problem recording podcasts picks up all audio, why??

[toz]

hiya guys,

trying to help a friend who has this dam annoying problem i juts cant put my finger on....

we usually record our podcasts by each individual recording there own audio using audacity, within a multi skype call,
which is a great way of getting clear precise recordings.

however, my friend has just got a new microphone, and what is happening is both strange and infuriating to fix.....

his audio stream picks up everybody else's audio when we record, and i just dont mean slightly as sometimes can happen naturally on everybody's, but i mean as clear as day as if we were in the same room.

like i say i have tried every setting i can think of to try and get his recording to not pick up everybody's audio, with no luck.

so guys, anybody know why this is happening and how can we stop it.
his sound card is "Realtek High Definition Audio"
normally i can sort most settings out in the sound card settings, by changing the microphone settings, but not this time, and its annoying.

thanks for any help.

[steve]

Lol, this is the exact reverse of the problem that most Skype/Audacity users have.

Can you set your Windows Mixer ("Record" settings page), to record directly from the microphone that he is using? (I suspect that you are recording the "Stereo Mix"/"What You Hear").

[toz]

strange thing is, i to have had similar problems, and noticed the little window in audacity that usually says "microphone", well get this...on his its greyed out, which i have never known before.

[steve]

That "little window" is just intended as a convenience for set ups that support it. Unfortunately there are an increasing number of audio drivers that use non standard methods and do not support this feature. In such cases (where the recording input is greyed out in Audacity) the recording input must be selected in the sound cards mixer application or control panel (or the Windows Mixer if that is what the audio driver uses.

[toz]

without seeing this for my self in the flesh as such its a little hard for me to see just what he has in his sound card lists as set-ups.

I know for a fact he has numerous choices other than the standard MS sound mapper one.
I will try and get the full list off him to see if that makes any sense.

really appreciate the help.