Recording Volume Level Always 1.0 Until I Change It After Starting to Record

Audacity Help Forum Windows
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Hi all! New to this group, so I did some searching first. “Recording” and “Volume” are pretty common, so maybe I missed some earlier discussion about my problem.

I am using Windows 10 v1903, Audacity 2.4.2.

When I set the Recording Volume level to some value lower than 1 (say, 0.5), my microphone attenuates the sound just as I expect it to, until I use my Logitech H390 USB headset. Whenever I start a recording using that, the volume level is 1.0, regardless of where the slider is on my screen. For example, if I set the slider to level 0.10 and start a recording, the slider stays where I put it, but my recording is just as loud as if the level had been set to 1.0. If, while recording is in progress, I move the slider a tiny bit (so it changes from 0.10, to 0.11, for example), the level of the recording immediately drops by quite a bit. But, after I stop the recording, although the slider never moves on the screen, the next recording I start again records as though the Recording Volume were set to 1.0 (until, again, I move the slider by any amount).

My Logitech “Rock Band” microphone does not exhibit this problem. It always records at whatever level the slider is set to. The only difference I can see in the two devices is that one is a combined input/output audio device (the headset), while the other is input-only (the “Rock Band” microphone).

Any idea what’s causing my problem?

2

One is digital and the other analog. Audacity will not change the volume of a show that arrives as a digital source. It is assumed that if you digitized the show wrong, it’s going to stay wrong no matter what the settings are. If the sound is too hot for production, you’re supposed to record it on its own track and do post production adjustments later.

It’s a common error to mix during recording. If you do mix in post production, you keep mixing with different settings until it sounds perfect. If you mix during recording, any errors means you have to record the whole thing again.

Koz

3

Thanks for the speedy reply!

All of the microphones I am using are USB, and Audacity is letting me change their recording levels. Just this one device requires some (any) change to be made to the Recording Volume after recording begins in order for the level setting to have an effect.

4

There’s another direction to this. Audacity doesn’t get its sound from the microphone. It gets it from Windows. Drill down to the Windows sound control panels and see what they have to say. You may be able to set the recording volume there and have it stick.

after recording begins

That is most unusual. It sounds like the device keeps disconnecting itself and Audacity shrugs its shoulders and just starts over. What is this device?

Koz

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