Recording muffles after several seconds

Audacity 3 Help Forum Windows
1

Hi

Suddenly, after several seconds of recording, the sound will get horrible. I’ve been recording for a while now (several months) without a problem, and can’t think of anything I may have changed. I tested it on two mics and it is the same problem. I’ve tried a few things to no avail, so I throw it out there to see if anybody recognizes the problem and possibly has a solution.

I plug the mics directly into the computers mic port.

Windows 8.1
Audacity 2.1.3
Conexant SmartAudio HD
Tested using Tascam DR-22WL and Takstar SGC-598.

All settings set to default.

Here is an example of it: https://youtu.be/4-YyrY9-zHY

Thanks in advance.

2

Ensure that all sound “Enhancements” are disabled: http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/faq_recording_troubleshooting.html#enhancements
Ensure that you don’t have Skype or other VOIP application running, not even in the background.

3

Okay, turning off the enhancements seems to have done the trick, though it does introduce new problems for me to solve. And leaves me wondering why Conexant suddenly decided to malfunction.

But at least I know that the error does not lie with Audacity. Thank you so much for your help.

4

That’s Windows voice processing. As you noticed, you probably now have to deal with environment noises, fan sounds and echoes. That’s what voice processing solves.

Voice Processing hates music. It sees any sustained musical tone as noise and tries to get rid of it. So if this is the first time you’ve had to perform music, that’s what happened. Windows thinks your music is air conditioning noise.

That’s Windows default, so if you had a major update or change, Windows may have turned it back on.

Koz