Audacity input mixer volume control doesn't work

Audacity Help Forum Windows
1

Hello,
The audacity mixer input volume control isn’t working. From my investigations I have discovered that this problem can be attributed to Realtek controlling the input signals and therefore the audacity inputs are set to max. Based on the manual suggestions, I’ve dropped the Realtek mixer input controls to 0 and have enabled recording multi-streaming within the Realtek mixer. I have also gone into the audio drivers (Realtek and USB Audio Codec) and made sure that the proper input lines were selected.

Note; Other than the input mixer Audacity seems to be working correctly.

I am recording from a USB turntable:

Audacity v. 2.0.0 preferences are:

  • tried both: MME & Windows direct sound
  • Recording source set to: USB Audio Codec
  • Playback set to: Realtek HD Audio output
  • 2 channels

Note: The same recording and playback settings have been set in the “System Sounds and Audio Devices”

System sound is: Realtek HD Audio - ALC 888B

  • driver v. 1.6.0.4 dated 3/26/2010
    Note, I was going to update the driver but the Realtek website cautioned that the new driver may not be compatible with the system audio mother board.

Using Windows XP Pro with Service Pack 3.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

2

It may be a lot more straightforward than that. USB devices have sound volume control on the device itself (ahead of the digitizer) and tend not to have them anywhere else. If you have a USB turntable with no local volume controls, then that may be the end of the story.

Koz

3

Hello Koz,
The device does have an output sound control but it’s underneath the device located at the output jacks. Not very convenient. Is that my only solution or is there a way to control the input sound within the PC?

4

Yes, you can record what you have and then apply Effect > Amplify, fixing it in post production.

Most computers set volume by managing the characteristics of the analog sound card. If you use a USB device like your turntable, there is no sound card – or more accurately, the sound card is inside the turntable where the computer can’t get to it.

Koz