Audacity Forum

I have Audacity 1.2.6, and I thought I would do some simple voice recordings just to check it out, with an eye on doing some serious voice recording in the form of dramatic readings in the future.

I plugged my Mic into Mic input the front of my Dell Inspiron 530 computer with Win-XP, and tried to record. Didn't works, so when in doubt, read the instructions.

It seems I have to select the input source, which should be just to the right of the volume control that has a Mic icon by it on the tool bar. But, it is grayed out, there are no input sources.

What am I missing here?

Also, in the Preferences, should the Playback and Recording devices be set to my sound card, or to Microsoft Sound Mapper?

I know the microphone works because I can hear my voice through the external computer speakers.

How do I add, or get Audacity to recognize my input devices?

My computer has an on-the-motherboard RealTek HiDef Audio card, that I realize its just basic, but it works fine in all other respects. The computer also has a built-in CD player/recorder.

Though I don't think it matters, I'm feeding the analog audio out of the sound card to an old Pioneer stereo which is in turn feeding two Sony 5" speakers.

The microphone, which works as I said, is a small Labtec made specifically for computers.

Audacity in general does seem to be working, I can load sound files and view and play them. But, no input devices at all.

Thanks.

Steve

Audacity is a complete slave to the computer running it, so if you can't get windows to manage the sound devices, that's the end of the ball game.

I think you can go into Control Panels rather than the desktop shortcut to set devices.

Windows Control Panel
http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php? ... trol_Panel

Koz

Keep in mind that my sound card is working in all other respects. When I had the Mic plugged in, I could hear myself talking through the speakers. I listen to YouTube videos and sound files all the time.

In the [Control Panel] -> [Sound & Audio Devices] -> [Audio] tab, 'Sound Playback'-'Default Device' is set to Realtek HD Audio Output and the 'Sound Recording'-Default Device is set to Realtek HD Audio Input. The 'Midi Music Playback'-'Default Device' is set to Microsoft DS Wavetable SW Synth. In all cases, there are the only devices listed.

All devices have the volumes (in and out) turned up to about 75%, and the only volume control that is muted is the 'PC Beep', all others are enabled.

Again, the sound card works fine, but Audacity simply doesn't list any input devices. Also, keep in mind it is not a blank list, that is, I can't drop the list down, as see that no devices are listed. It is simply grayed out and blank.

I appreciate any thought.

Though I think a good place to start might be to uninstall, then re-install and see if that help. I really should have done that before I posted...sorry.

Steve/bluewizard

bluewizard wrote: Again, the sound card works fine, but Audacity simply doesn't list any input devices. Also, keep in mind it is not a blank list, that is, I can't drop the list down, as see that no devices are listed. It is simply grayed out and blank.

In Audacity, this is the list beside the volume control, right?

Try going to Edit > Preferences then the Audio I/O tab and see if you can set your input device there.

-- Bill

I realize this thread is pretty old, but the problem is still not solved.

I have a RealTek ALC888 HDA sound card built onto the motherboard, which is a Foxconn F33M02. I downloaded the latest RealTek drivers from Foxcomm, and installed them hoping that might straighten things out.

The latest drivers for Realtek on Windows XP is 6/2/2008 5.10.0.5636.

I can record from the Microphone in Audacity, though I've only used the front Mic connection. But, the input selector is grayed out.

Going along the tool bar from left to right, you have the Speaker/Output Volume, then the Mic/Input volume, then the Input selector Drop Down Selector Box. Except that box is grayed out. There is nothing in the list because there is no list.

And, again, my sound card has an Audio Line In as well as two Mic inputs.

In the Edit - Preferences - Audio I/O, the playback device is set to Realtek HD Audio Output, the Recording device is set to RealTek Audio HD Input. And like I said, I can record from the Microphone (front Panel). And, the Line In is not muted in the Sound Card Volume Control.

For now, my main need is to record voice over the Mic, but I've thought about converting some vinyl albums to MP3 files. That's a low priority, but it would be nice to know what is going on with the Input Device Selector Box.

Also, If I get more serious and move to a better microphone with a mixer, I'm going to need the Line In rather than the Mic Input. I'm not sure what I'll do in that case. I guess I'll have to buy a better sound card and hope for the best.

If anyone has any ideas, I'm more than willing to hear them. I find it hard to believe I'm the only person experiencing this considering how many motherboards have build-in RealTek sound cards.

Thanks for whatever help anyone can give me.

To recap -

Dell Inspiron 530, 3Gb Ram, Realtek ALC888 Audio, Intel G33/G31 video, Windows XP Home Edition w/ Service Pack 3.

Thanks again.

Steve/bluewizard

Try upgrading to Audacity 1.3.12 http://audacityteam.org/download/

Thanks, that might be a solution, but I think I'll wait until 1.3 is out of BETA. Shouldn't be too long.

For now I can do what I need to do, but in the future, my needs are likely to grow more complex. I'm thinking of upgrading from my crappy $10 Labtec AM-240 lapel mic to either a USB or a standard mic and some kind of very basic mixer.

More than likely what I really need is a decent Audio Card, but this starts to compound the situation - sound card + Microphone + Mixer + ??? + $$$$.

I was hoping there was something really obvious that I was missing in the setup of either the sound card or Audacity.

I'll keep plugging away, and in the mean time, thanks for the help.

Steve

bluewizard wrote: Shouldn't be too long.

Don't hold your breath - the developers are perfectionists and we've been waiting years for the release of Audacity 2.0
meanwhile, Audacity 1.2.6 was abandoned years ago - it's ancient and has been unmaintained for years.

Audacity 1.3.12 is a late beta release and works very well on XP.