Audacity Forum

I keep getting these little "spikes" (see attachment) when I use the Stereo Mix input. I have no sound being generated from anything so I am confused why these spikes keep appearing. I want dead silence. What is causing this and how do I correct it?

I'm betting feedback. Do you have Audacity set to "play track while recording a new one?"

For you to hear what you're doing, you need Audacity to play into your speakers. To record Mix Out, the speaker feed has to go to the Audacity input....and then to the Audacity output...and then to the speaker feed, and then to the Audacity input.......

The only reason this process doesn't scream like the microphone in a high school gym is that the computer had delay in all the processes. So instead of ....eeeeeEEEEEEE, you're getting low thumping ....mum ......mum .....um.

It's perfectly possible not to hear it because unfortunately (in my opinion) Audacity will pass signals both above and below human hearing. You can, if you wish, edit "audio" signals that only whales can hear.

So you have to interrupt the pathways. Open the Windows control panel and turn off all the playback systems. Make a new recording and I bet the effect is gone.

You may also be able to kill it by applying a high-pass filter cutting at 20 Hz. You may also need to go to Audacity 1.3 to get that, I'm not sure. But that's an extra step. You need to cure this at the beginning.

Koz

Thanks for the reply, but I figured out how to fix it. Mute PC Beep in Master Volume in Windows. PERFECTLY quiet now.