Horrible Sound Quality

Have a Lenovo Thinkpad, Windows 8,Audacity 2.0.5 and downloaded the .exe installer to set up the software.

Perhaps someone can help with this - I use audacity to record music videos/other stuff off my computer when a video/mp3 converter won’t work. I don’t get all the tech stuff with audacity, bit rates, etc. I just hit record, turn on the video and record. With the old version and old computer this always worked great. Just tried recording a music video and it recorded but the sound quality is awful - very tinny and sounds like you’re playing it inside a barrel. I’m recording it in stereo, and have tried the input as MS Sound Mapper and the microphone (Conexant 20671) - both produce a crappy recording. So it records fine, but the final product is horrible. Any advice?

I suppose step one is make sure you’re not recording from the laptop microphone:
http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/tutorial_recording_computer_playback_on_windows.html

Step two is turn off Conferencing.
http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/faq_recording_troubleshooting.html#enhancements

Koz