I had no problem with A on W8. After installation of W10 the playback is bad. I have to record on mono. If I record on stereo it is fine. I have deleted audio drivers and re-installed. No joy. I have Conextant HD audio on a Lenovo G50 laptop and A 2.1.1
It’s best not to use abbreviations like “A”.
Are you obtaining the audio drivers from the Lenovo site? That is the best way.
If you are recording using a microphone, please state its make and model number and how exactly it connects to the computer. Also see http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/faq_recording_troubleshooting.html#enhancements.
If you are recording a song playing on your computer, see http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/tutorial_recording_computer_playback_on_windows.html.
Gale
The audio device is COnextant and the driver is MS compatible. I unistalled it and tried to install a Lenovo driver but get a message that it can not be installed.
I use the laptop’s onboard mic. It can not be the mic as the stereo playback was fine until I tried upgrades. Now stereo has no sound and mono playback is still bad.
I have Windows 10 1511 OS BUILD 10586.36.
If the driver is supplied by Microsoft then it is a generic driver not fully matched to your hardware.
You need to install the Windows 10 audio driver from Lenovo that is specific to your exact computer model.
The onboard mics in laptops are of terrible quality, whether they work correctly or not. For studio quality buy a USB interface and a professional mic with an XLR connector.
Did you follow the link to turn off recording enhancements and sound effects?
See above about drivers. Lenovo’s support pages seem to be broken at the moment, so you may want to wait, or phone them.
Gale
Good day
Mistake. The driver is the latest Conextant driver 8.66.16.50. I tried to uninstall/delete this to install an older version but it automatically re-install this latest one.
That seems to be later than the “8.66.4.0_WHQL” driver offered at the Lenovo site:
Page Not Found - Lenovo Support NL.
See Missing features - Audacity Support for how to prevent unwanted updates. However this assumes the current driver is the problem.
Have you been through all the enhancements and sound effects settings? If not, I strongly recommend you do so. Also check that you are choosing the correct playback device in Audacity’s Device Toolbar.
Also, post the information from Help > Audio Device Info… top right of Audacity so we can see what devices you have. Please see here for how to attach files: https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/how-to-attach-files-to-forum-posts/24026/1
Gale
Default recording device number: 1
Default playback device number: 3
==============================
Device ID: 0
Device name: Microsoft Sound Mapper - Input
Host name: MME
Recording channels: 2
Playback channels: 0
Low Recording Latency: 0,090000
Low Playback Latency: 0,090000
High Recording Latency: 0,180000
High Playback Latency: 0,180000
Supported Rates:
==============================
Device ID: 1
Device name: Microphone (Conexant SmartAudio
Host name: MME
Recording channels: 2
Playback channels: 0
Low Recording Latency: 0,090000
Low Playback Latency: 0,090000
High Recording Latency: 0,180000
High Playback Latency: 0,180000
Supported Rates:
==============================
Device ID: 2
Device name: Microsoft Sound Mapper - Output
Host name: MME
Recording channels: 0
Playback channels: 2
Low Recording Latency: 0,090000
Low Playback Latency: 0,090000
High Recording Latency: 0,180000
High Playback Latency: 0,180000
Supported Rates:
8000
9600
11025
12000
15000
16000
22050
24000
32000
44100
48000
88200
96000
176400
192000
352800
384000
==============================
Device ID: 3
Device name: Speakers (Conexant SmartAudio H
Host name: MME
Recording channels: 0
Playback channels: 2
Low Recording Latency: 0,090000
Low Playback Latency: 0,090000
High Recording Latency: 0,180000
High Playback Latency: 0,180000
Supported Rates:
8000
9600
11025
12000
15000
16000
22050
24000
32000
44100
48000
88200
96000
176400
192000
352800
384000
==============================
Device ID: 4
