Hi, I just downloaded Audacity 2.0.5 via the .exe installer onto my Acer laptop. I’m attempting to record my voice through a headset. I’m able to record my voice loud and clear through the computer’s microphone. When I try to record through the headset, it doesn’t record. The goal is to be able to record my voice cleanly through the microphone on the headset while still hearing those I’ll be talking to without picking up their voices. What settings are best for this?
If you are recording Skype, don’t use Audacity to record that. Use an application meant for recording Skype, like Pamela or http://www.ifree-recorder.com/ or Skype Call Recorder . You may be able to record only one side that way in the application settings.
If you need to use Audacity, please give us the make and model number of the headset or at least tell us if it is a USB headset or has pink and green connectors. The input device to record from can be chosen in Device Toolbar . Restart Audacity if you connected a USB headset after launching Audacity.
Gale
Hi Gale. The headset has pink (I would say red) and green connectors. There’s no marking on the headset indicating a make or model number of the headset so I can’t provide you that information. I don’t have the original packaging either.
Kevin
Where are the people you will be talking to? On Skype or Google Hangouts?
Gale
They are on Skype though I’m just trying to record my own voice and not theirs.
Please read https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/recording-only-myself-on-skype-with-audacity/31093/1 . Because of the way Skype manages sound, and leakage in headsets, you may not be able to achieve complete isolation of your own voice in the recording, even if you set Audacity just to record the mic.
Use a recorder meant for Skype that either lets you record yourself only, or records in stereo with yourself in one channel and the other people in the other channel. If you do the latter, import the file into Audacity, use the Track Drop-Down Menu to Split Stereo to Mono, then use the on the other people’s track to close that track. Then export to your chosen format.
If you care about encoding loss, record in PCM WAV if you can then if you want the final format to be a small-sized lossy format, you only have that one lossy encoding.
Gale
For Skype, using a specialist Skype recording application is recommended. I’ve used Skype Call Recorder which has worked very well for me.
However, if you only want to record your side of the conversation, then it should be possible to do so by selecting the microphone that you are using as the recording input in the device toolbar. Doing it this way would be my second choice because Skype can be quite aggressive in how it handles the sound system, making it difficult to run other audio applications at the same time (other than applications that are specifically designed for recording Skype).