Is it Audacity, Realtek or Dell that is the problem?

[Strattonman]

I have been successfully used Audacity for years on my XP system. I have just purchased a Dell 1546 laptop with Windows 7 Realtek HD sound and cannot get it to record internet streaming music from "Stereo MIx". The internal microphone works - sounds thin and tinny - but it works. I have closely followed all the on-line help forums but none seem to work. I have found and selected Stereo Mix in W7 Control Panel. It even shows up on the Audacity Edit/Preferences, but the input drop-down box remains greyed-out using the stable version, and on the new beta verion, only shows "Master". I am not sure if this is a Dell problem, a Realtek problem or a Dell problem. All I can say is it does not work, and I am on the point of giving up! CAn anyone help?

Moderator note: @Strattonman: please do not double post - all webforums regard this as bad netiquette. It only wastes people's time and annoys them. I have removed you duplicate post. Thanks.

[darius2]

Hi,

in Vista works a trick in Realtek to use Mixer stereo as audio input device
(setting Mixer stereo as default signal output device for recording purposes)

Not sure about Vista 7.
XP Windows was coming with audio mixer with all audio inputs + microphone.

[whomper]

yes to all of the above
win7 is a real problem - worse on laptops
realtek can be a problem - get the latest drivers from dell
dell can be a problem - at least a big PITA

get the win7 options set first
you may not be able to do what you want at all
then get latest realtek drivers
and set all the realtek options
finally set the audacity options
if the dell hardware is not working right none of the above matters
and on my dell the sound card was not only crap one channel didnt work at all and the other was noisy

if it doesnt work you probably need xp instead of win7
or a replacement soundcard (better get an external one )

[steve]

The recommended version of Audacity for Windows 7 is Audacity 1.3.12

If you go to the Audacity download page http://audacityteam.org/download/
there is a link that says " best version for Windows 7 "
Click on that link and it takes you to a page that gives information specific to using Audacity with Windows 7.

There is a section that is specifically about Recording and Playback: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Windo ... d_playback
It also links to this page: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Mixer ... _Issues#cp which deal in detail with the issues being discussed here.

[Strattonman]

Thanks for this Whomper. I have done all of the things you suggest (except the external sound card). I noticed that the driver I DLed from Dell did not allow the stereo mix option. The latest one from Realtek did, so I kept that. I guess, I will try with Freecorder (does this work?, I haven't yet tried!) until all three get together and sort this out. All three are first class in their fields, so I urge you - go to it! I will probably have to wait for a W7 fix.

[whomper]

it is not clear that the realtek version of realtek will work on dell
but if it does you should use the latest one
if not go back and get the lastest dell version for realtek

dell does some nonstandard things to control their pc and "protect" idiot users which makes it harder for normal people

[Strattonman]

Thanks again, Whomper. You are right, I do feel like an idiot user. The only one with a Dell 1546! I downloaded and installed from the Dell support site their updated and recommended driver - R265301, but this somehow diabled the Stero Mix option in Audacity! The dropdown input box was still greyed out, and the only option in Audacity Edit/Preferences is Microsoft Sound Mapper, whatever that is! By downloading directly from Realtek the driver Vista_Win7_R246, the stereo mix otion appeared in Preferences but not in the dropdown box. So neither worked. I hope Audacity will take this up. By the way Freecorder works OK, but it lacks the superb editing features of Audacity.

[whomper]

dell doesnt want you using stereo mix, it would seem.

you are now a renegade in their eyes

so record with freestyle or whatever and edit with audacity
if you get more function that way

now you have to hope that win7 biz settings dont mess up your recordings