I’m using audacity 2.3.2 on windows 10 home 64-bit.
What I optimally want to achieve is to record 2 audio tracks at the same time, one from my mic (normal audi jack) and the other one from the desktop (audio from skype or discord). I’m not quite sure how to do this and not sure it is possible without any extra equipment.
I’ve played around with the Windows WASAPI device and I’m able to record desktop audio, but I’m not able to record from my mic at the same time.
Is this possible with audacity without any extra equipment, and if so how can I do it?
Audacity will only record from one thing at a time. So that’s the first problem.
The next problem is more interesting. Chat or communications programs take over your machine while they’re working. It’s the only way they can work without causing distortion or howling feedback. Sometimes you can get a recording solution that works beautifully with terrific stability…once.
“I don’t know what happened. It worked last week.”
It also gives you instructional or YouTube postings that don’t work much of the time, or worse, work once in a while.
It’s in response to this almost universal demand that many of the companies offer an on-line conversation recorder. What that usually does is record bidirectional “Skype voice” and gives it to you as a mix. You might look into that. It can be ratty quality, but it does work. Hint: These can work enormously better if you’re both on headphones or earphones, and the more quiet the rooms, the better. If you’re performing in the kitchen, it’s going to sound like a kitchen. No magic filters or effects.
It’s not unusual for each person to be able to record their own microphone but not the far side. Make each performer record their own voice and ship the sound files to you for mixing into a show. It usually doesn’t fit in email. You may need a file server such as DropBox. And don’t freak. The edit is not that hard.
You can also do it with a full-on broadcast rig.
This works every time because Skype is running on its own computer on the right. The computer on the left is just recording the mix, and it’s playing music. It’s the service split that does it. This is an engineering test.
