I JUST RECENTLY BOUGHT A NEW DELL WINDOWS 10 COMPUTER AND WHEN TRYING TO HOOKUP EXTERNAL DEVICE SUCH AS A FOUR TRACK TO USE WITH AUDACITY, IT’S NOT RECOGNIZING THE DEVICE. I HAVE ONLY TWO OUTLETS…ONE OBVIOUSLY IS FOR THE SPEAKERS WHICH IS LOCATED IN THE BACK OF THE BOX AND THE OUTLET IN FRONT HAS TO BE THE ONE TO PLUG IN A RECORDING DEVICE. I HAVE THE LATEST INSTALLMENT OF AUDACITY AND FOLLOWED THE SIMPLE DIRECTIONS IN AUDACITY FAQ TO ASSURE EVERYTHING IS TURNED ON BUT IT STILL DOESN’T WORK.
ON AUDACITY THE LEFT SIDE I HAVE SET TO MME AND THE RIGHT SIDE SAYS C MEDIA AUDIO… BUT THE OTHER TWO SPACES IN BETWEEN ARE BLANK.
THE LAST COMPUTER I HAD, THERE WAS NO PROBLEM. I HAD TWO OUTLETS IN THE BACK…THE TOP FOR THE SPEAKERS AND THE BOTTOM TO PLUG THE EXTERNAL DEVICE IN.
ASK ME ANY OTHER QUESTIONS AND I WILL TRY TO ANSWER TO NARROW THIS DOWN AND TAKE CARE OF THIS NIGHTMARE!!!
THANK YOU KINDLY,
JOHN PAUL
Moderator note: please do not SHOUT, it annoys the Forum elves and makes your post harder to read. Or is the Shift key stuck on your machine perhaps?
Ensure that Audacity has permission to access the “microphone” (Microsoft use the term “microphone” to refer to any / all audio input devices).
See the green box in: Why can’t I record in Windows?
THE OUTLET IN FRONT HAS TO BE THE ONE TO PLUG IN A RECORDING DEVICE.
Has to be? Newer machine don’t have recording connections any more. If I had to guess at it, I’d say that was for a headset suitable for Skype, Zoom, Meetings, or chat with other people. So it’s really a dual connection with both headphone and microphone in one plug. The microphone connection is sensitive and almost always mono, one sound channel.
It doesn’t work well with recording tapes or other similar jobs.
What do the computer instructions say? Which model is it?
That’s a legacy soundcard. The pink connection is for a computer microphone, the blue one is to record a stereo tape machine (for example) and the green one is for speakers or headphones.
The computer that I currently have is a Dell Windows 10 Inspiron 3891. I have Audacity 3.3.1. As far as the plug ins are concerned on this particular computer, they are not color coded. The back plug of the CPU has a circle with an arrow and that plug-in is the one that I have the speakers plugged into and the sound works. The only other one is in the front and that has a headphone near it. The symbols are so small that you need a light and a magnifying glass to see them.
The old one had both plug ins in the back of the CPU and were color coded…I believe one was purple and one green.
In audacity I have the project rate set correct at 44100. In Transport options, the only thing I have checked off is Overdub On/Off…is there anything else I have to check off in transport options? When I hit Click to start monitoring at the top in Audacity, that’s when the message about the non recognition of sound device comes up. On the right it says Cmedia and on the left it’s set to MME. The two spaces in the middle are blank at the top of the main screen.
Hopefully this will narrow things down a little more and thank you for continuing to help me on this matter…
Your computer does NOT have line in. You’ll need a USB audio interface. The [u]Berhinger UCA202[/u] is popular and relatively inexpensive. Berhinger makes a couple of other similar devices or there are lots of higher-end interfaces with switchable mic*/line inputs from various manufacturers. Do NOT buy a regular-little “USB soundcard”. They have only mic-in and headphone-out.
Your computer has a [u]TRRS combo[/u] connector for the microphone and headphone. There are headsets with a matching plug and regular headphones will work, but an old-style computer mic needs an adapter to make the microphone connection.
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The higher-end audio interfaces work with stage/studio microphones… They aren’t compatible with “computer mics”.
Thank you as well for that as now that saved me from more headaches of trying to figure this out. I will get that device you suggested and hopefully that will work!!!
So I purchased and hooked up a usb external device to my computer and tested everything with my 4 track. Everything works well except when I try to pan the tracks. If I pan all the sounds one way, I can hear it in that speaker but when I pan the track or tracks the other way, instead of hearing it in the opposite speaker - the sounds shut down (as if panning is used as a one way volume control). How do I fix this?
Everything seems to be connected right…I need to pan left and hear it more in the left and pan right and hear it more in the right (without panning acting as a volume shut off for one side.) I know it’s not the speakers because if it was, I would still see the sound margin as it’s recording on the audacity screen.
To be a little more specific, I have a MF P01 4 track I use with audacity. The 4 track has a pan left or right knob above for each track. When I had the old computer there was no problem…I panned left or right and the sound was in that speaker. Now with the new computer when I tried to pan one way while recording in audacity, the pan knob is acting as a volume control for sound…this is weird. What could be causing that? Hopefully if I wasn’t as clear in my previous message…I pan knobs left, they are in the left speaker…I pan knobs right, the volume goes down and nothing is recording in audacity.
You’ll need a USB audio interface. The