Device name: Primary Sound Capture Driver
Host name: Windows DirectSound
Recording channels: 2
Playback channels: 0
Low Recording Latency: 0,120000
Low Playback Latency: 0,000000
High Recording Latency: 0,240000
High Playback Latency: 0,000000
Supported Rates:
==============================
Device ID: 5
Device name: Microphone (Conexant SmartAudio HD)
Host name: Windows DirectSound
Recording channels: 2
Playback channels: 0
Low Recording Latency: 0,120000
Low Playback Latency: 0,000000
High Recording Latency: 0,240000
High Playback Latency: 0,000000
Supported Rates:
==============================
Device ID: 6
Device name: Primary Sound Driver
Host name: Windows DirectSound
Recording channels: 0
Playback channels: 2
Low Recording Latency: 0,000000
Low Playback Latency: 0,120000
High Recording Latency: 0,000000
High Playback Latency: 0,240000
Supported Rates:
8000
9600
11025
12000
15000
16000
22050
24000
32000
44100
48000
88200
96000
176400
192000
==============================
Device ID: 7
Device name: Speakers (Conexant SmartAudio HD)
Host name: Windows DirectSound
Recording channels: 0
Playback channels: 2
Low Recording Latency: 0,000000
Low Playback Latency: 0,120000
High Recording Latency: 0,000000
High Playback Latency: 0,240000
Supported Rates:
8000
9600
11025
12000
15000
16000
22050
24000
32000
44100
48000
88200
96000
176400
192000
==============================
Device ID: 8
Device name: Speakers (Conexant SmartAudio HD)
Host name: Windows WASAPI
Recording channels: 0
Playback channels: 2
Low Recording Latency: 0,000000
Low Playback Latency: 0,003000
High Recording Latency: 0,000000
High Playback Latency: 0,010159
Supported Rates:
44100
==============================
Device ID: 9
Device name: Speakers (Conexant SmartAudio HD) (loopback)
Host name: Windows WASAPI
Recording channels: 2
Playback channels: 0
Low Recording Latency: 0,003000
Low Playback Latency: 0,000000
High Recording Latency: 0,010159
High Playback Latency: 0,000000
Supported Rates:
==============================
Device ID: 10
Device name: Microphone (Conexant SmartAudio HD)
Host name: Windows WASAPI
Recording channels: 2
Playback channels: 0
Low Recording Latency: 0,003000
Low Playback Latency: 0,000000
High Recording Latency: 0,010159
High Playback Latency: 0,000000
Supported Rates:
==============================
Selected recording device: 1 - Microphone (Conexant SmartAudio
Selected playback device: 3 - Speakers (Conexant SmartAudio H
Supported Rates:
8000
9600
11025
12000
15000
16000
22050
24000
32000
44100
48000
88200
96000
176400
192000
352800
384000
==============================
Available mixers:
==============================
Available recording sources:
0 - Master
==============================
Available playback volumes:
0 - PCM
==============================
Recording volume is native
Playback volume is native
I have the latest Audacity version
Nothing unusual in your Audio Device Info that I can see, except that you don’t apparently have an external mic device enabled. Assuming your computer has a mic port, you can enable it in Windows Sound. Just about anything will be better than the internal mic.
Gale
I do not have a mic port. My onboard mic worked excellent before W10
We’ve given you all the advice we can, assuming you are not doing something silly like recording at way above 44100 Hz project rate.
Check sound effects and enhancements.
If that does not help, set Windows not to update hardware drivers as I showed you then install the WHQL driver from the Lenovo site using the link I showed you.
Otherwise speak to Lenovo about it. They appear to say your computer supports upgrading to Windows 10. If you bug them enough they may buy you a USB sound card with computer mic input and a computer mic.
Gale
Hallo I record at 44100
I installed the 8.66.4.0 fix and it solved the problem partly. I can now record in stereo. Mono still exactly the same. Stereo is loud and clear on 50% mic input
Export a few seconds of bad mono recording in WAV in case it gives us any ideas. See How to post an audio sample.
You can always record in stereo then use Tracks > Stereo Track to Mono to convert it to a mono recording.
Gale