Sir,
The OS in my laptop (Vaio) is Windows 7 Ultimate. I have installed Audacity 2.0.3. When I tried to record music playing on the computer from an internet site, the external noise from the room, my voice, etc. are also getting recorded. How do I do internal recording without the external disturbances? I have gone thro’ the manual, but it doesn’t specifically deal with this problem even in the FAQs. In my laptop, under the ‘Recording Devices’ (when I right click the speaker icon), only Microphone is shown. When I tried to open the list of ‘disabled/disconnected devices’, there are no disabled devices. That would mean the laptop has only the Microphone as the recording device. I tried various options/combinations in the Audacity tool bar, but nothing worked. Pl give a solution.
Thanks
T.ANANTHARAJAN
When I tried to open the list of ‘disabled/disconnected devices’, there are no disabled devices. That would mean the laptop has only the Microphone as the recording device.
That is correct. Many soundcards/drivers simply don’t support recording of the sound going to the headphones/speakers (called “What-U-Hear” or “Stereo Mix”).
I tried various options/combinations in the Audacity tool bar, but nothing worked. Pl give a solution.
[u]This page[/u] has some suggested hardware & software solutions. Since your laptop probably doesn’t have a line-input, the hardware solution using a loopback cable from headphone-out to line-in would require that you buy a USB interface with line in. (Mic-in is a poor match for line-out.)
So, you’ll porbably want to try one of the software solutions. [u]Total Recorder[/u] ($18 USD & up) seems to work for most people. It comes with it’s own “virtual soundcard & driver” to get around your computer’s limitations.
Thank you for the response.
You had said, ‘Since your laptop probably doesn’t have a line-input,…’. But this is not true. My laptop does have a line-input. If so, how do I use it to solve my problem?
ANANTHARAJAN
A “microphone” input is different from a “Line” input.
Mic inputs are often mono, and are expecting a tiny microphone signal. One of the connectors of a Mic input usually has a 3 to 5 v supply connected to it (for powering a computer microphone).
Line inputs are usually stereo and are expecting a much larger “line level” signal.
Some laptop computers have a single input jack that can work as either a mono microphone input or a stereo line input.
If your computer does have a Line input, or a combined Mic/Line input, then you can record audio that is playing on your computer by connecting the headphone output to the line input with a suitable stereo audio cable (a “loopback” connector as described here: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/tutorial_recording_computer_playback_on_windows.html#Loopback_cable