Audacity Forum

Further to my previous missive regarding no volume. The problem appears to be that audacity is not actually recording anything although visually eveything seems to work. I have tried ripping audio from u-tube and from mp3s stored on my PC but to no avail. My audio device is SoundMAX HD and I have set the preferences in audacity accordingly. I have gone into the Soundmax control panel and set the stereo mix record volume to maximum and set stereo mix on the drop down window. I have XP home edition......Steve,Malvern,England.

Do you get the red recording meters going up and down while you record? If so, how high are they going? (-6? -12? )

(Tip: If you grab the meter toolbar with you mouse, you can drag it and stretch it right across the full width of the screen making it easier to see the recording and playback levels)

Many thanks for your response..yes I do get the red recording meter registering at between 35 and 50 which would indicate that something must be happening however when I save what I think has been recorded,it doesn't play back. If I convert it to mp3, the linex kicks in and asks all the right questiona and I get the usual mp3 icon on my desk top as a result. If I then try to play back the mp3 on any of my media players, all I get is silence....I just can't figure out what's going wrong...Steve, Malvern, England

steve.harrison wrote:.yes I do get the red recording meter registering at between 35 and 50

I thought that might be it.
Congratulations, Audacity seems to be fully functional. The problem is that you are recording very very quietly. Your recordings are not silent, just too quiet to hear (if you follow the distinction I'm making).

When you record "Stereo Mix", it records the sound that your sound card is sending to the speakers - this is related, but not the same as the sound coming out of your PC speakers as that also depends on how loud you have your speakers set.

The sound card has multiple inputs - typically for a full featured desktop computer sound card, it will have a microphone input, a "Line level" input (for connecting cassette recorders and other high signal level devices), a CD input (for the inbuilt CD drive, if connected), and perhaps some other inputs. On a PCI sound card these are physical inputs, though for on-board sound there may not be any physical sockets provided for all inputs.

The sound card may also have other inputs for audio data that does not come from external sources, for example "system sounds", and "midi sounds".

Generally the best way to record is to connect the device that you are recording from to the appropriate input, then in the "Windows Mixer" or the "sound card control panel" (whichever your computer uses), select the input that you have connected to. (rather than using "Stereo Mix"). You will then adjust the record level for that input using the "Windows Mixer" or the "sound card control panel" .

A special case is when you want to record all sounds that your computer is making. This enables you to record such things as streaming media that is playing through an internet browser.

How this works is that in normal operation your sound card will mix together all the audio data that is sent to it, according to the playback levels set in the "Windows Mixer" or the "sound card control panel". This "Mix" is then sent to the speakers/headphones at a level set by the master playback volume and this is the "Stereo Mix" of all sounds that your computer is producing. A clever feature of some (not all) sound cards is that it can use this "Stereo Mix" as a recording input.

The recording level when using Stereo Mix is therefore not on;y dependent on the record level set for "Stereo Mix", but also the Playback levels of each audio source, which go to make up the stereo mix.

That's the background, now what you need to do is apply this and increase your recording level.

By the way, if you select a section from the middle of one of your "silent" recordings, then choose "Normalize" from the Effects menu, you will be able to hear what you have recorded, though it will probably sound terrible.

Many thanks for the info..I think I understand what's going on,,I'll have a mess around and see how I go..Steve,Malvern,England.

Steve, I've had a mess around as suggested but still can't fathom out how to get the recording volume any higher. I have to say that I come from the need to know school of computing and my technical knowledge of the ins and outs of a PC is virtually zero. I'm great at using applications when they work but am a complete bozo when things go wrong. The main thing that I want to do is to rip audio tracks from u-tube videos. I have looked at my sound card control panel and on the record chanel side it shows cd player,microphone,Line in and stereo mix and I have set the record volume for all of these to maximum. The playback channels are shown as Wave, SW synth, Cd player, line in and microphone and as a belt and braces excercise, I have set all these to Maximum as well. It still doesn't work. If I turn the master playback volume to max, I can just about hear what has been recorded very very faintly so your summary was correct.

It appears therefore, from your explanation, that I need to somehow connect the Audacity recording input to the sound signal after it has been amplified by the sound card and therein lies my problem. I dont have enough technical expertise to figure out how to do it. You stated that the best way to record is to connect the device I'm recording from, which in my case would be whatever handles the u-tube audio signal to the appropriate input. Can you give me any further suggestions?..Many thanks..Steve.

The trouble is that not all sound card control panels / mixers are the same.

Do you know how to take "screen shots" from your computer?
Press the "Print Screen" button on your keyboard (this copies the screen to the clipboard), then open any "Paint" type application and "paste" into the paint program. Trim the image to a suitable size and save.

To attach the screen shot to your message, use the "upload attachment" tab below the edit box.

If you could make some screen shots of your sound cards control panel / mixer (will require several screen shots to show all of it) I may be able to spot something that you are missing.

Steve, I've done as you've asked and saved the image onto my desktop as a reduced quality jpeg file (as per email attachments) but audacity wont recognise the file...Steve

I've edited your picture (cropped it) so that it fits on the page better.

If I recall correctly, you were wanting to record some YouTube videos?

To do that, you need to record from "Stereo Mix", but it looks like you have the "Microphone" selected as the recording source.

In the bottom "Record: SoundMAX HD Audio" section, try clicking on the little red button below the Stereo Mix slider. Hopefully it will turn green, and will then be selected as the recording source. You will then adjust the recording level using the Stereo Mix slider.

If (and only if) that works, you can then mute the outputs that you are not wanting to record, by clicking on the buttons in the upper "Playback: SoundMAX HD Audio" section and muting all the channels except for the one that you want to record - For recording YouTube, you will be recording the "Wave" channel. (it looks like the "Microphone" channel is already muted - which is correct). Muting the unused channels will make a slight improvement to the sound quality of your recording.

If you want to record from the microphone (is this a laptop computer with a built in microphone?) you will probably want it set up exactly as it is now, but may need to click that little button just to the right of the green light below the Microphone slider in the "Record: SoundMAX HD Audio" section. I suspect that is a 20dB boost switch, which will boost the recording level from the microphone.

Hi Steve, I've done as you've suggested but it still doesn't work..I suppose the obvious thing is that there may be a fault on my sound card...Steve