I CAN"T HEAR SOUND THROUGH MY RAZER KRAKEN

I was able to listen to sound already recorded through my headset and all of a sudden, I couldn’t hear anything through audacity that has been recorded. Recording my voice is fine but I can’t hear the playback.
It is definitely because of the program since other program I can listen to.

Please respond ASAP
Coollman3


Headset: Razer Kraken Pro 7.1 digital surround sound.

Ensure that you have selected the correct output device in the device toolbar.

If the headphones have become disconnected even for a brief moment, it may be necessary to “rescan audio devices” (in the “Transport” menu) and then reselect the input/output devices.

I did this many times and still it does not work. Thankyou for the suggestion though.
Coollman3

Some Razer Krakens are connected to the computer by USB - is yours?

Have you tried rebooting the computer?


Gale

I have a usb connected one.
But I just found out something. As soon as the computer boots, I can hear audacity and my recordings. But later when more of the startup programs boot up, I can’t hear it anymore.
Do you think that the problem is because of a program. By the way, when you mean reboot, do you mean restart computer?
Thanks for your co-operation
Coollman3

It could be because of an audio device starting up that becomes the Windows default playback device.

I mean what is known as a “cold boot” where the machine boots from a completely powerless state. That generally means choosing Shut Down, then wait, then use the Power On button, rather than choosing Restart.

However if you are on Windows 8, it is (confusingly) better to choose “Restart”, explicitly using the WIN + X menu in Windows 8.1 to “Restart” and not Shut Down. This is because Windows 8 Shut Down by default uses “Hybrid boot” which stores information from the system kernel and the device drivers to hiberfil.sys. So when you press the power button to start up again after “Shut Down”, you’re actually getting the previous kernel session rather than a freshly initialised kernel session.

If you want to use this Razer USB headset as your main playback device for all applications on the computer, it needs to be set in the Windows sound control panel as the default Windows playback device.

If all you want to use the headset for is listening to your recordings in Audacity, then all you need to do is open the Audacity Device Toolbar then explicitly choose the Razer as the playback (output) device, and not the “Sound Mapper - Output” or “Primary Sound Driver” which is always the same as whatever the current Windows default playback device is.

You should have read the pink panel at the top of the page and given us your version of Audacity and Windows. If you still need help, please give us that information.


Gale

Hi Gale
Sorry. I ignored the pink box. I am using windows 8.1 with Audacity 2.0.6.
If a program was to do this problem, then which program should I configure.
Thanks Gale, Your the best help so far
Coollman3

Fairly obviously, we can’t see your computer to tell you what applications you have.

As I said, the behaviour you describe sounds to me that an audio device starts up that becomes the Windows default playback device.

Audio devices are usually hardware - a physical device.

It is possible to have a “virtual” device (a software application that behaves like an audio device) or it is possible that some app starts that wants to manage sound and so makes one of the physical or virtual devices the Windows default device for sound playback when you don’t want that.

In either of those cases that is happening because you installed a virtual sound device or some audio app that makes changes like that. If the problem only recently started happening, it may help to think of which applications you installed that may have caused the problem.

I’ve already explained what to do (a) if you want to use the Razer USB headset as your main playback device for all applications on the computer, or (b) if you want to use the headset only for listening to your recordings in Audacity. Do you want (a), or (b), or (b) plus some other applications? If so which applications are those?

Does the headset have some control panel where there is some setting that might be causing this problem? Have you asked Razer?


Gale

Hi Gale
Sorry about not responding for a while. It is the weekend here in Australia.
About the virtual audio device, I have a razer surround pro program. Do you think that could be the problem?
I know you cannot know every program that I have, but do you know any programs that could have any major conflicts with audacity and the headset?
Thankyou very much for your co-operation so far
-coollman3

I don’t see why, unless the surround sound is a separate audio device. But I don’t have your headset. The place to get support for your headset is the manufacturer. What do they say about it?

Without coming on to your computer via Team Viewer to look at the problem (which I charge for), I really cannot answer hypothetical questions. :wink:

In order to move this forward, please answer this question directly.

Do you you want to use the Razer USB headset as the playback device for all applications on the computer?

Or

Do you want to use the headset only for listening to your recordings in Audacity?

Or

Do you want to use the headset for listening in Audacity AND in some other specific application?

If you answer that question, then we can try to give you step-by-step instructions to achieve your desired objective. Also I would suggest you open Help > Audio Device Info… top right of the Audacity menus. In the window that opens, right-click and choose “Select All”. Right-click again and choose “Copy”. Then paste the information here. This lets us see the audio devices that Windows sees.


Gale

Hi Gale
I want to use my headset for listening to recordings and I also use the headset for gaming. The step-by-step tutorial would be great
Thanks Gale
coollman3

Please post the audio device info I requested in my last post ( Help > Audio Device Info… top right of the Audacity menus). Then we can talk using specific device names.

Gale

Hi Gale
I have great news. its working again. It was a problem with Razer Synapse. All is well again. What happened was that synapse put audacity on mute and I had to unmute it.
YOU HOWEVER ARE THE GREATEST HELPER OF ALL TIME :open_mouth: :open_mouth: :open_mouth: :open_mouth: :open_mouth: :open_mouth: :open_mouth: :open_mouth: :open_mouth: :open_mouth: :open_mouth: :open_mouth: :open_mouth: :open_mouth: :open_mouth: :open_mouth: :open_mouth: :open_mouth: :open_mouth:
THANKYOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR GUIDANCE
coollman3

I’m glad it was solved.

In case it helps someone else, where would a user go to open Synapse? Is there an icon for it by the system clock, or is it in the Windows Control Panel?

Gale

Hi Gale.
The way I did this was to open Razer Synapse in the system tray, click on their Headset and click on mixer. Then play your recorded audio on Audacity and for a short time the icon of audacity will apear in the mixer and will show mute. When you see this, you need to click unmute before it goes away, Otherwise you repeat the proccess from the start of the last sentence. Post a message if you are unsure on what I said.
I wouldn’t be saying this without your help
coollman3 :wink: :astonished:

Thanks for getting back to us.

So once you umute Audacity in the Razer mixer, does that unmuting persist, or do you have to do the unmute every time you play audio in a new Audacity session?

And does that problem happen in Windows Media Player or in other apps - or only Audacity?


Gale