Audacity not recording other caller (using USB mixer)

Audacity Help Forum Windows
1

Hello,
I’ve used audacity for a while now, whether it’s for podcasts, a little mixing with music/ background music ect.

Tomorrow (today) I have a very important interview with a band & I thought everything would go smooth because I’m using skype w/ audacity & a mixer (USB behringer mixer).

As far as I know, my system, skype, mixer & audacity (2.0.6) settings are setup correctly. For some reason, I decided to do a test run with my brother just to make sure everything will go well.

Problem is audacity does not hear the caller on the other end at all. I hear everything perfectly, including the caller/ myself. But audacity does not pick up the other caller. I then tried changing some setting around. I changed MME to Windows WASAP. I honestly have no idea what that means, but I was excited that it picked up the other callers voice finally. Problem is it wasn’t picking up my voice.

I attached some screen shots. I hope I provided enough details about the problem & hope I can get this sorted real fast because my interview with the band is in 13 1/2 hours and I’m working all morning in retail.

Thanks in advance in anyone that could assist in this problem.

http://s10.postimg.org/6eubee9ex/20150615_003719.jpg (too large so here is an image hosted else where for my mixer)
AudSkypeProb2.png
AudSkypeProb01.png

2

Not entirely surprising. There is no single, stable way to get a Skype recording without software that “knows” how to use Skype or hardware. Skype has a nasty habit of grabbing control of the sound services in the computer and it doesn’t matter what you want at all.

I did my recording with two computers and a mixer. One computer ran Skype and the other recorded the whole show and provided music and support sounds.

People do make software to record Skype. The Pamela upper two licenses, Business and Professional will reliably record both sides of a Skype call and give you independent, high quality WAV sound tracks for each one.

http://www.pamela.biz/en/products/

There are other software products that can be used, but be careful not to get locked into MP3 sound files because of editing problems, or into a program that insists on jamming both voices onto one track.

https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/help-recording-with-a-mic-laptop-and-headphones/35068/6

Koz

3

Thanks for your reply.

I did finally get it working by using skype on my tablet, connected to my mixer (Kinda last min/ quick thinking type of thing)

What would my audio settings be if I wanted to run skype off my laptop next time? & Does it get plugged into the headphone or mic jack?

It’s a Windows 7 Toshiba Laptop.

Sorry for the questions, and thanks for your help so far. I think I’ll be happy if I can at least get it working while recording everything on my main pc w/ skype on the laptop rather than using

4

It’s not an accident that the two laptops in the picture are Macs. I went to extra effort to make sure I bought machines with Stereo-In and Stereo-Out (headphone). That lets me direct connect both machines to the mixer with no interfaces or adapters.

The machine running Skype headphone-out should go to one analog channel of the mixer. That’s far-side voice and you mix that down (or split the channels left-right) for the final show.

Record the mixer on The Other Computer via the blue Stereo Line-In that we don’t know you have or with the USB connection that we don’t know you have, either.

The transmit voice (yours) is a little sticky. Unless the mixer can produce a mix-minus (I used the FX-Send busses on mine) you should probably use two microphones. The “Good One” is on the mixer and becomes part of the show (again, either split or mixed down if you trust yourself). The Skype one can be the built-in microphone on the laptop or tablet. That voice never becomes part of the show. They just have to be able to hear you.

You should be able to plug the headphones (required) into the mixer and hear enough to make sure you have a good show. The far side should be able to hear you just fine. Skype is good at local microphone management. It’s one of its high points.

If you elect to split the channels, you will be on, say Left and the guest will be on Right. Filter, patch, effect and adjust each side as needed and mix down to the final show.

If you elected to mix live during the show (and you got lucky), you Export a show and walk away. Done.

Most of the distortion you hear on Skype calls is because of echo cancellation (and sometimes line speed. Can’t help there). If both parties are on headphones, it can sound really good.

I don’t remember if I posted this already. This is a first-time test pass over four time zones. We still had technical and routing problems contributed by me (raising hand), but she’s using her laptop built-in microphone.

http://kozco.com/tech/audacity/clips/DeniseFirstPass-Edited.mp3

She sounds like she’s on a sofa in the same room, doesn’t she?
How are you getting from the mixer into the computer with Audacity? That usually kills people.

Koz

5

I got a screen shot of “Pando Daily” podcast.

http://kozco.com/tech/audacity/pix/PandoPodcast.png

This is dramatic overkill because they’re doing a full-on, fully produced radio show with two people that happens to be streaming, but they’re doing the same thing I am (we are). The machine on the box just to the left is the streaming server. One of those is the Skype connection and the other two are script/continuity/research. I think she’s playing Angry Birds.

I could do their show, but it wouldn’t be handy or convenient and it might take a lot of post production. They’ve been doing this for a while and have all the conveniences worked out.

A fair warning, there are people who plug a computer into the wall, fire up Skype and start a podcast. Like him.

http://reellife.podomatic.com/

His problem is he supersonically lucked out and nobody else can get it to work as easy as he did.

Koz

6

Record the mixer on The Other Computer via the blue Stereo Line-In that we don’t know you have or with the USB connection that we don’t know you have, either.

Actually, we do. You said you had a USB mixer. But that’s only the show feed to Audacity for recording. It doesn’t cover a mix-minus microphone and music feed if you decide not to use the Skype machine’s built-in microphone. That’s where I got hosed in that sound test. I actually provided a music/theme/stinger plus my microphone signal, but the Skype machine switched away from it and was using the built-in microphone instead. Gotta love the way Skype does its own thing. You can see the question marks over my head while I was talking to her.

“Wait, you can’t hear the music???”

Koz