So I finally got to testing the Bela, and the sine tone example works -but when I tried the passthrough example, I couldn't get it to work.
I'm assuming the problem is simply -how- I'm plugging my microphone: I'm just connecting it to "Audio IN", though I noticed Audio IN has left and right signals, my microphone is a mono signal.
I've tested with two microphones, both of which work when plugged into my computer's mic input (the pink one, with amplification).
Or maybe Bela's Audio IN input doesn't provide amplification?
I don't have much information on the microphones themselves, and would rather not do soldering if I can avoid it.