Having trouble with microphone and speaker in multisim 10.1

[Natique]

Hi 🙂

For some reason I can't get the microphone and speaker to work. I've looked at related questions on the forum but they haven't helped.

I record the sound, run the simulation (for at least 1 simulation second), and then try to play the sound but nothing comes out.

I've tried connecting the speaker to a function generator as suggested in another topic and I didn't hear a beep.

And I don't know if I have a 24 bit sound card... But I can check if you tell me how.

Please help! Thanks.

[yyao]

Hi there,

Unfortunately, our LabVIEW instruments don't work in real time as many people, including us, hope they would. To do this, we would need very powerful computers beyond our imagination!

Instead, the LabVIEW microphone and speaker instruments store their information for use during simulation. No sound is sample or actually played back during simulation. To use the microphone, you must do the following:

1 - Insure that the simulator is off

2 - Double click the microphone symbol on your schematic

3 - Under Recording Duration, enter the length of your sound sample

4 - Pick the sound device and sampling rate appropriate for your situation

5 - Click Record Sound

6 - Speak into your microphone, Multisim will stop recording after the duration set in step 3

7 - After this, Multisim will have stored the audio data and is ready for simulation

Now, for the other end, the speaker:

1 - Insure that the simulator is off

2 - Double click the speaker symbol on your schematic

3 - Under Playback Duration, enter the length of audio you wish to sample

4 - Pick the sound device and sampling rate appropriate for your situation

5 - Start the interactive simulator

6 - Watch the lower right corner. You will see a timer similar to: "Tran: 0.123 s". Let the simulator run until this timer passes the playback duration that you set in step 3. When the simulation is running Multisim is saving all the audio data in the background. If you stop the simulator prematurely, Multisim will still save the audio data, but only up to the point where you stopped it.

7 - To play back your simulated data, click Play Sound in the speaker properties window.

[Natique]

Yeah thats exactly what I did before, and I just tried it again now. It's still not working. I realise that they don't work in real time, thats not the issue. What I tried to do is just connect the microphone to the speaker. I set the recording duration and playback duration to 1.00. I set the sample rate of both the microphone and the speaker to 11025 Hz. I clicked on "record sound" and it got greyed out for a second and I spoke into the microphone connected to my computer. I ran the simulation until the "tran" time at the bottom went beyond 1. I then stopped the simulation and clicked "play sound", nothing happened ("play sound" button didn't even get greyed out for a second.) Did I choose an inappropriate sample rate or something? BTW I'm using the evaluation version, maybe some of the features aren't available in it?

btw thank you yyao for taking the time to reply : )

[yyao]

The symptom that you describe, with the play button not greying out when you click on it, happens to me when I don't connect the input of the speaker instrument to a signal. Are you sure that the input of the speaker instrument is connected properly?

Also, can you record in other programs (like Windows Sound Recorder)? If not, you may have to set the input channel of your sound card to your microphone (or the appropriate channel).

[lacy]

I have been through this on numerous occasions. Nestor told me that the speaker device is not compatible with all hardware configurations. He said the speaker uses the Windiows sound drivers to produce the output. If you sound card driver controlls all aspects of your sound system then it will not function. I believe I have stated what he said correctly, if not then he could probably provide a better explaination.

Hope this helps.

[Natique]

I think they're connected right. I just connected the output of the microphone to the input of the speaker, thats right isn't it? Cuz someone suggested it in another topic. I also tried using the microphone and speaker sample that comes with multisim. Neither worked. Thanks a lot for all your help yyao but I'm starting to think it might just be my computer like Lacy said.

Lacy, I did notice what you said on another topic, I was just really hoping that wasn't the issue with me. Do you know if there's by any chance a list of sound card drivers that the speaker is incompatible with? I could download multisim on someone else's computer but it takes a long time to download, and I'd hate to inconvenience someone only to find out multisim doesnt work on their comp either. Might have to do that though.

Thanks to both of you. if you have any more suggestions I'm willing to try them.

[lacy]

I do not have any lists. That might be something NI might be able to provide. I have a Rel-Tek sound system in mine. My sound is on the mother-board and not a separate type card. That could be an issue with this particular problem, but I can't be 100% sure as I have no way of testing that.

I was hoping that they would have cured this in 10.1, but I  guess they haven't yet. Maybe they will in future releases.

As far as option go, I have tried everyway I can think of to get this working with my sytem except dumping my sound driver and using just the windows generic driver. I was afraid to do that as it would my sound driver would mdisappear and I might not be able to get it back. If you want to try that it would be at your own risk since it is just a theory.

I hope you can find an answer. If you do everyone here would be grateful if you would share your findings.

Message Edited by lacy on 12-19-2008 11:22 PM

[Reborn36]

You  have to connect output of your microphone to an amplifier than to your speaker....that should do it..!

[IronBrotha]

To check your current soundcard

1. In the window that appears, select Device Manager.
2. Click the Arrow next to Sound, video and game controllers.
3. Your sound card is in the list that appears

Spoiler

In the mean time, have you tried using a .wav file as an input?

I did a school project like that , using a mic and an speaker, but wasn't able to do it. but the simulation actually worked. what i was to use a .wav file as an input just to check if the circuit was working.

Sigi D.

Application Engineer