Recording overlaying

[carvinrocks2]

I'm having trouble getting it to work right. I record my guitar using a microphone, everything goes fine, then when I go to record track two, track one starts recording on track two, is there some setting to get this fixed? It hasn't happened until recently. If I unchecked the overdub I can't hear it at all, I believe it might not have anything to do with a setting on Audicity but on my computer. Can anybody help?

[steve]

I believe it might not have anything to do with a setting on Audicity but on my computer.

Congratulations, you got it in one

Look down in the bottom right hand corner of the desktop (near the clock) for a loudspeaker icon. Double click on it to open the sound card mixer/control panel. Now look for the "recording settings" section of the mixer. Most likely our sound card is currently set to record "Stereo Mix" (may be called "Mix" or "What U Hear"). You need to change that so that it records from the microphone input (probably called "Mic").

[carvinrocks2]

I went in there and I can't find what your asking, I even went into properties and clicked recording controls. It opened up a new set of windows and "Stereo Mix" was checked in the lower "select" box, I tried to uncheck it and select something else but it wouldn't allow me too. I also have AC97 Audio Configuration and tried to adjust everything in that, nothing happened. Any more advice?

[steve]

It opened up a new set of windows and "Stereo Mix" was checked in the lower "select" box, I tried to uncheck it and select something else but it wouldn't allow me too.

That could be a real problem. To avoid the "overlaying" you must de-select Stereo Mix.
How about if you just try to select another option, does that automatically deselect stereo mix?

Are you on Vista?
Are there other options in the RealTek mixer (such as "Line in" or Mic in") that are not greyed out?

[carvinrocks2]

It opened up a new set of windows and "Stereo Mix" was checked in the lower "select" box, I tried to uncheck it and select something else but it wouldn't allow me too.

That could be a real problem. To avoid the "overlaying" you must de-select Stereo Mix.
How about if you just try to select another option, does that automatically deselect stereo mix?

Are you on Vista?
Are there other options in the RealTek mixer (such as "Line in" or Mic in") that are not greyed out?

It won't allow me to select anything else. I'm on Windows XP Media Center. I've tried just about everything in the regular control panal and in the AC97 control panal.

[steve]

We are running out of options here.
The next step is to try updating/down-dating the sound card drivers and see if you get the required options.
Failing that, the remaining option is a new sound card. Fortunately, external USB sound cards can be quite cheap.

[carvinrocks2]

We are running out of options here.
The next step is to try updating/down-dating the sound card drivers and see if you get the required options.
Failing that, the remaining option is a new sound card. Fortunately, external USB sound cards can be quite cheap.

Would buying a Recording interface solve it?

[steve]

An external USB sound card would fix it, and probably give you better sound quality as well.
If you decide to go down this route, you will need to ensure that the USB device has suitable inputs for your purposes. Some USB devices have microphone level inputs, others have line level inputs, and some have both. To use a microphone, you need to either have a USB evice with built in microphone inputs, or to use line level inputs you will first need to amplify the signal using either a microphone pre-amp, or a mixing desk. A mixing desk + line level USB interface is the most versatile set-up, but not the cheapest.