Audacity Forum

default device wrote:I've found at least a partial solution. You have to push the Audacity recording input slider all the way to

max, then go into Windows recording devices and set that recording input slider to about 75%, then return to

Audacity and set the recording input slider way down low. IOW to set the recording level you have to set two

sliders, in three stages. Kind of like stopping your car to get in the back seat to drive with the other


....
Of course this won't work for you because Realtek changes their stuff every day or so no one can ever find

specific enough information to pinpoint their stupid driver interface as the problem. Between them and Windows

it's a real Twilight Zone.

are you sure you cant max all the other volumes
in all the other control panels
then set what you want in audacity okay ?

at least that worked for me

stevethefiddle wrote:In step (3) you don't say exactly what output you are using on the amplifier to plug into the computer "Line In" socket. Is it marked "Line Out", "AUX", "Headphone", "Speakers", or what?

I have the computer connected as "Tape 2", i.e. computer output to amp "Tape 2 Input" and amp "Tape 2 Output" to computer "line in". Should I lead the amp's pre-amp out to the computer in, instead?

The bit about the playback tracks being added to the recording level is really bogus. It must be the sound card that's being overloaded, but where, and how? Let's see, what are we doing? Playing a file from the computer while recording. Whose idea was it to add the playing file as an input to the recording? Why? Where is it being added and how? Why can't you just turn it off? What is the logical connection between them? Why would I ever want them to be mixed any way, shape or form? Under any circumstances, for any purpose?

Only thing I've ever done with a Wiki is look up stuff on Wikipedia.

whomper wrote:are you sure you cant max all the other volumes
in all the other control panels
then set what you want in audacity okay ?

at least that worked for me

Oh yeah, that's the very thing I tried first, and the way that absolutely doesn't work -- on my system. On my system, the key is to max out the Audacity slider first, then put the Windows Sliders at about 75%, then come back to Audacity and use the previously maxed-out slider.

Often by this time I've forgotten what I was going to play.

stevethefiddle wrote:That's normal. You were recording sounds playing on the computer - that is using the "Stereo Mix" input from the sound card. The "Stereo Mix" input is for recording sounds that are playing on your computer. Then you were recording from "Line In" - so you are doing the correct thing in switching to "Line In". Ideally you would only need to change this on Audacity and the sound card would follow suite, but some sound cards do not support this and you have to do it manually.

It might be normal but it's stupid. There's a line out from the computer to the amp and a line out from the amp to the computer. If "line in" on the computer really meant "line in" the computer would be recording a signal that left the computer and returned, and wouldn't have to get its panties in a twist trying to route and mix and even re-assign and re-program its own inputs and outputs.

Recording one (AKA the metronome track): source is computer; to amp, back to computer's line in.

Recording two and following (AKA the overdubs): source is guitar and/or microphone; into amp, out from amp to computer's line in.

The computer has naught to say about it. I select the source, and it goes where I say, i.e. into the line input.

What if you plugged a recorder and a set of headphones into a home stereo amplifier, but some whirligig computer nibnab has decided it would be a good idea to put some software between the two (this is where he makes his money), such that the headphone jack is "automatically" (i.e. without notice or indeed any way to detect it) switched to the recording outputs, so that input from the headphones (now acting as microphones) is added to what you're trying to record. Such persons should be tied to a lamp post and whipped.

stevethefiddle wrote:

whomper wrote:is that info in the docs ?

I don't think that it is covered in as much detail, though there is some information here: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Mixer ... trol_Panel
and I think there's a bit more somewhere else though I don't remember exactly where.

thanks

all the more reason to use word
automatically create an index

i guess i could go to google and use site: to search

default device wrote:

whomper wrote:are you sure you cant max all the other volumes
in all the other control panels
then set what you want in audacity okay ?

at least that worked for me

Oh yeah, that's the very thing I tried first, and the way that absolutely doesn't work -- on my system. On my system, the key is to max out the Audacity slider first, then put the Windows Sliders at about 75%, then come back to Audacity and use the previously maxed-out slider.

Often by this time I've forgotten what I was going to play.

that is interesting
realtek is one strange device

whomper wrote: all the more reason to use word
automatically create an index

There is an index for the wiki. It's at http://wiki.audacityteam.org
There's also a list of "All Pages" http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Special:Allpages

default device wrote:I have the computer connected as "Tape 2", i.e. computer output to amp "Tape 2 Input" and amp "Tape 2 Output" to computer "line in".

Ah, now there is a possible problem/confusion there - it depends on what signal routing goes on in the amplifier. Do we know for sure if the amplifier routes the Tape2 input to the Tape2 output?

default device wrote:There's a line out from the computer to the amp and a line out from the amp to the computer. If "line in" on the computer really meant "line in" the computer would be recording a signal that left the computer and returned,

Only if the Tape2 input on the amp goes to the Tape2 output. On my amp it doesn't.

If I set on my amplifier the "Recording Source" as Tape2 and the "Playback Source" as Tape2, then:
"Tape2 Out" sends signals from the pre-amp section to the outside world and
"Tape2 In" takes signals from the outside world and plays them through the power amp section,
but "Tape2 In" is isolated from "Tape 2 out".

default device wrote:Should I lead the amp's pre-amp out to the computer in, instead?

You could, but you would have to be careful not to create a "feedback loop". If there are any signal pathways connecting the sound card input to the sound card output, them sound will come out of your computer, into the amp, out of the pre-amp, into the computer, out of the computer, into the amp ..... and round and round 'till it screams.

default device wrote:Let's see, what are we doing? Playing a file from the computer while recording. Whose idea was it to add the playing file as an input to the recording? Why? Where is it being added and how? Why can't you just turn it off? What is the logical connection between them? Why would I ever want them to be mixed any way, shape or form? Under any circumstances, for any purpose?

Let's split these questions -

"How" can it happen that a file that is playing is added to the recording mix?
1) If you are recording from "Stereo Mix", then that's what "Stereo Mix" does - it "mixes" ALL sounds that are playing on the computer and sets that mix (which is in stereo) as the recording source.
2) If there is a "loop-back" from the Line out to the Line input on the computer, then the sound that is playing will be recorded, just like using "Stereo Mix". An example of this would be if you connect the "Line out" from your computer and connect it to "Tape2 In" on the amp, and connect the "Pre-amp out" of the amplifier to the "Line In" on the computer. Everything that is playing will be recorded.

"Why" would you ever want it to happen?
1) You want to record something that is playing on Internet radio - how are you going to do it? You need to record "the sounds that are playing on your computer". That's what "Stereo Mix" does (or a loopback connector)
2) You wanty to record a "software synthesizer" - how are you going to do it? Again you need to record sounds that are playing on your computer.
3) You want to record a midi track that is playing on the computer and your sound card is using a software synth. - exactly the same as above.

Am I making sense?

stevethefiddle wrote:

whomper wrote: all the more reason to use word
automatically create an index

There is an index for the wiki. It's at http://wiki.audacityteam.org
There's also a list of "All Pages" http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Special:Allpages

i was referring to the doc files
cant find anyway to find a specific item in it

is the wiki the same as the docs ?

default device wrote:

whomper wrote:are you sure you cant max all the other volumes
in all the other control panels
then set what you want in audacity okay ?

at least that worked for me

Oh yeah, that's the very thing I tried first, and the way that absolutely doesn't work -- on my system. On my system, the key is to max out the Audacity slider first, then put the Windows Sliders at about 75%, then come back to Audacity and use the previously maxed-out slider.

Often by this time I've forgotten what I was going to play.

i guess its whether you want amplification up from zero
or for it to act like a fader from max