Audacity Forum

This is a problem that has persisted with more than just Audacity (Goldwave, too), and I'm not sure what the source is. First things first, I used to be able to record WAV and "What U Hear" with no problems, however, now when I record audio it sounds like it's being picked up with a low quality microphone; the final product sounds like it was passed through a lowpass filter. Why is this happening when I have the right recording device selected? I only want to record what's coming through my soundcard. I've fiddled with the preferences and tried using different inputs, like Microsoft Sound Mapper and SB Audigy 2 ZS [B480] - but no luck.

What could be causing this?

Are you recording your microphone? try a recording with the speakers off, or scratch around your computer with your finger while making a recording. That's how I found where my microphone was. It's not obvious on my laptop.

One of the problems with recording What You Hear or whatever your particular tool is, is that it makes the signal pathways unstable. I don't mean they catch fire, I mean it's very difficult to tell what the pathway is when it's recursive -- both the record and the playback services are running at once, and they're connected to each other. Have you noticed that these settings kill you when you're trying to perform a live recording into a microphone? "How come there's an echo when I sing?"

Check out the Audacity Preferences and make sure you're still recording with good sound technical standards... 44100, 16-bit, Stereo. If you change anything, restart Audacity.

I don't think this is what's wrong, but at the first hint of trouble, we chase people away from Audacity 1.2 to 1.3.12. 1.2 is very old and no longer updated or supported. You can install both of them but only use one at a time. Audacity 1.3 projects will not open in 1.2.

http://audacityteam.org/download/

Write back if it's still broken.

Koz

Thanks for the help, turns out it was recording from another microphone that I had completely forgot about (webcam). I've also took the liberty of upgrading my older version of Audacity, thanks mate.