Audacity has stopped receiving input from line-in

Audacity 3 Help Forum Windows
1

Hello All,

I’m a long-time user of Audacity, and have recently run into a frustrating occurance: The program has magically stopped recognizing my line-in! I’ve tried unistalling and reinstalling, to no effect. Below are the necessary technical details:

  • Audacity 2.01
  • Windows 7
  • Recording from a Shure SM57 into an Audio Buddy preamp
  • The line-in is running “IDT High Definition Audio CODEC” and Windows 7 tells me it’s functioning fine
  • My computer is a Dell Studio 1555

Any help would be greatly appreciated! I have a number of time-sensitive projects that need to be finished.

2

You did restart the machine, right?

See if your soundcard is available via the device toolbar at the top of Audacity.

http://manual.audacityteam.org/help/manual/man/device_toolbar.html

Did you just start to us Skype? Did you buy a USB Turntable?

See if Windows Recorder is still available and you can make it work.

– Windows Sound Recorder
– Start > Programs > Accessories > Entertainment

Koz

3

Hi Koz,

Thanks for your help! My apologies for the slow reply; I spend weekends chasing small people around the house.

I did restart the machine multiple times. No luck.

Audacity offers me two options on the toolbar, MME and Windows DirectSound. Interestingly enough, if I record to “Microphone Array” then Audacity will use my Dell’s built-in mic to record. That works fine, although it sounds awful. I can get Windows Sound Recorder to do the same thing.

I did install Skype about two weeks ago and used it to make one call. However, it didn’t appear to affect Audacity at all.

I don’t think there’s an issue with the sound equipment itself. The SM57 and Audiobuddy are both pretty rugged.

I ran a fast test with Wavosaur to see if the issue carried over to another piece of software, and it did. Wavosaur would only record using the built-in mic and not my line-in.

4

Scratch all that: I found the problem! It was a faulty physical connection.

Thanks so much for all your help, Koz.