Audacity Forum

Hey guys,
Just the other day my Audacity screwed up big time, I have no idea what happened to it. The gist of things is that whenever I record, the signal is below the line and is really really quiet, it's not my leads, amp or guitar I'm sure of it. then when I record a second track over the first, the second drops even further below the line and is just inaudible volume spikes. You can't hear anything of the second track, only the first. Also, when I record it's started making it sound a semitone higher that it should be. Here's some pics to help illustrate my point.

This is whenever I record my first track.


And here's the second.



I've tried uninstalling Audacity and redownloading it. I also tried downloading the newer Beta version and again still the problem persists. It should be noted that adjusting gain or volume in Audacity or anywhere else has no effect whatsoever.
The only thing I can think of that may have caused this was I used a MIDI converter to change a guitar pro MIDI file into MP3, then imported it into Audacity. As soon as I did that, this problem started.
Please, tell me how I can rectify this as my Audacity is very important, especially right now as I'm midway through recording a demo CD.
Thanks
Ryan

The most likely cause is that your sound card has died / is dying.

The displacement away from the zero line is usually a symptom of damaged components on the sound card.
Is there any way that you can test your sound card, or try a different sound card in your computer?

We had 1 case (one) where someone solved the problem by reinstalling their sound card driver, but that is unusual - it is more likely to be physical damage.

Your timeline illustration shows an 8 KHz sampling frequency on the left. That's not high enough for music.

He's right. I think your sound card failed.

Koz