Audacity Forum

I am trying to rap over a beat i made and put in audacity. But when i press record the beat does not play, How do i get the beat to play while im recording?

Check that Edit-Preferences-Audio I/O-"Play other tracks while recording new one" is ticked. You made need to close and restart Audacity to make the change stick.

[This post was updated - J.K. and GA]

hughborg47 wrote:i am having trouble with recording using audacity 1.2.6 the help refers to the "mic/line in" box but mine is grayed out and i am unable to use it. i also have speech recognition on my computer so i followed windows recommendations to disable it but that box is still grayed out even after restarting my computer. i am using windows xp 2002. the problem is when i record anything playing on my computer using audacity it also records using the internal microphone at the same time. you hear the music and also any noise that is outside of the computer. i tried turning down the microphone volume all of the way but it still happens. what am i missing? please help!

Gray Mic slider in the Mixer Toolbar of Audacity is a common issue in Windows Vista.
(Make sure it is not your version of Windows. {{ added(JK): The input source is then to be selected in Edit>Preferences>Audio I/O. See viewtopic.php?f=12&t=796 }} ).

For Windows XP (and others, too):
Related page is http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php? ... bar_Issues
-- for anybody having problem selecting the sound source, in all operating systems incl. Windows XP.

{{GA: For some specific help go straight to the grey panel at Using the Control Panel on the Mixer Toolbar Issues page}}


You probably already browsed through Audacity Wiki:
Tutorials http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php?title=Tutorials
Recording_audio_playing_on_the_computer tutorial http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php? ... e_computer
Recording_audio_playing_on_the_computer # Windows (empty, as of May 27, 2008) http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php? ... er#Windows
Tips http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php?title=Tips


Right-click speaker icon on the Windows Taskbar (right lower corner of your screen),
select "Open Volume control". This window is used to control Windows input and output Mixer
(or Mapper -- whatever is correct?).
Now check there is checked "mute" by Microfon - that is correct, usually one does not need
amplify what comes to mike (and this actualy makes beeps because of feedback)

To control what you do record, go to Options > Properties in this "Volume control" window,
Select Recording and press OK.
If you want to record form Microphone (internal or external) check "select" by Microfon, and adjust its volume.
If you want to record from line-in, simply choose Line-in instead of Microfon.
If you want to record what your computer is playing to speakers, choose Stereo-out or Sum or something similar, see the pictures on http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php? ... trol_Panel --- you might have some hidden.

Now we have to make shure the above selection applies to Audacity input.
Go to the Audio I/O tab of Audacity Preferences, and select Microsoft SoundMapper.
[You may need to close and restart Audacity to make the change apply.]
[Note: in case where it is possible, i.e. mainly for Mic or line-in recording,
it is better to choose directly the correspending device, not Microsoft SoundMapper which sometimes (they say) does not work corectly.
Use Microsoft SoundMapper if you need to record Stereo-Out, CD-Audio or other source not directly accessible.]


Note it is not optimal to record digital sound by converting it to analog and then back
to digital, you might want to use a purely digital way.

If you want to record what your computer is playing to speakers only do what is described on
above (the Stereo-out option), and you do not need to read the rest of this posting.
If there is no Stereo-out option, you might also connect your speaker output to your Line-in
by a ususal jack-to-jack cabel. (Then
http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php? ... uter_or_CD might be related.)


The internal mic of notebook computer is ususally switched of when you plug in
another mic into the Mic socket.

In Audacity, You can choose whether you want "Play other tracks while recording new one"
in Edit-Preferences > Audio I/O.

[Sometimes there is need to ajust latency (time shift), manually, or, in beta 1.3.x, by a preset]

Now if your problem is that you record your playback through mic, that's what your mic does.
You could use Headphones, so that mic does not hear the playback.
Of partial help would be to use low volume of speakers,
put your mic as close and possible and sing(or what) more loudely.

Trying to record Gnarls B's "Crazy" with Audacity and it was appropriately driving me (further) nuts...
until I cleared the tick [that's a tick and not a check!]
for "Software playthrough option" in synch with my Stereo Mix input !
I knew I'd made it work last time I tried and was just about to go back to TotalRecorder software.

SO WHY CAN'T THIS BE AUTO-CLEARED OR AT LEAST AUTO-WARNED WHEN USER IS AS STUPID/Tired AS ME ?

v1.3.5

Gray Mic slider in the Mixer Toolbar of Audacity is a common issue in Windows Vista.
(Make sure it is not your version of Windows). It then simply means the Windows Vista
are under control

so what do i do to get rid of the gray drop down box??
i have vista and it won't work.
what do i do?
sorry if this is very obvious?

please help! i only see this one microphone icon here. I've tried everything!

I have a laptop, where is microphone in top of the screen. and audacity records only with that shit. i want stereo mix! HOW???

Ironman24 wrote: please help! i only see this one microphone icon here. I've tried everything!

See here: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php? ... ng_devices

Hi, i have read all the tips etc, i tried the following:

show disabled devices
then selected "stero mix realtek" which is my soundcard
checked monitor input on audacity and nothing.

checked preferences -> IO devices, and tried both default mapper, and realtec stereo mix.

nothing happening - i am on vista - are there any other tips?

I had the same trouble on my new Vista laptop. I had already had problems with another program not working as it should. The solution to that also turned out to be the solution to the Audacity problem.
As well as going to the Control Panel and disabling the mic on your laptop you need to start Audacity by right clicking on the icon and selecting 'Run as Administrator'. Then it will pick up the sounds being played back directly. I have to mute the output of Audacity at the moment otherwise I get feedback, which isn't nuch use if you want to overdub. I'm working on a solution to that problem.
Also I've noticed that I have to turn everything flat out to get a decent recording level, Which was never the case on my desktop. (the reverse in fact).

P.S. I scratched my head for a while trying to reactivate my microphone yntil I found the right click option in the Control Panel to show the disabled devices!

Ironman24 wrote: please help! i only see this one microphone icon here. I've tried everything!

I have a laptop, where is microphone in top of the screen. and audacity records only with that shit. i want stereo mix! HOW???