Audacity Forum

If I record a guitar track and then press Record, Audacity is recording the track I already recorded as well any new audio.

Example: I record a rhythm guitar track and then record a lead guitar track, Audacity plays and records the rhythm track as well as the lead guitar on the new Audio track. During playback, I hear the original rhythm track (Audio Track 1) and the rhythm and lead track (Audio Track 2) together. If I mute Audio Track 1, I still hear that track (it has been recorded) as well as the new guitar part on Audio Track 2. The lead guitar track, on a separate track, isn't by itself.

To test this further, I recorded a track and then turned the volume of my guitar off and pressed Record, while not playing anything. Audacity played the original track and recorded it onto a different track.

I am not switching inputs on my mixer, but the test I performed with recording a track and then just pressing Record, would seem to suggest that switching inputs isn't the solution. I am not using Software Playthrough in the Preferences menu.

My equipment: Guitar --> 1/4" TRS guitar cable --> Alesis Multimix 8USB --> USB cable --> Laptop (Vista, 2GB RAM, 150GB HD) --> Audacity 1.2.6.

Also, in the Preferences Menu, I tried deselecting Play Other Tracks while Recording a New One, which worked, but if I am doing multi-track recordings, I need to hear the other tracks so that isn't really an option.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

You need to check the signal path. My guess is that Vista has decided to record the stereo mix rather than the actual input that you are using.

yeah this is happening to me also, sorry to be of no use but wanted to get my problems off my chest!

I have finally upgraded to 1.3.9. I disabled "Stereo Mix" in Vista Control Panel and selected "3-USB CODEC" (or whatever Vista decided to designate my mixer) as both my recording and playback device (Alesis MultiMix 8USB mixer) in the Preferences menu (All audio then being sent through my mixer). Plus, I tried different combinations of settings in Audacity, Vista and my mixer. The recording problem was not resolved.
I believe it is the combination of my mixer and Vista (mainly Vista) that is to blame.
Audacity has worked beautifully for me (even with Vista) just as long as I don't try to do multi-track recordings like I did with my cassette four-track. I initially got Audacity to do Analog-to-Digital conversion of old Tascam four-track recordings my band did and it worked great. I can still use my current setup to do live recordings and A/D conversion which is why I bought it anyways.

Thanks to all.

If you have the playing tracks bleeding through to the recording tracks then there must be a feedback loop somewhere. If it's not in the Vista mixer, check the Alesis Mixer (and consult the manual).Try different routing / mixer settings - perhaps there is something that you need to mute on the Alesis - sorry I'm not familiar with the Alesis, so can't help you there.

I tried every combination of Vista settings and Alesis settings I could think of all to no avail.

Lets look at it one step at a time.
Does your computer have an internal sound card? If it does, temporarily disconnect the Alesis from the computer (physically unplug it) and try recording from the internal sound card (You may need to change the record/playback settings in "Edit > Preferences > Audio I/O").