Audacity Forum

New to Audacity, but longtime recorder of audio streaming. New computer using Windows 7 and just downloaded latest Beta 1.3.10. I can record everything I need to---streaming audio and/or music DVD's, etc. I'm using line-in cable from speaker jack to line-in jack. Back in the day this was called recording "what I hear" from the sound card. No matter what I record, there is a low level static sound, not "clipping" from high recording levels or distortion....even quiet parts have the static sound. I have spent the better part of this afternoon reading all the posts and have tried every combination. I'm exporting .wav at 44,000 16-bit, then converting to MP3 in another program. No matter what I do, the original recording has the static, so everything else does after converting. Any one have any ideas?

It sounds like for some reason your computer is not recording the audio fast enough.
This could be due to a virus checker interfering (try temporarily switching it off), compatibility problems between your sound card drivers and Windows 7 (are updated drivers available?), other programs/processes hogging resources (try shutting down all non-essential programs and processes), you computer not being fast enough, your hard drive being too slow (try error checking the hard drive and defragmenting it), or some other reason.

I'm starting to think it has to do with my intregrated sound card. Anyone doing a lot of streaming audio recording want to recommend a cheap PCI sound card for Windows 7 system?