For the past few years I've been capturing my audio via HDV. Strange huh? I thought that my cheap microphones were the ones the sucked. I had an Audiotechica ATR-25, ATR-35 and Azden SMX-10. But they worked fine when monitoring the audio levels on my HV20/30's display. The microphone in on my editing computer always came in barely audible for voiceovers. That was until I discovered the culprit: Audio Enhancements.
Do yourself a favor and turn off the extra effects on your Microphone.
Start -> Control Panel -> Sound -> Recording -> Microphone -> Properties -> Enhancements -> Disable all sound effects
If you're using Audacity you're better off applying the adjustments yourself. The default setting has DC Offset Cancellation which mutes the microphone if it determines it is "too loud." It wasn't doing a very good job. Noise Suppression and Acoustic Echo Cancellation were kind of dodgy. Like when you over apply noise cancellation in Audacity it starts to sound like a tin can.
With everything off, life is better.
