Really embarassing...

[billbones]

i'm very new to this whole audio software business, trying to teach myself though, so if possible, layman's terms only for now.

for some reason i can't get playback; the thing is, i can record live instruments fine, i can generate the effects fine, etc, but for some reason, no sound comes from my laptop speakers when i attempt playback. i'm on an advent 7201 running vista, with realtek speakers built in. i've checked the computer's mixer, and tried changing the playback device in the preferences menu. what have i done wrong?

i apologise if it's something really obvious, this is the first audio software i've ever used.

[alatham]

Open up Audacity. Click Edit -> Preferences -> Audio I/O tab.

This is the menu you should use to select your recording and playback devices. I have no idea what they'll be called (they change from driver to driver), but you should select your speakers in the Playback drop-down menu.

I'm not sure if you're aware, but the state of Vista's audio is not so great, so you should also read our wiki page on Vista issues:
http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php? ... s_Vista_OS