Audacity Forum

Hi everyone,

A while ago before my computer was ruined, I have been recording sounds, music, and others using the microphone that's inside the computer. I went to youtube for example and recorded whatever I was viewing. Now, I don't have a microphone, like hand-held mic, or the mic you put in front of you, just inside the computer. So, I also did something I can't really remember, I plugged in the headphones in to make the computer microphone louder and record louder in fact. Now, I have my computer repaired and I don't know how to make my microphone volume boost so I can record inside. I am also using Realtek HD sound software too. I would also like to make some songs by recording me playing like piano, guitar, etc. Help will be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Mike

I have the same problem here!

I had an old computer which had speakers on the monitor. I have been using audacity for a year and it worked for me great, recorded the same sound quality as the origin file(recording from Youtube FTW !) etc...
Now, I bought a new computer with Logitech speakers and I am using "Realtek HD sound software " thingy too. I can't really record anything now... everything I record is depended on the speaker's current volume and not to mention it always records, no matter the Volume level is, even if it's at max , Audacity records in REALLY LOW QUALITY and VOLUME!

I am really upset about it , I don't know what I can do...

I noticed 2 things that might help me...

1.Somehow the "What U hear/Microphone/WAV/MP3" tab thingy is gone... what can be wrong? it's because I got speakers?
2.When I connect my earphones into the main Speaker, I hear just fine... same quality and same volume level I always hear from using earphones, just like my old Computer monitor speakers...

Mabye I need to record things from earphones?(sounds weird, lol)

Thanks in advance!

The audio pathways are still there in Vista, but they're a lot harder to find.

Windows Control Panel
http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php? ... trol_Panel

The Official Explanation is that the current arrangement is a lot more stable than earlier versions because it eliminates the multiple recursive feedback pathways that Windows is cursed with. A significant majority of the people posting on Audacity/Windows have nothing to do with Audacity and everything to do with managing the silly Windows control panel.

[Ahem] like you two.

A side benefit of the new configuration in addition to much increased stability, is that it makes it much harder to "borrow" music and shows from the internet.

Koz

Oh. One more. In earlier sound card hardware versions, there was a "20 dB Boost" software switch somewhere--usually in the Record Panel. That one switch is the difference between getting good volume with your microphone and not. We bought a series of sound cards at work whose drivers didn't feature that switch. Same control panel, but there was a blank spot where that control used to be.

We had to put a simple analog sound mixer at each workstation to make up for it.

The other out is to go completely USB and bypass the sound card altogether, but that has its own problems. First, it cost money...

Koz

Thanks mate!

All I had to do is to enable ""Enabled recording multi-streaming" " in the Realtek HD audio manager and now I can record normally!

I also tried to enable/show all the sound pathways I have in my input devices(Did it from the Control Panel, I have Windows XP).

Try to play with the settings a little , and read the page Kozikowski just linked.

Hi, sorry I haven't been on for a while and appreciate your reply. In that link to where it show the Sound Options, Recording tab, and all that. There are some other recording option list different than mines. I only have Mic Volume, Front Mic, Line Volume, and CD volume, I raised everything up, but it seems as though it made no difference. Is it possible that I may need to update my sound driver "Realtek HD Audio"?

Hey! How did you manage to make it work? I found that "Enable recording mutli-streaming" and it still isn't recording a thing. Also where did you find the second part where you enable/show all the sound pathways? We may have a different type of Realtek or something, because Audacity isn't picking up anything. hehe

I tried the microphone boost hidden in the Realtek Manager, but it didn't make a difference.

Windows will have no idea what to do without the RealTech drivers. Windows will treat your card like a plain stereo SoundBlaster card without all the fancy extra channels and services.

Did you get a driver disk when you installed the card? Maybe you can get the extra software via download.

Koz

goku2000u wrote:I have been recording sounds, music, and others using the microphone that's inside the computer. I went to youtube for example and recorded whatever I was viewing.

I think that you are getting confused. When you want to record sounds that your computer is making, for example a YouTube video that is playing, there is no hidden microphone inside your computer. What happens is that you need to set your sound card to record "Stereo Mix" (this may be the same thing as "Enabled recording multi-streaming", or that might be something different - I don't have a Realtek sound card to check). Recording "Stereo Mix" tells your sound card to record all the sounds that it is playing, which will include any YouTube videos that are playing, any microphone input, CD's or anything else that is coming out of your speakers. It records these sounds directly from the sound card, not from a microphone.

Now the problem is... this option (recording the stereo mix) is not available on all sound cards. Some manufacturers have decided to disable that function.

There are indeed several versions of the RealTek HD control panel. "RealTek HD Audio" refers to the sound chip that is on the motherboard, and computer manufacturers are free to customize it in any way they wish.

If we cross our fingers and assume that your sound card IS capable of recording stereo mix, then the two parts of the Audacity documentation that you should be refering to are:

http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php? ... e_computer
And if you are running Vista: http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php? ... s_Vista_OS