I use the samson C01U usb microphone on my macbook pro for almost 4 years. Now I recently updated to mac os 10.6.6 (latest update) and Samson soft pre won't start up anymore. I can't configure the mic as you advise on the samson site with configuring the midi controler. Without samsonsoftpre the mic sounds as if i speak with a handcerchief in my mouth. What can I do ?

1. Does one of your friends or family have a computer with a cd drive? And a USB jump drive? Have them move the files from the cd to the USB stick and insert the USB stick into the computer and install from there.
2. Buy an external cd drive from Best Buy or Frys.

I found three posts to assist you.

1. http://samsontech.com/products
/productFAQs.cfm?prodID=1810&brandID=2

2. http://download.cnet.com/Samson-C01U/3000-18493_4-84344.html

3. http://www.samsontech.com/usb_mics/driver_update/

SamsonTech

Welcome to the world of STUDIO microphones. Super quality BUT you must have a studio to use them. You can't have any local speaker playing into them. You often use headphones lest your monitor speakers will feedback. At the high frequency capability of these mics, you can fry your amps with oscillations above what you can hear!

No. From their website...

Note: Samson SoftPre is not compatible with Windows Vista however the C01U, C03U and Q1U are all Plug-and-Play compatible with Windows Vista.

The behavior you describe suggests that the mic is not getting power. Since it is a condenser mic, it requires what is usually called "phantom power". This should be provided thru the USB port. Check to be sure that the USB port is supplying that power. Check with another port for example. If that fails, you may have a defective mic.

Keep us posted.
Dan

That's the way it's supposed to work. It's a mono microphone, so there's only one signal to record.

Set up your recording software so that it only records the Left channel. It describes how to do this on the Samson FAQ page and in the Owner's Manual:

"In your digital audio workstation (DAW), create a mono audio track, and set it to the Left channel of the C01U (the Right channel should be ignored). Arm the track for recording, and adjust the input gain by using the software control in your computer's operating system"

Don't try to alter the pan so both sides are the same; that will just screw up the levels and noise.

What operating system are you running on? The manual says it requires mac os x - try that?

What computer are you using?

The quick, easy solution is to change your microphone to mono recording. In the attached YouTube clip, I'll show you how to do that.

The short and simple is to go to your Mac HD -> Applications -> Utilities -> Audio MIDI Setup. Select your C01U USB device, and set it to 1ch 16bit. This will set the microphone to record in mono, equally over both speakers.