I have tried a number of times to find my way through the various written and video manuals, but the situation won’t change: Because of some unclear terms, and because some of the keys look different on my app, I cannot solve this problem beyond doubt.
What I would like to do is record music from the desktop. The other settings are apparently right, as the music gets here. But the recording level is frequently wrong. I know how to do ‘start monitoring recording level’, but then adapting it can’t be properly done, apparently because ‘I do not have the slider’ in my app.
This looks like a stupid beginner mistake, yet have no idea right now how to solve it without investing more frustrating hours into it. Could someone tell me what my mistake might be? While my 2.3.3 is not the latest version, I do not think this has anything to do with it - I would prefer to stick with what I have.
I assume you are on Windows and using WASAPI loopback?
When you record desktop audio you are capturing the sound coming OUT of the soundcard and the recording level may depend on the playback level setting.
I THINK it depends on your version of Windows.
I’m on Windows 10 machine at the moment and Audacity’s recording & playback sliders aren’t having any effect with WASPI loopback. (When I lower the volume in the player application, that does affect the recording volume.)
The level might be lower than you expect and if the recording & playback levels are maxed-out you might not get to 100% (0dB). But you can always run the Amplify or Normalize effect after recording.
All of the popular streaming services use loudness normalization and that tends to lower the volume of MOST recordings and the peaks won’t reach 0dB.
The playback and recording level sliders are now “hidden” under the recording and playback meters. I don’t remember when that change happened so I don’t know if it’s that way in 2.2.3.
This sounds good, spontaneously said - thanks for that! Please let me deal with your explanations more in-depth, one of the next days, I’ll get back then.
I’m glad I gave myself some time: What at first glance looked like an easy task (which it probably is once practised for a while) actually took me hours.
First, to have an app and also the pertaining manual, I upgraded to 3.7.0; 3.7.1 wasn’t really possible without downloading a kind of suite called ‘MuseHub’, according to my impression?
Then, recording was possible once again. And yes, your assumption re WASAPI etc was right. So I lower the audio level of my player instead of some hidden (non-existent?) Audacity slider, and that seems to work.
Finally, the normalising function sounds interesting - amplyfying is probably not for me, at this stage. I intend to continue experimenting with it in the weeks and months ahead (don’t use it so often), to hopefully gain some practical experience; will see if this solves the rest of my problems.