Audacity won't work with Realtek HD Card

[Keefy]

We think that Audacity is absolutely brilliant but won't work with Realtek HD Card with Windows XP Pro. We have tried every suggestion in the help pages but to no avail. Heeeelp!!!
Systems icon in control panel : Tried
Realtek HD management panel : Tried
Control Panel icon for sounds and devices : Tried
We can't find Steroe Mix (or Sum) anywhere.
Wouldn't the idea of putting a double socket into line out socket (so that you could put it back into line in) change the levels of the recording?

Best Regards

Keefy

[Catera]

I just posted a problem, then this morning I see this. Oddly enough, I have the same card. Are we sure about this?

[steve]

We have had a lot of questions about this very thing. Unfortunately there seem to be many variations in the RealTek HD drivers that make it different from one machine to another which makes it difficult (impossible) to give a definitive answer. However, most users have eventually found a way to switch to "stereo mix" (or whatever they decide to call it), but finding the place to do it apparently difficult to find in many cases.

A useful tool to help you in your hunt for the magic switch is to have Audacity open and activate the recording level meter by clicking on it. You can then instantly see if Audacity is receiving a signal.

[Keefy]

Hi Guys It's Keefy again
If there is anybody out there who has found the magic switch please tell us!!
Our machine is running windows XP Pro with the dreaded Realtek HD Card (driver version 5.10.0.5296)
If you are running Audacity with this card and a different driver version please let us know.

Best Regards
Keefy

[steve]

I found a computer at work that had Realtek HD on board, so I enabled it so that I could have a look.
I think there are many variations of this, but here's a screenshot of the one I tried:

RealTek HD Stereo Mix.GIF (54.7 KiB) Viewed 24337 times

To access this control panel, I double clicked on the speaker icon in the lower right corner of the screen.
Note that I have selected the "Mxer" tab.
The upper half shows the "Playback" settings and the lower half shows the "Record" (input) settings.

By default, many of the sliders are hidden.
To make the hidden sliders available, click on the "spanner" icon near the "volume knob".

The left and right chevrons "< >" that are at the bottom right of the playback section allow you to scroll through the available sliders. If there are too many sliders to fit on the screen, then these chevrons appear.

You will also note that there are no sliders in the record section, but level adjustment can be achieved by "turning" the Record Level volume knob (click on it and drag)

Note the red crosses on the speaker icons in the Record section - these inputs are muted. In this screenshot, all inputs are muted apart from "Stereo Mix".

I think it is possible to enable individual sliders in the record section, but I didn't have much time to play with it (I was supposed to be working).

[jfe]

I have a similar problem and I can say that that is not the magic switch. I have an ABIT IP35PRP mb and Realtek soundcard. I had Audacity on my old system and it worked as one might expect and so I was looking forward to downloading it on my rebuilt system.

When the software opens the dropdown mixer/source menu is greyed and nothing I've done will populate it. I was able to import music to Audacity, but not record "What U Hear" nor microphone input. Which are what I use the most so far.

I've tried flipping all of the buttons and obvious stuff. Very frustrating and disappointing. The only thing I know to do is add a new/separate soundcard. Bu I dread the possibility of screwing up another layer of stuff.

[jfe]

I should add that I do NOT have VISTA, but rather XP Home.

[jfe]

I somehow managed to get the thing to record in echo-ey stereo, but it is unusable----basically all reverb and horrifying static and screechy scraping sounds. But it wants to record.

The Stereo Mix button seems to allow this to happen, but as I said----the sound is unusable.

[waxcylinder]

jfe: I suspect that you are recording "stereo mix" or "what u hear" (as selected from your input selector dropdown).

When using these to record the sounds on your computer (e.g. webstreaming etc.) you should set you preferences so that software playthrough is NOT selected - go to Edit>Preferences>Audio I/O.

In 1.3 the developers have helped here by augmenting the text next to the software playthrough box to advise this - but in 1.2 you just have to know to do this.

WC

[mh28450]

Hi,

I've just bought Lenovo R61 and have the same problem. In recent days I've tried ALL POSSIBLE solutions I could find on the internet, from the simplest ones to BIOS reinstallation - never worked. No "Stereo Mix", no "Line In", no "What You Hear" in Recording Options. Only stupid "Microphone".

Yesterday by accident I discovered, that by deleting "HKR,AD1984\\Disable, OutR, 1, 01 ;; Disable Stereo Mix Capture Node " in the driver file called ADIHdAud.inf and re-installing the driver I made the "Stereo Mix" volume bar visible.

Now, I have no idea yet whether this way will help me get other bars - have to de-cipher that code which I'm not familiar with. And also don't know if that works with my external USB sound card (E-MU 0202, I left it at home and will check in a few days). But that's the first thing that gave ANY EFFECT (contrary to all web-forums solutions), so come on guys, let's fix this crazy thing together!

EDIT: On a ThinkPad forum there's a long discussion on this issue, seems that simple ADIHdAud.inf modifications are not enought
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... sc&start=0