Recording problem

kcazsnave · Post by **kcazsnave** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 12:15 am

I am using Vista Home Basic and I have read the FAQ and enabled all the devices that were listed but I still cannot get any sound to record off my soundcard.

The recording devices that I have when looking in the Audio I/O tab is as follows:

Microsoft Sound Mapper - Input
Microphone
Line-In
Auxiliary
CD Audio
TAD-In

When I ran XP Pro I had the luxury of the Mixer toolbar and I would always just select "What U Hear." But now I am lost, I'm not sure what I am missing. After read the FAQ I think I've done all I can do.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Zack

Post by **kozikowski** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 9:00 am

<<<Any suggestions?>>>

Yes. You can tell us what you're trying to do. "Recording off my sound card" could mean anything. Are you having trouble recording a microphone plugged into the sound card?

Koz

alatham · Post by **alatham** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 3:37 pm

You're trying to access the What U Hear input (aka Stereo Mix), but your drivers aren't offering it as an option. It's a problem with your drivers, this is common amongst Vista users.

We have a wiki page detailing what you can try at first, the section labeled Control Panel Issues will probably be the most helpful, but you should read it all:
http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php? ... s_Vista_OS

Many Vista users remain unable to use that input even after fiddling with their drivers, if that's the case you have two more options:
1) Run a cable from the Line Out to the Line In on your soundcard, then set Audacity to record from the Line In (many laptops don't have a Line In).
2) Buy a new audio interface. The Behringer UCA202 is only $30, sounds nicer than stock cards, and gives you a Stereo Mix option (as long as you update the drivers).

kcazsnave · Post by **kcazsnave** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 3:43 am

Ok, I updated the driver and finally got "What U Hear" to come up. But with this driver any audio I play gets nasty feedback, but with the old drivers it was clear.

kcazsnave · Post by **kcazsnave** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 3:50 am

I think I fixed the feedback problem. I changed the playback from Speakers to SPDIF Out. That seems to have done the trick, although I'm not sure what I did.

Post by **kozikowski** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 8:10 am

"What You Hear" or "Mix Out" (different versions) scoop up everything your machine is playing into the speakers and redirects it into Audacity. If you happen to have a microphone open in the Windows Record Panels, then you have a microphone and a speaker open at the same time. Feedback city. There should be a record panel there somewhere and you need to turn off everything you're not using. If you're recording from the internet (we're still guessing about that since you haven't told us), then you probably should leave the one channel that processes internet sound active. Close everything else.

Koz

alatham · Post by **alatham** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 3:45 pm

The other common cause of feedback during that kind of recording is leaving "Software Playthrough" turned on in Audacity's edit -> preferences -> Audio I/O menu.

It should be turned off.

kcazsnave · Post by **kcazsnave** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 10:06 pm

I'm just trying to record streaming audio from the Internet(e.g. Youtube, Movie Trailers, etc...). I am now able to record but everything seems really scratchy. I've turned off all extra devices in the record panel and it still sounds pretty bad.

Here is an example of the recordings I am getting:

http://boomp3.com/m/9d320366a91d

alatham · Post by **alatham** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 11:08 pm

I misread your earlier post:

But with this driver any audio I play gets nasty feedback, but with the old drivers it was clear.

If you're getting that noise every time you play something, then your hardware doesn't like those drivers. Are you sure those drivers were meant for your version of Windows? Vista and XP drivers are not interchangeable.

kcazsnave · Post by **kcazsnave** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 11:32 pm

alatham wrote:I misread your earlier post:

But with this driver any audio I play gets nasty feedback, but with the old drivers it was clear.
If you're getting that noise every time you play something, then your hardware doesn't like those drivers. Are you sure those drivers were meant for your version of Windows? Vista and XP drivers are not interchangeable.

Well that clip is what it sounds like when I playback a recording I recorded with Audacity using "What U Hear," with all other recording devices disabled.

The first time I talked about feedback I was talking about Playback only. When I would play any type of audio (Youtube, cd's, dvd's, etc...) I would get something that sounds like this:

(Playback device = "Speakers" w/ "SPDIF Out disabled") = http://boomp3.com/m/913b3af1da24 (turn volume way down, not pleasant to listen to)

(Playback device = "SPDIF Out" w/ Speakers disabled") = It sounds normal, with no feedback or noise

If both are enabled I still get the really bad noise/feedback.

So I have been using SPDIF Out as my playback and only "What U Hear" as my Record device, and the recordings I have been getting sound like the one you listened to in my previous post.

So I am not sure what is up. It must be a Vista thing, cause things were working fine with XP. My drivers I am using for my sound card I let Vista find them. They gave me some Creative driver #6.0.1.1241

It was a fairly old soundcard my friend had lying around and since I was just using the onboard sound from my motherboard I decided to throw it in. It's a Creative SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 Model SB0060US

Maybe it's just a junk card when partnered with Vista. Either way, I'm stumped.

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