Audacity Forum

I've searched pretty thoroughly for a thread dealing with the problem I have, but I really couldn't find one. If there was a thread discussing this, let me know.

The problem is that when I start Audacity, all the audio coming out of my speakers sounds like someone cupped their hands over my ears. It just sounds muffled and with a hint of white noise hissing in the background. The problem continues even when Audacity isn't even running. I close iTunes and pretty much anything else involving sound and it still sounds terrible. The only thing I've been able to do is reboot my computer. As easy as that sounds, it makes using Audacity much less...productive.

So any help on the situation would be greatly appreciated.

<<<http://audacityteam.org/forum/viewtopic ... 8840#p8840>>>

Not to mention the computer. What happens when you play something really simple in Windows Media and Audacity's not running? Same muffled sound and hiss? What happens when you plug headphones into your sound card? There should be one connection back there labeled Headphone Out. Depending on your computer, it might be on the front.

And a few more numbers would be good. What's the Windows version you have and which Audacity did you download?

<<<The only thing I've been able to do is reboot my computer.>>>

You didn't actually say what happens when you do that. What happens?

Koz

Any sound playing after Audacity is run sounds muffled, regardless of what is making the sound. This still occurs even when it's closed.
This is a laptop, mind you. HP Pavilion dv9010us.
Audio played through headphones sounds normal, which leads me to believe it might not be the soundcard, but some setting that Audacity changes with the speakers. But I've gone through all the sound options in Windows and I really couldn't find anything.

I'm running the latest stable version of Audacity (1.2.6) and Windows MCE, with all the updates and whatnot.

kozikowski wrote:You didn't actually say what happens when you do that. What happens?

That's the only thing I can do to "reset" the speakers and get the audio to sound normal (i.e. end the hissing and muffling)

Do you have either Hardware Playthrough or Software Playthrough selected in Audacity > Preferences > Audio I/O?

That tool's job is to establish different audio pathways and if you don't know it's running, it can cause some mighty strange behavior. Also note that sometimes Audacity settings won't "stick" until you restart Audacity.

Koz

<<<the speakers.>>>

One other point. By "the speakers" you mean the 3/4 inch "High Fidelity," "Wide Range," "Extended," "Professional" speakers in your laptop, right?

Koz