guitar usb no sound

[audio77]

Hi
When i plug my guitar into the computer via the alessis guitar interface cable i can see that the audacity software is accepting the signal from the speaker and mic input level meter movement, but i cannot hear any sound whatsoever.If i exit the program and remove the alessis usb plug and load an ordinary sound file it, plays it (with audible sound)but soon as i plug the alessis usb cable in the sound from the loaded file dissappears and i no longer hear it but the blue waveform is still exists.
The on board sound card card is ATI HDMI audio by Realtek - Realtek High Definition Audio -which does not seem to have an interface program on my computer to play about with settings. I have tried different settings within the Audacity preferences to no avail. Can anybody provide me with a solution to my problem?audio77

Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Dec 29, 2010 7:13 pm
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[steve]

You're using Audacity 1.3.12 on Windows Vista?

[audio77]

I am using the Audacity 1.2.6 version -is this the problem?

[steve]

That may be part of the problem.
The recommended version of Audacity for Vista is Audacity 1.3.12 - you can download it from here: http://audacityteam.org/download/beta_windows

More importantly we cannot offer appropriate advice unless we know what sort of computer you are using, which program you are using, what equipment you are using, how it is all connected up, what you are trying to do and what your problem is.

We now have some of the information. Try installing Audacity 1.3.12 and if you still have a problem please return to this thread and fill in the blanks.

If you are trying to listen to sounds via the RealTek sound card while the USB device is connected you will probably need to reset the playback device to your sound card as described here: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/USB_t ... ires_reset

[audio77]

thank you for your reply
I have installed Audacity 1.3 beta and the result is the same.
second bit of advice :
a)"If you are trying to listen to sounds via the RealTek sound card while the USB device is connected you will probably need to reset the playback device to your sound card as described here: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/USB_t ... ires_resetsteve"
I have followed the instructions and audio test works, but:
b)not sure what was meant here, but it could be appropriate?--"not Speakers for USB Audio Codec)" That option was not available in sound menu via control panel?
c)More importantly we cannot offer appropriate advice unless we know what sort of computer you are using, which program you are using, what equipment you are using, how it is all connected up, what you are trying to do and what your problem is.
-more information which might help:
DELL STUDIO XPS 435MT VISTA HOME PREMIUM 64 BIT
ATI REALTEK AUDIO
ALESSIS USB GUITAR CABLE
I hope you can help, -you can imagine my frustration in seeing that the audacity software is registering a usb input from my guitar by the VU display but not being able to hear it!!
Thanks

[steve]

Can we clarify what the problem is.

1) Do you listen through headphones plugged into the headphone socket (Realtek) of your computer?
2) With the ALESSIS USB GUITAR CABLE connected, are you able to play music with Windows Media Player and hear it play?
3) If you generate a tone in Audacity (Generate menu) and then press Play, can you hear the tone play?
4) If you record your guitar in Audacity using the guitar cable, can you see a recorded wiggly blue waveform in the Audacity track?
5) If you record your guitar in Audacity using the guitar cable, then press Play, can you hear the recorded sound?

[audio77]

Hi Steve
Thank you for your help it is much appreciated
Microphone(2-generic Audi has appeared as an option which wasn't there yesterday so there are 3 options rather than 2 today . I im not sure why this is (I didn't reboot after installing the new software and that could be one reason )but by using this option I can now hear the guitar quite clearly- hooray! , However there is on issue with delay of about less than 1second after striking the string,I assume this to do with latency but none of the numbers i type into the audio to buffer or latency correction boxes alters the delay. So hearing audio is solved, but latency? is my big problem now
Is it possible to remove the delay so sound can coincide simultaneously with picking?

[steve]

Unless your USB cable includes a headphone socket it is not possible to monitor the guitar input without a delay.
The reason for this is that there is no direct physical connection between the USB cable and your sound card, so sound going in through the USB cable can only be routed to the ordinary sound card output via software. This is called "software playthrough" and in Audacity 1.3.12 it is selected from an option near the bottom of the Transport menu. Routing audio using software is much slower than a physical hardware connection and so you get a delay.

USB audio cables are not designed to be used with software playthrough - the idea is that you can listen to any other tracks playing (if you want to make multi-track recordings) by switching "software playthrough" off, but you listen to the live guitar directly (acoustically).

If you really need to hear the guitar through your headphones, you may be able to reduce the delay to an acceptable level by using ASIO drivers for the USB audio cable, but the standard version of Audacity does not support ASIO (due to license restrictions), so you would need to use some other recording software instead of Audacity.

[audio77]

In that case I might investigate some dedicated hardware such as a boss/h4 digital recorder in -thank you very much for being so helpful

[steve]

There are advantages to dedicated recorders, I use one regularly, but I still prefer to do editing and processing on a computer (export the audio from the recorder and import it into Audacity).