Audacity Forum

I have read through the "Click this before posting" thread, but I am still lost. I have never tried recording or doing anything of this sort, so its all new to me, not sure what top use, or what i need, hopefully this question will be easy to answer. I am using Windows 7 and the 1.3 Beta Audacity, and i am not sure how to do any recording of any style, i am attempting to record something with guitar, along with recording something straight off of the internet, but i cant manage to find the drop down bar for choosing Auxiliary, mono out, what u hear, etc. The pics below show you what i see. and what i have hooked up, I'm probably missing something, whether its some cables or something from Audacity itself, I don't know. (I have downloaded the lame_something, but that's for mp3 conversion or something of that sort, just to let you know what I've got).

http://i569.photobucket.com/albums/ss13 ... acity3.png
http://i569.photobucket.com/albums/ss13 ... acity2.png
http://i569.photobucket.com/albums/ss13 ... acity1.png

Thanks,

Patrick

DreamCatcher409 wrote:I have read through the "Click this before posting" thread,

Brilliant - if only everyone did

DreamCatcher409 wrote:i am attempting to record something with guitar, along with recording something straight off of the internet,

These are two very different things - can we just deal with recording your guitar first? (we can look at recording off the internet later).

Your microphone is set up for recording, which is good.
If you go back to the recording settings screen as shown in this picture: http://i569.photobucket.com/albums/ss13 ... acity3.png
and then click on the microphone icon, you should then be able to click on "Properties" and set the recording level.

In Audacity:
"Edit menu > Preferences > Devices", the "Playback" device looks to be on the wrong setting. See what other options are available - you probably want either "Speakers" or "Sound Mapper".

Give it a go with that and see how you get on. If you get stuck, write back and say what happened, where you got stuck, and what sort of microphone you are using.


You might also find some useful information in the "Tutorials" (see links at top of this page).

Haha, yeah i actually checked out the tutorial before reading the "Read this before you post" thread 'cause i clicked on the help tab in Audacity, but i still wasn't able to find an answer. And about the microphone, the thing is, i don't have one <_<, which is something i forgot to mention...so i don't know why my mic says its on. And i did try to change the playback device to sound mapper, but i still got nothing on recording, (Im listening to music currently, so i figure it should be recording something right, considering its on output, idk), I also have a question along with my previous ones, what exactly are the tabs on the top saying output device and input device, (Someone would snidely say those are your output and input devices, lol, yeah I'm aware of that, but which one would i have to activate to allow me to record something for my purposes)? (The tabs im talking about are the ones that are in each picture previously given with a speaker phone on the left and a microphone and the right), Just for a reference. And honestly, the only thing i have hooked up to my computer are the monitor, keyboard, mouse and my speakers...that's it, any ideas?

DreamCatcher409 wrote:about the microphone, the thing is, i don't have one <_<, which is something i forgot to mention...

A fairly "key fact" to miss out but that explains why you are recording nothing. Your current set-up is for recording the microphone.

This one http://i569.photobucket.com/albums/ss13 ... acity2.png shows that the default playback device is "Realtek Speakers" (indicated as the selected output by the green tick). If Windows Media Player works and you can hear it, then that's correct.

This one http://i569.photobucket.com/albums/ss13 ... acity3.png indicates that the selected input device is the Realtek microphone input (indicated as the selected output by the green tick). This will only work if you actually have a microphone. To record sounds playing on your computer (such as recording from your web browser) you need to select "Stereo Mix" here, but that option is not shown and may not be available. Right click on this screen and select "Show disabled devices" and "Show Disconnected Devices". This may then reveal additional options. See here: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Mixer ... trol_Panel

Awesome, yeah it worked, i put stereo mix on, and enabled it as primary recording device in preferences and recording works, but for my guitar needs, is there a way to determine which areas use the same pitch, because I'm trying to tab a song (Writing out which strings and frets to play) and i figure it would be easier if Audacity could distinguish pitches/notes via spikes on the graph, or something of that sort that can be led back to compare to other parts of the song, is there anything like that? (The song I'm trying to tab seems to have a note/pitch that is used at the beginning and from what i think I'm hearing, it sounds like its also somewhere near the end, but there are so many other notes in that sequence its hard to distinguish, which is why I'm asking).

Not really much in Audacity to help with that, but if you click on the time line, playback will start from the point where you click - quite useful for comparing one point in a song with another.

Alright, if my microphone doesn't work the first time around, ill just play around with it and try to do the same thing i did with the "stereo mix". Ill probably have some more questions after i start thoroughly using Audacity, until then, thanks for the help.

You're welcome