It looks as is my recordings happen only when sound is present. Maybe I accidentally enabled Voice Activation. My recordings require blank sections and I do not want the recording to stop.
I do not see an option to enable/disable that feature.
Also, the screen tips are blocked by my cursor. In all cases, I cannot read the first word when I hover over a button. Can this be fixed? I have always wondered why it has to be immediately attached to the cursor position. Why not at the bottom of the page where it does not interfere?
No change in either selection. Seems to stay in sound activated mode.
That means it’s not Audacity. Audacity gets its sound from the computer, not directly from the microphone or microphone system. That means anything else on the machine can have a hand in it. So it’s not a simple button push any more.
Do you use Meetings, Skype, Zoom, or other communications apps? They take over the machine sound when they run. Games can create problems.
Try a clean Windows shutdown. Shift+Shutdown > OK > Wait > Start. Do Not Let Any Apps Start.
Open Audacity. Did that help?
This can get so bad that we recommend not recording on the computer. I use a Zoom H1n stand-alone recorder and one of the other forum elves uses an H2n. No recording problems.
Apparently, this has been hidden all along. This showed up as I was trying to defeat the recorder from hearing the microphone. In the speaker setting in Windows 10, I found the option to decrease the mic level and then the sound activation issue showed up.
I can increase the level enough that some noise is recording. The problem is that anything I record will have that noise contained in the sound track. This is especially a problem for extremely low passages. Fortunately, most of what I have been recording is voice and it is not an issue. Now that I am doing music, it is an issue.
In addition to the Windows audio-enhancements, there can be a second layer of audio-enhancements provided by the computer manufacturer that need to be turned off for a faithful recording. Sometimes called MaxxAudio, (a/k/a Dell Audio).
There can be audio-enhacements for recording, and different enhancements for playback.
Disable all of them.
(No need to remove any audio drivers, just switch the audio-enhancements off).
What’s the microphone? That may be another vote for not recording on the computer.
Many (all) home microhones record at low volume naturally. This is Marketing and Promotion at work.
Medium and high volume microphones require a knowledge of recording. If you have no experience, it’s easy to record too high which can sound peaky, harsh, and crackly. The distortion is permanent and it can cause you to send the microhone back. Low volume microphones make you think you’re doing something wrong and keep the microphone. No contest. Low volume microphones tend to sound noisy with background hissss or shshshsh sounds.
You can’t easily decrease that background noise without also decreasing the show volume.
I have a microphone interface from Shure that produces low volume slightly noisy recordings. I contacted Shure about getting just a little more volume boost. They said, “That’s the way it is.”
A good target for recording is to have the blue waves occasionally tip or peak at about half-way (50%) and the bouncing sound meter to jump up to about -6dB to -9dB.
Are you suggesting to not use Audacity to record audio?
I don’t want the microphone in use at all.
What does any of this have to do with preventing voice-activated-recording?
The microphone is built into the monitor. I need to defeat it least I take an ice pick and stab it out.
Audio is coming from URLs and computer software.
i.e. WASAPI should only stop recording when there is true flat-line silence, not just when it is low volume.
If you have the “Stereo Mix” option you could try that instead of WASAPI to record the computer sounds.
“Stereo Mix” will record flat-line silence: it does not stop when there is no sound to record.
[ WASAPI is technically better sound than Stereo-Mix:
the latter involves D/A=>A/D conversions which add faint noise].
