Experimenting with Audacity on my second day and I am trying to record from the sound card (I guess that’s the way to put it); meaning, what’s playing on the speakers.
This computer has Windows Vista installed, so after reading a quick help tutorial, I went to Edit > PReferences > Audio I/O and tried all four of the devices listed. I either get pure silence, or fuzzy static.
What do I do now?
<<<What do I do now?>>>
Stop looking in the wrong place. You should be messing around in the Windows Control Panels, not Audacity.
Windows Control Panel
http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php?title=Mixer_Toolbar_Issues#Using_the_Control_Panel
I can tell you that in the earlier Windows, you just had to find the right combination of panel settings. In Vista, you have to know to right-click at the right time as well. Microsoft would just as soon you didn’t know how to do this.
Koz
I did the Start > Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Sound then > Recording tab and checked all the listed ones and checked their Levels. Still got nothing.
What now?
<<<What now?>>>
There is another magic control panel that opens up with more options if you right-click in the right place. I don’t know any more about it than that. It’s a programming “Easter Egg” that somebody discovered. Maybe Google…?
Koz
I did some experimenting, and for anyone in the same position, what I did was of course Show Disabled Devices in the Sound, right-click the one that came up and Enable it. Then I cdid Porperties… > Levels and put it at 100% with a balance on both channels at 50%.
Then I went to Edit > PReferences > Audio I/O and under the “Device” drop-down box, selected the now showing device that was missing, and it recorded.