its recording everything around not just the mix

hi guys, iv een trying to record my mixes on audacity on windows 8, i plug my mixer in to the mic input, its the only line input i have, it records everything thats gong on aroud me, i.e talking etc and i want it just to record what goes through the mixer, i have tried disableing the mic on my laptop setting and making the stereo mix primary but im having no luck. any help will be muchly appreciated. cheers.

i plug my mixer in to the mic input

You need to select the external mic input as your [u]Recording Device[/u].

i plug my mixer in to the mic input, its the only line input i have

That’s NOT a line input and it’s wrong for a line-level signal. It may “work” but you’ll probably get poor quality and you’ll probably get mono even if your mixer is stereo.

You need a USB interface with line inputs, such as the [u]Berhinger UCA202[/u]. Don’t buy a regular “USB soundcard”. These are like laptops with only mic-in and headphone-out.

ok cheers for that, i have ordered the usb interface, the behringer that you recommended, are they hard to setup ? i have never used one before, hopefully this will solve y problem.
cheers again

This one is dead simple. It has no adjustments other than to allow the headphones to hear the computer playback or not (used in Overdubbing).

You do have to know to switch to it in Audacity. Plug it in, then start Audacity. Use the Audacity Device Toolbar and look for USB Audio Codec. It’s not going to say Behringer.

http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/device_toolbar.html

Koz

This is one of mine.

No, I don’t mix anything on earbuds. They were graphically convenient.

Koz