recording goes weird after 4 seconds

[willie-d-18]

Hey, I was wondering if anyone could help me with this problem. I just downloaded Audacity and tried messing around with it. I tried recording for 10 seconds or so and noticed after 4 seconds the recording goes faded and like the pitch is changing up and down. I tried playing my guitar through it's amp, I tried singing, I even tried just talking and it always had the same result. Help please ?

[steve]

The problem is a sound card setting.
My guess is that you are using the microphone input, probably on a laptop computer. This is not ideal for high quality audio recording, however if you go into the sound card configuration and turn off all the effects (look carefully for "hidden" microphone settings such a "echo cancellation" and "noise reduction") then you may be able to get usable results. It would be better to upgrade the sound card. For Laptops the most economical way to do that is with an external USB sound card.

[willie-d-18]

Thank you so much that worked perfectly

[Dismatikz]

Hi stevethefiddle,

What do you mean by "upgrade the sound card", I'm no hardware techie so... you mean purchase a new one? I have a PC, not a laptop, so.

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[steve]

"Upgrade the sound card" means buy a better one.

Sound cards may be internal (inside the computer) or external (usually connecting via USB or Firewire).
There are advantages specific to each type, but USB sound cards are the easiest to "install" as usually all you need to do is plug them into a USB port (don't use a USB hub or any other type of USB splitter).

You should choose a sound card that has the necessary inputs to suit your needs - for example some only have "line level" inputs (suitable for connecting a mixing desk but not suitable for directly connecting a microphone) and some have XLR microphone inputs that are suitable for connecting high quality microphones. Almost any sound card that is designed for music use will be better than the standard built in sound card. "Gaming" sound cards are good for games but less suitable for music use.