This post is staying here, and also being copied to Behringer and to realtek
I am starting a new thread here because the old one was getting too tangled.
I use Audacity 2.2.1 with a Behringer XENYX Q502USB mixer and Roede M3 microphone.
In Audacity I select realtek or usb
select realtek - sound is terrible with bathroom boom - I am speaking to realtek about this
some have suggested using the realtek HD audio manager and suppressing the enhancements - no enhancements are set so there is nothing to suppress
select usb - flat-lining - in the past I have obtained ‘good enough’ recordings using usb audio codec but I now get flat-lining
Behringer advise me to download ASIO4ALL driver. I did this but still get flat-lining on usb
Check the analog setup by plugging headphones into the mixer or plug it into your stereo, etc.
You can check the computer connections/configuration with [u]Listen To This Device[/u]. You should be able to hear the mixer-output without Audacity (or any other application) running.
Have you tried a different USB cable?
select realtek - sound is terrible with bathroom boom - I am speaking to realtek about this
The Realtek is not involved with a USB mixer. I assume this is a laptop so you’re probably recording the laptop’s built-in mic when you select Raeltek.
Behringer advise me to download ASIO4ALL driver. I did this but still get flat-lining on usb
That won’t help since Audacity is not an ASIO application. (it won’t hurt, but it won’t help.) The mixer should work with the Microsoft-supplied drivers.
And yes it does sound like you’re recording the wrong microphone.
Recording on Windows can be scary. You have to make sure Skype isn’t running back there, Virus Protection isn’t eating your sound files and Windows processing isn’t trying to help you.
Many thanks, folks, for all your suggestions. While they are all interesting, there are two points that nobody is addressing
1 interesting but not crucial. My friend also has Audacity and we made a successful recording with his machine, my mike and my mixer. We have never had any difficulty with that configuration. What is different between my computer set-up and his?
2 in the past I have made successful recordings with my machine, my mike and my mixer.
Given this, I think that all the suggestions are off the mark. I conclude that
1 somehow in my machine Audacity is calling on some piece of software (call it X)
2 X is not supplied with my machine but has to be downloaded from somewhere
3 Someone else is responsible for downloading X
4 That someone else can download X
without asking me for permission to do so
and does not tell me while when doing so or after doing so
What is different between my computer set-up and his?
Is that a rhetorical question? Of course, we don’t know the difference and we don’t know what’s wrong with your computer. You never REALLY know what the problem was 'till it’s solved, and even then sometimes you don’t know…
One more thing you can try - You can try uninstalling the driver (and automatically re-installing).
Go to the Windows Device Manager, which you can access by right-clicking the Windows Start icon.
At the bottom of the list you should see “Universal Serial Bus Controllers”.
Double-click that and try to identify the USB audio driver. You may need to un-plug it and re-plug-in the USB device to identify it.
Right click the audio device and then “uninstall”.
Unplug the USB cable and plug back in the driver should automatically re-install and maybe it will get re-configured and work.