I have Windows 10 and Audacity 2.1.1. Whenever i make a live recording, the playback fades out and in again with poor sound quality. Sound drivers have been updated. The Help Manual is not helpful: noise suppression settings, echo cancellation settings, and environment sound effects seem to have no effect. I can record cassette tapes to convert them to .wav files and they sound fine. What can I do?
All of the tools you listed only work after you get done recording. Audacity doesn’t do anything in real time during the recording.
But Windows does. Make sure the Windows sound services aren’t trying to help you.
http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/faq_recording_troubleshooting.html#enhancements
Koz
How do I “make sure Windows sound services aren’t trying to help me”? Please be specific.
The specifics are in the link Koz gave you. I am not sure if you have already seen this, but double-check it: Why do my recordings fade out or sound as if they were made in a tunnel?.
If that does not help, please give much more detail of exactly what you are recording live and how you are doing that. If you are using a mic, give the make and model number of the mic.
If you are recording overdubs, right-click over the speaker icon by the system clock, then choose “Recording Devices”. Click the Communications tab, then under “When Windows detects communications activity:”, choose “Do nothing”. This should stop Windows turning down the background audio you are recording over.
If you are recording Skype with Audacity, don’t - use an app that is meant for recording Skype. If you are not using Skype, but it is running, turn Skype off. It can interfere with recording or playback levels of anything.
Make sure you really do have correct Windows 10 audio drivers meant for your computer model: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Windows_10_OS#drivers.
Gale