Unable to record

[jaycup]

Sorry for any confusion, the settings I reffered to was when they (MFI) suggested setting Audacity preferences to 'Microsoft Sound Mapper', the first time I did this it worked I got a normal 'wave-form' recording but thereafter it did not work and all I get is a straight line (no sound). The screen shot you show of the MSI Audio Manager is very similar to mine but not exact, and the 'drop-down-menu' you have 'arrowed' only gives me the option of, Realtek HD Audio Input.

Audio Manager.gif (41.5 KiB) Viewed 3079 times

[jaycup]

Thought I should show a screenshot of the Audio Control as shown in 'Vista'. As you can see along the top of the 'window' are the options for Line-Out; Stereo Mix; and Microphone:




As I said before vista is on a secondary partition on my hard drive and my main OS is XP but there are no problems recording within Vista as you can see.

[steve]

when they (MFI) suggested setting Audacity preferences to 'Microsoft Sound Mapper', the first time I did this it worked I got a normal 'wave-form' recording but thereafter it did not work and all I get is a straight line (no sound).

This is looking positive - if it worked once it will work again. We just need to figure out what was different that made it work.

Could you post a screenshot of the MSI Audio Manager with the "Audio I/O tab selected.

By the way, if you've not figured it out yet, the knob and slider on the MSI Audio Manager under the word "Playback" are the output volume and pan (left/right balance) controls. The lower knob and slider (below the word "Record") are the level and balance controls for the recording input. The lower knob is the one that you will adjust (when it's working) to adjust the record level.

The six little speaker icons below the vertical sliders are probably so that you can mute or monitor those sources - for example the one under the "Mic Volume" slider will probably mute or enable you to hear what is coming in through the microphone socket. The fact that the record sliders are greyed out may just indicate that the audio drivers do not allow individual levels to be set, but use the master record level (the knob) instead. Alternatively the sliders may become active if we manage to enable the record input.

Not sure what the blue and white buttons (the spanner and the speaker icons) below the big rotary knobs do - have you tried clicking on them?

Do the left/right cursor buttons ("<" and ">") below where it says "Realtek HD Audio Input" do anything?

Try exploring the MSI Audio Manager thoroughly, it looks to me like the answer to the problem could be in there (somewhere).

[jaycup]

Over the past two months i have got to know the MSI Audio Manager very well and i don't think there is any option or screen that i have not tried. Here is the screen shot you asked for . I have also included a screen shot of the Mixer toolbox (Recording Input Options) this is what you see when you click on the 'spanner icon'.
The other icon (Spkr.) is a 'mute' option.
I am not sure what you mean by the "("<" and ">") below where it says "Realtek HD Audio Input" these are above the Input but below Output. They just give more output options to accommodate the 8-1 speaker configuration and also front and back connections





Hope all of this helps and that I have answered your queries. If not let me know.

[jaycup]

Managed to produce a 'wave-form' on audacity but not a proper one, consequently the play back is very distorted and could not be listened to but at least it is a step up from a straight line. The Audacity Record preference was set to "Microsoft Sound Mapper"

.

[jaycup]

I don't know whether things have got better or worse. I left the problem after posting my previous screenshot and after a re-boot later on in the day I went back to the problem and attempted another 'recording'. The screenshot shows the new problem, the noise levels from the speakers were extreme and the volume meters are 'off-the-map', also both volume meters are showing (green and red) normally I only see red. The wave file looks an interesting shape but it was as quick as i could take the screenshot and switch off as the noise really was unbearable.



After this occurred I downloaded Audacity v1.2.6 but this has made no difference. Is this latest problem an Audacity one?. I have checked volume settings on the MSI Audio Manager and they are set quite low.

It can only get better!!.

