I’ve Been using Audacity for years. I sometimes use it to record phone calls as my MS web cameras microphone pics up the sound.
Never had an issue. The sound has always been really loud. I upgraded Audacity to 3.74. I also unplugged the web cam at some point. When I came back to audacity after unplugging the webcam back in, I found the volume of recording is very quiet, almost inaudible.
I’ve tried:
Ensuring the Volume is up 100% on the channel sliders in Audacity at the top of toolbar
Rescanning the Transport Devices
I’ve Tried every input selection available - curently MME, Windows Waspi and Direct Sound
I’ve Tried Windows 10’s own speaker volumes - on checking the microphone is peaking at full volume in Windows peak meter
Ensured microphone volume is at 100% in Windows 10
I even tried adjusting the start recording on sound setting (not used) from -61db attenuation to 0, it made no difference
However, despite all of this, the recording volume remains very low. It’s as if a boost in Audaciy has been removed, however, I can’t see any input boost setting for Audacity. I can’t see anything else to adjust in either windows or audacity.
I’ve always had a strong recording and never had to apply a post recording boost which would amplify any noise anyway. Has something changed in recent builds?
Hit Win Key + R, run mmsys.cpl and in the Recording tab right check the right mic is recording and right click it, go to Properties see if anything catches your eye like automatic enhancements.
These threads might help (maybe you want to turn them on instead turn them off):
Not 100% sure what the issue was but when I ran mmsys.cpl I was able to find an option to select the microphone as the audio input. By specifically selecting Microsoft Lifecam instead of default device (which was also the same), the volume seems to have increased and it’s now usable.
I guess the lesson here is always back up settings before upgrading.
The hint about backing up settings was in case you would test an older version, in case it screwed up your newer settings.
Glad to hear it worked out. Thanks for coming back to report your solution. Just if you feel sharing your exact camera model/name (in case there’s more than “Microsoft Lifecam” to it and post a screenshot of the Sound window where you fixed the issue, that might help others in the future.
You can edit your previous post since it’s already picked as the solution, if you want to have all the info there.