Audacity Forum

Hiya

Im trying to record a uke(fluke) with slight distortion through my Nio to Audacity on my laptop (DELL INSPIRON 1545/Windows 7 Pro)
The distortion is from one of the add-on effects in the Nio.
Audacity records my Uke perfectly but only records it clean!! For some reason I cant get it to record any of the effects on Nio.
Where am I going wrong or how should I have Audacity set up?

Many thanks

UkePunk wrote:the Nio

What's a Nio?

Sorry Steve.
Its a Novation Nio 2/4 Audio interface.

The Novation Nio effects are created in software, not in the Nio hardware.

I presume that you have the recording input in Audacity set to record from the USB (in "Edit menu > Preferences > Audio I/0" and in the recording input setting of your sound card).
What's happening is that Audacity is taking its input directly from the Nio hardware (which is a clean signal).
The input from the Nio also goes to the Nio effects software, but this is a separate signal route running alongside.

If you are able to hear the effects while you are recording in Audacity, it may be possible to record the effects by setting Audacity to record the "stereo mix". That is, set Audacity to record the sounds coming OUT of the computer rather than the sounds going INTO the computer. See here for how to do that: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Recor ... e_computer

The limitations of recording stereo mix:
1) Some sound cards do not support stereo mix, so you have to use the method of linking the output to the input with a splitter cable (as described in that article)
2) "Stereo Mix" is ALL sounds playing on your computer, which means if you record a second track in Audacity and you are listening to the first track at the same time, then the first track will also be recorded on the second track along with your live input.

An alternative solution would be to use a program that has better signal routing and support for real-time effects for making the recording (such as Reaper). You can still use Audacity for editing the audio after you have recorded it.