Background roar when recording from YouTube

[AMightyUserName]

I’ve got an issue that is driving me up the wall. I’m trying record a clip of sound from a longer YouTube video. But unlike in the past, recently I’ve been getting a significant background roar on the recording.

I’m using Audacity 3.3.3 because my IT team hasn’t updated yet. I am playing YouTube in Firefox. My settings are:
Host: Windows DirectSound
Playback Device: Speakers (RealTek(R) Audio
Recording Device: Microphone Array (RealTek(R) Audio
Recording Channels: 2 (Stereo) Recording Channels

I’ve also tried every variation of these settings I can think of. For years, these settings worked fine. But now that roar is always there. If I switch to Windows WASAPI I don’t hear it, but the audio gets very “distant” and isn’t really usable. Can anyone suggest a solution? I’ve spent a LOT of time on what is really meant to be a quick little audio grab for a not-very-important project.

[DVDdoug]

@AMightyUserName

Recording Device: Microphone Array (RealTek(R) Audio

Recording the sound in the room with the microphone is going to give you poor quality.

Use WASAPI (loopback). Loopback records whatever is coming OUT of your soundcard so it’s important that you can hear it, and you may need to turn the volume up to maximum.

[AMightyUserName]

Really helpful, thank you DVDdoug. At first I didn’t have this option. So I plugged my lavalier microphone back in, ran the speakers through it, and rebooted Audacity. That gave me loopback options for the microphone, so I chose those settings and tried it out. The roar was gone and the audio was at full strength. Problem solved, I got a good recording, finally. Much appreciated!