Audacity Forum

Being a newbie with recording on my computer, I've read the tutorial and checked out the FAQ on recording in Audacity, but I'm having a problem recording more than one track with the microphone.

So I record my first base track and then play it back to see if it sounds ok.
I press Record again, which starts a new track, except that I can't record in it.
What happens instead is that the program records the sound from the first track as it's being played.
The sine wave shows it as somewhat distorted, but it is a duplicate of the first track.
Here is what it looks like if I just press the Record button a second time and let it record for a few seconds:


I'm using headphones to listen so it's not as if I'm recording the sound coming from my speakers.
I've also checked the box that says "Play other tracks while recording a new one".
I had the same behaviour with another similar freeware program so I imagine that it's me or my soundcard that's to blame.

Does anybody know how I can correct this?
Thank you.

Look for a loudspeaker icon near the Time/Date on your Desktop. This gives you access to the sound card mixer/control panel. From there you can set which Input your sound card uses for recording. Currently you have it set to "Stereo Mix" (it may be called "What U Hear"). You need to change the recording input to "Mic".

An alternative way to make the same settings is from the Windows Control Panel, as described here: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php? ... ng_devices

Thanks! That was it!