Hey everyone! Sorry in advance for the boring ass thread but I couldn't find my answer while browsing the board...
I got a pair of old PC microphones which are surprisingly decent in terms of quality but they don't seem to work whenever I use them with 3 to 6.5 jack adapters, through pedals and such.
My understanding is that they're supposed to work like earbuds microphones, since when I plug them directly into my smartphone I can record audio (but only through the voice recorder or vocal notes in messaging apps, not as an instrument in music apps). Maybe some of y'all know how to bypass this? See attached picture for reference. Thanks a lot!!!
(https://i.imgur.com/DubRH5C.jpg)
You might need a pre-amp before you route the mic signal into your pedals since those want instrument level (nom. -20dBu) whereas mic levels can be -60dBu worst case depending on the model.
they might not even be stereo (they don't look it, and also there's no reason a PC vocal mic would be), I'd guess that they were powered by the ring of the TRS plug in some way when used with whatever they were originally intended for, and don't work when plugged into other things because that power isn't being supplied.
I'd say throw away that junk and get at least something half-decent.
Not worth the headache trying to get something working that doesn't work well in the first place.