[Carl]

HA HA HA bloody hell, I'm glad some one else is having the same problem as me i have spent days trying to record on Audacity, the only thing i can record is the noise in the room ? how the hell it records i have know idea , must be using the speakers as a mic ? the more i turn the speakers up the more rumble and then feedback, this of course registers on the wave meters, but can i hell record from my porta studio or HiFi or walkman on to Audacity, no wonder it's free, it's crap!

My PC is brand new has all the bells and whistles MSI motherboard P35 Platinum socket 775.Intel Core 2 QuadQ6600SLACR latest GO Stepping/slacr S spec. G Skill twin pack 2x1 gig DDR2 800Mhz, GeCube HD3850 256meg, and 3 hard drives giving me 600GB plus some other nice stuff, any one get me recording would be great, if not i'll ditch the program and try some thing else that maybe works! any sugestions.Messing around like this for days gives me the shits with Audacity It didnt work on my last PC either Cheers.

[jaycup]

I am now "Able to Record", Spent most of yesterday checking and re-checking the audio settings in MSI Audio and decided that I should ignore their advice to set Audacity preferences to "Microsoft Sound Mapper" as this was giving me nothing other than a straight line wave form. I set the preferences to Realtek Audio (Input and Output). and decided come what may to stick with this. I then had partial success with a wave file and then I hit the problem of the overloaded recording and screching noises coming through the speakers which I mentioned in my last post. This morning i decided that I was making some progress nevertheless and that the latest problem was down to Audacity, and therefore I should check and re-check the settings and preferences. This i did and on the
Audio I/O Preferences window I found two options at the bottom of the window with boxes to tick (enable) or leave blank (disable), one of these boxes had a tick in it., namely, "Software Playthrough (Play new track while recording it) I un-ticked the box and that was it I was able to record without any problems and I have spent much time today making sure it was not a one off, I have made various recordings Voice and Music using Audacity without problem and I have also used a diffrent recording program 'All Sound Recorder XP', agin without problems with the input source set to 'Line'. I am trying to give as much detail as I can to help anyone who has been following this posting and might have a similar problem. If I have omitted some important information then please post back and I will do my best to provide additional information. It has taken me many weeks to get this problem resolved and I cannot f'inger' any one thing that has been the answer it has been a collection of things mainly by trial and error first of all by getting the MSI Audio Mananger set- up correctly and then the Aucacity Settings and Preferences.
Here is a screen-shot of my successful wave-file. ( I feel like someone who has just given birth!!.)



Finally I should like to say that the help and support I have had from this forum has been tremendous and extremely helpful. There was a point when I was ready to give up but was encouraged to keep going and it has paid off. If only the same things could be said about MSI and Realtek. Realtek in particular did not even answer my original e-mail.

[steve]

Hooray !!!!! and congratulations jaycup.

With all your tenacity and perseverance I am so pleased that it has finally paid off.

first of all by getting the MSI Audio Mananger set- up correctly and then the Aucacity Settings and Preferences.

That is absolutely right - just having a quick look back to the beginning of this epic, that is precisely the approach that we took (hence trying to record with Microsoft Sound Recorder so as to establish if the hardware was working correctly.

Seems like the main problem was getting the MSI Audio Manager set up correctly (which appears to be very badly implemented on your particular mobo).

Audio I/O Preferences window I found two options at the bottom of the window with boxes to tick (enable) or leave blank (disable), one of these boxes had a tick in it., namely, "Software Playthrough (Play new track while recording it) I un-ticked the box and that was it I was able to record without any problems

Funnily enough, that is the default setting.

If you can be bothered, I'd be interested in seeing screensots of each page in the MSI Audio Manager (how it is set up now).

[jaycup]

Funny enough, (being the 'sad person' that I am), I have already taken screen-shots of the MSI audio set up for my own future use. I will post them later on this evening.
The default setting in Audacity Preferences that I disabled certainly cured the loud screeching noise coming through the speakers. I could see that I had the makings of a properly shaped wave-form but the recording levels were totally distorted. Un-ticking the box did the trick,I shall not tempt fate by putting the tick back again, thank you.!!.