I am using Audacity 3.1.3 and trying to record microphone audio on an Asus Sonicmaster Windows 11 laptop using a a headset plugged into a Soundblaster Play! 3 sound card plugged into a USB port. Audacity shows Speakers( Soundblaster Play!3) as a speaker option, which works, but does not show a similar option for Microphone. The only microphone option is the built in Realtek (R) Audio. Recordings from this have a high level of background sound. NCH Debut Video capture detects the headset mic OK .when using the sound card.
Update: on a different machine, Audacity 3.6.4 does show Soundblaster options for the microphone so the problem might be with the ASUS laptop.