Recording computer output volume/quality issue (Windows 10 BootCamp)

Audacity 3 Help Forum Windows
1

Hi all, this may be a niche issue depending on where the issue is coming from so I’ll be as detailed as possible: I have an old Late 2013 27" iMac that I wanted to repurpose as a computer solely for music production and I decided to blow away MacOS completely and install Windows 10 LTSC in its stead. When setting up Audacity, I noticed that the audio output recording from Windows was noticeably softer and tinnier than the source audio. I tried recording with multiple YouTube videos and noticed the same results. I came across a video that said to “Disable all enhancements” in Speakers Properties under the Playback tab of Sounds in the control panel, and I don’t believe this resolved my issue. All it did was significantly change how the normal output sounded but recording the audio still had the same issue of being softer than the source audio.

I am currently using the Windows WASAPI host, Speakers (Cirrus Logic CS4206B (AB 07)) as the playback device, and Speakers (Cirrus Logic CS4206B (AB 07)) (loopback) as the recording device.

Is this possibly an issue with Apple BootCamp, or the driver it uses to interface with Apple’s sound hardware? And just to confirm, in terms of levels/gain and fidelity, recording the audio output should be 1:1, correct?

Any info would be great, thanks in advance!

2

Check for any recording “enhancements”. It’s a recording problem, right?

Or sometimes there are additional settings (EQ, etc.) from the computer/soundcard manufacturer, but it’s unlikely that you have that with your setup. I had a laptop once with different settings for internal speakers, external speakers, and headphones. When set to internal it would cut the bass since the little speakers can’t reproduce bas but it can cause distortion.