Volume level changes while recording

Hi People, sorry if this is posted in the wrong forum, feel free to move it.

I just had a hell of a time trying to record nice audio using my onboard soundcard and a simple computer mic. The volume seemed to do funny things during the recording.
I searched for ages on google trying to find an answer and never really did so I promised I’d post when I figured it out.

If anyone has an onboard soundcard with the RealTek HD Audio drivers make sure you turn off the “noise suppression” in the microphone tab of the “Realtek HD Sound Effects Manager” (Found under control panel, at least in xp pro).

I hope this helps someone - It certainly helped me, you can switch it on and off while Audacity is recording and hear the difference!

Cheers - Carl.

Real time noise suppression. Who would have guessed that?

I wonder what they’re trying to do…

Is the show more or less normal as long as you’re at regular volume, but instead of getting quieter during an expressive part of the performance, it gets really quiet, or vanishes?

Koz

Yeah, with that stupid noise suppression thing on, it just tends to go very quiet after a softer part or likewise with louder parts - basically it doesn’t maintain a nice controlled volume but instead fluctuates alot.

Hi Carl,

many thanks for this very valuable tip, and for sharing it with the Audacity community.

My new Dell laptop came fitted with a Realtek HD card - and your post probably excplains a slightly odd recording I made recently of a friend reading a poem.

Have you experimented with using/not using the “Acoustic Echo Cancellation” option that is available on the same microphone tab?

WC


BTW I think this is the right section of the forum for this post