I have recently installed the Win 10 Creators Update and since then I noticed a strange change in Audacity’s behaviour. Before the update I could just start a WASAPI loopback recording and Audacity would simply record, even when there are no sounds played by Windows; it would also continue recording when I pause playback in the other app (eg browser)
Now, when the PC is silent Audacity would not start recording, the cursor would stay at 0.000. The recording would only begin when sound is played, and as soon as the sound playing stops, Audacity would also pause the recording. I have tested this with several web browsers (edge, chrome, vivaldi) as well as with a sound program like VLC. The behaviour is still the same: Only when sound is played Audacity will record.
Additionally Audacity seems to differentiate between paused and muted sound: When I pause playback on the web or in VLC, Audacity also pauses; on the other hand when I just turn the volume to zero within the app, Audacity still continues recording.
What could be the cause for this behaviour? Has the WASAPI changed in the recent Win update? How can I revert to the previous behaviour?
Another observation: This issue seems to occurr only on the first track of a project, i.e. when I start loopback recording without sound playing the recording slider stays at 0.000. But as soon as I hit stop and then record again, Audacity will perfectly start recording the second track, even with no sound present.
I don’t have the Creators Update - I know it is unofficially available, but its official release date is April 11th and strictly speaking you should wait until Windows Update rolls it out to your computer to ensure compatibility.
How this should work prior to the Creators Update is that if the Audio Endpoint playing the sound has already been started, then Audacity will record whether there is a signal or not. If you are starting the Endpoint for the first time, then Audacity will wait for audio before recording.
And even then, this can vary from machine to machine.
thank you for your comment. Maybe I was too eager to update, but I thought since I used the Microsoft Update Tool I would be on the safe side…
Please forgive my question but what is a audio endpoint (I’m not a native speaker)? Do you mean e.g. the browser tab playing the sound? Or do you mean the headphone driver used in the loopback?
It is possible when Microsoft get experience of installing the Creators Update on different machines that there will be some subsequent patches for it.
Yes. Whatever application is playing the sound, as opposed to the audio endpoint device which is the sound device playing the audio.
So for example if you reboot without any audio-capable applications open, then open Windows Media Player and record in Audacity using WASAPI loopback, I would expect the recording cursor to wait until you played something in Media Player.