Audacity Forum

I have had a good look at previous threads but cannot find an answer to my problem.

I recently picked up this very interesting quote.

“I have been using Audacity to 'capture' audio from Internet and other sources. In the toolbar just above the time code bar there is a box that gives you a small drop down menu. In this menu you select 'What U hear'. This means that once you start recording any sound going through your computer speakers will be recorded on the Audacity timeline.

I Tried to use the method but could not find the option. I am using a recently downloaded version 1.2.6.

On requesting further information the original author replied as follows:-

" I have version 1.2.6 and the toolbar I am talking
about has 3 controls, the right hand one of which is the input device
selector and is a drop down menu. The box has 6 options; Wave, Mic, Analog
Mix, CD Digital, What U hear and MIDI Synth. None of this is much use if
you cannot see the options and I could not find anything helpful in the Help
menu."

Grateful for any enlightenment.

See this page in the Wiki: http://forum.audacityteam.org/posting.p ... 12&t=28480

and in particular this page: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Mixer ... trol_Panel

Whether you can or not depends on the combiantion of your PC, your soundcacard and its driver software. And nmote that manufacturers appear to be making this harder to do - presumably in an attempt to circumvent piract.

WC

Thanks for the very prompt reply. The loop between the speaker out connection and the line in connection looks to be a very simple work around. Am quite prepared to continue to be puzzled as to why the drop down option, "What U hear", appears to be available in some instances of Audacity but not in others.

Thanks again.

It has nothing to do with Audacity. Audacity is a complete slave to whatever the computer is doing. It can only access music and services that are provided to it.

As above, Stereo-Mix, Mix-Out, and What-U-Hear are provided by the sound card and associated software. Get the wrong sound card and that's the end of the story, it doesn't matter how many Audacity tools you click on.

<<<loop between the speaker out connection and the line in connection looks to be a very simple work around.>>>

It is, but simplicity isn't always the best way. To make this pathway work, the computer has to convert the music from digital to analog (slight damage), send it down the cable, and then convert from analog back to digital (slight damage). Those two damages are unavoidable using this pipeline.

But you're right. It does work. It's one of the two primary ways of capturing Mac sound. Macs don't support Mix-Out, either.

Koz