Bad recording quality since software update

Hi everyone,

I’m not sure if anyone else here encountered this issue. I recently updated to Audacity 2.4.2 and since then my recordings (music or sound from various online sources) sound thin, flat and tinny. Almost like a mono recording. Excuse my “terminology”. I’m not an expert, I just want to record stuff. Until the update everything just sounded like the original. Now, it all comes out messed up. I would appreciate some advice on how to improve the sound quality.

Cheers.

Audacity does not apply any effects while recording, so most likely the problem lies somewhere else.

Check in the Windows Sound control panel and ensure that your recording device is set to record stereo.

Hi,

Thanks for the quick response. I just checked the audio setting on my notebook. Also ran the troubleshooting. Disabled special effects and spatial sound (whatever that is). One of the troubleshooting’s results is that there is a “generic audio driver” on my notebook. Not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing. Funnily enough, I just updated the audio driver via HP’s support assistant three days ago.

Now, I tried recording something again. Still, tinny thin sound with almost now bass. Almost only mids and treble.

Once again, I never encountered this kind of problem and have been using Audacity for years.

Can you try rolling back that update?

Hi again,

I had some time to play around with the settings on Audacity the last couple of days. On the contrary to the loopback via my notebook’s speakers that sounded horrendous, I now loop back through the headphones. The sound quality seems to be just as good as before the trouble started. So, the issue is solved.

Thanks for your advice, Steve.

Thanks for the update and pleased to hear that it’s now working for you.