Recording levels in Win 7

[Harry_O]

Hi,

I haven´t been on this Forum for a while, therefore this question might be clear for most of the users but
I didn´t find the answer at the first glance.

I just changed my OS from the Win XP to the Win 7 64 bit.
The same Audacity version (1.3.x) which was OK with the XP overloads when now recording with the Win 7.
I´ve adjusted the Win 7 OS general recording level to the minimum (1) and set the Audacity recording level to the minimum,
this is the only way when the recording doesn´t overload.

I´ve gone through all the settings (I think) but can´t find the reason for this.
Can someone explain me what to do to "normalize" the recording level.

My recording source has been all the time Numark´s vinyl record player with the USB connection.

Harry

[whomper]

i am not a win7 weenie but one of the experts should be along later
however i suspect there may be more settings in win7 that yuo need to adjust

lots of folks have problems with win7 and audio
especially on laptops

if you could lower the volume at the numark that would be the easiest
else you need to find the other places that win7 is messing with your sound -

[Harry_O]

Hi, I haven´t found any other place in the Win 7 where to adjust the input recording volume than what I´ve tried, neither I´ve found
any additional information about this in the Microsoft pages: it shows just this "recording devices/levels and mixer" (right click the speaker icon).

The recording source level is unfortunately constant: Numark has a gain control but it doesn´t seem to affect to the USB recording level.

I haven´t had with my laptop any other difficulties, I´ve done quite a lot recordings with the Live8 using the high end audio interface and everything
has gone smoothly. I use the Audacity just for converting the old vinyls via the USB-reco player to digital, Audacity worked well with
the XP but is seems that Win 7 64 bit is too much to it. I hope someone has solution for this recording level challenge.

Harry

[steve]

I don't use Win 7 myself, but I think Win 7 assumes that if it's a USB audio device, then it will be a microphone and so sets the recording level really high and the recording channels to mono. Check that the recording format is set to 2 channel stereo, and look to see if there are any microphone boost settings. I've seen a lot of reports that it is "normal" on Windows 7 to turn down the recording level in the Sounds Section of the Control Panel to a very low level.

There may be some other suggestions here that could make a difference http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Mixer ... trol_Panel

[Harry_O]

Hi, yes, everything is set as you suggested, I´ve also tried every possible other setting-combinations, I think.
Although the Win 7 setting adjustement down was "normal", I don´t think that been forced to set recording level in all devices to 0,1-1 out of 10
and stil get distorted recording signal, can be normal. H.

[steve]

I don´t think that been forced to set recording level in all devices to 0,1-1 out of 10
and stil get distorted recording signal, can be normal

I agree that certainly sounds rather extreme.

There may be some information in the Audacity documentation that I've missed, so if you want to have a look, the wiki page for USB turntables is here: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/USB_turntables

[Harry_O]

It just seems that the Audacity is not feasible with the Win 7 (64 bit) laptop use, unfortunately. I wish
that the developer solves this problem ASAP. H.

[whomper]

the developer you need to direct that to is billyg and his boyz

you may not have found the magic setting
but i am convinced that the other settings are in there somewhere
else your usb device is broken
or they crippled your pc so that it is not possible

lots of people have problems with win7 and audio
most seem to get it working okay -- IF it is possible

not all pc makers allow their devices especially laptops
to be fully functional with win7 and audio recording

[steve]

It is indeed unfortunate, but I don't think there's really much that the Audacity developers can do about it. Audacity captures audio from the computer sound system, and as they say, junk in > junk out. With well behaved sound card drivers Audacity will have no problem at all, but if the sound drivers do not provide audio data in the correct range, then there is nothing that Audacity can do about that. I remember a similar situation when Vista first came out - almost everyone had problems recording until gradually sound card manufactures released updated drivers that worked (better, even if not completely correctly). Some programs are able to get round these problems by not using the Windows sound system (either using ASIO, or virtual sound card technology), but such options are not available to Audacity.

[Harry_O]

Well, Nothing else in my system has changed expect the OS (XP Pro 32 bit -> Win 7 64 bit).
All the hardware are new (less than 2 years), high quality (and not broken as someone suggested).

Because all my othe audio gear, including the Roland Cakewalk UA-25 EX audio interface with the USB and Live 8 and about 100 plugins,
work very well in my present laptop DAW, but Audacity stopped working properly after changing the OS, I can just
conclude that Audacity and the Win 7 64 bit are not feasible. This is just logic.
Therefore I repeat the suggestion that the Audacity devoloper works with this challenge because the 64 bit laptops are more and more common
in the future.

Harry