the computer speakers as I talk, but I haven't found out how to do it with Windows Vista yet.
So what I'd be doing is having people sing karaoke, basically, with my computer being the director of sound. The sound would come out of speakers that I want to connect to my computer somehow. I'd be playing CDs with the sound coming out of the speakers, and also have the microphone signal coming out of the speakers as well.
To break it down even further, here's a list of the things I'm wondering how to do:
1. Get an amplifier to carry the sound out of my computer through the headphone port. I'd probably need to get a cable that converted headphone jacks to the kind of jack that guitars use to input in to amplifiers.
2. Get a microphone (either my laptop's internal or an external to be plugged to the Mic In port) and have the microphone's signal be sent out of the speakers all the time (I wouldn't record, then play, I'd want the noise to come out of the speakers live, as it's made).
3. Put music CDs in my laptop and play them as people are singing with them.
I'm pretty sure this is all possible, but I'm not sure how to do it, or whether I have the right equipment. I'm willing to buy a cable to go from my computer to an amplifier; that shouldn't be a problem. Although my biggest fear is if Vista Home Premium will let me live-play the microphone, like I described in #2 in the list above.
I know this is wordy, repetitious, and kind of confusing, but I'm sure y'all are perfectly capable of dissecting the most important details.
Thanks ahead of time, everyone!