Audacity Forum

Open up Audacity. Click Edit -> Preferences -> Audio I/O tab. This is the menu you should use to select your recording and playback devices. I have no idea what they'll be called (they change from driver to driver), but you should select your speakers in the Playback drop-down menu. I'm not sure if ...

Many drivers disable the input selection menu in Audacity's main screen, so if yours is blank I wouldn't worry about it. I think you may have missed this blurb in the wiki: Note that input sources are sometimes available to use, but hidden. If you cannot see the input you're looking for, click "...

There's a wiki page on Vista issues, this seems to be a known problem:
http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php? ... ce_Drivers

Yes, that's correct. You'll cut down on the latency enormously.

The recording source needs to be selected in Audacity. Open it up and click Edit -> Preferences -> Audio I/O tab. Select the recording source you want.

The source for recording the speaker output is named at the whim of the sound card drivers, I can't tell you what it will be called.

It's called a bass cut, and the Equalizer effect can do that just fine, but you'll have to draw the curve yourself. I've posted on this issue before here: http://audacityteam.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=458&p=1480&hilit=equalizer+curve#p1480 As long as you're not distorting like this ...

Take a look at the sample rate in the bottom left hand corner of Audacity's main window. What is it set to immediately after you open Audacity?

Try changing this to something lower. Do the system sounds still sound wrong? Is so, do they at least sound closer?

Oh, your last comment reminds me, Koz, doesn't installing the VST enabler sometimes do this to some people?

mentalpygmie, Are you monitoring through your sound card driver software? Or do you have "Software Playthrough" selected in Audacity's Edit -> Preferences -> Audio I/O menu? If you're not sure about that, can you monitor the signal even when Audacity is not yet open? Direct monitoring thro...

The sample rate for the whole project (and any exported files) can be set / reset in the bottom left hand corner of Audacity's main screen.