Audacity recording quality Poor after Windows 7 upgrade

[ShannonGogerty]

I have recently upgraded my Dell laptop with Windows Vista OS to Windows 7.
Audacity worked perfectly with Windows Vista....after upgrading to Windows 7 Audacity's recording quality is Poor (very loud and scratchy).

To improve Audacity's performance, I changed the program's compatibility mode to run as it would with "Windows Vista" (properties tab) and to no avail, Audacity still displayed the same symptoms.
It was read that changing mixer levels would help to solve the "loudness" of the input, but Audacity does not allow me to do so (sliders move in the mixer toolbar but have no affect on microphone input).
My Ion USB turntable does not have a gain control button.

Sigma Tel High Definition Audio CODEC and USB Audio CODEC device drivers are up to date.

Looking forward to reading any advice/tips in remedying this issue
Thank you,

Shannon

[steve]

Sigma Tel High Definition Audio CODEC and USB Audio CODEC device drivers are up to date.

How up-to date are they? If you look at the driver details it should tell you the release date.

[ShannonGogerty]

USB Audio CODEC:
Driver Date: 7/13/2009
Driver Version: 6.1.7600.16385


Sigma Tel High Definition Audio CODEC:
Driver Date: 1/27/2007
Driver Version: 6.10.0.5343

[steve]

Audacity does not allow me to do so (sliders move in the mixer toolbar but have no affect on microphone input).
My Ion USB turntable does not have a gain control button.

Sigma Tel High Definition Audio CODEC and USB Audio CODEC device drivers are up to date.

What exactly are you recording? a microphone or a USB turntable?

[ShannonGogerty]

I am using a USB Turntable to record my LP records.

[steve]

USB turntables bypass the sound card when you are recording (the "sound card" is built into the turntable).
You need to be looking at the turntable drivers rather than your sound card drivers.

[Gale Andrews]

Have you looked under the turntable chassis for the gain control? Most Ion turntables have them.

If not, go to Sound or similar in the Windows Control Panel and on the Recording tab, right-click over the USB Audio Codec for the Ion. There should be a "Levels" tab or similar with a gain slider. Does that reduce the input level?



Gale

[ShannonGogerty]

Upon looking at the Microphone properties, the slider was all the way up to 100.
After considerably lowering it, Audacity is recording wonderfully again.

Thank you very much for the great tip. This advice is much appreciated.

Shannon