Audacity Forum

My old desktop recently expired and I now have a different computer with a Realtek AC97 Audio soundcard.
Before I had XP and Audacity 1.2 and no problems at all and could record all sound in Stereo. Now I have Vista and am unable to record in stereo. I have enabled stereo mix on the soundcard but on Audacity there is no box for Audio I?O tab and no sterio mix option only mono. It records ok in mono but how do I enable stereo ? Is it a problem with the sound card or is it Audacity or Vista? I have tried the "plug in a loop back cable" option but this doues not work for stereo either. I am happy to buy an external sound card as long as it will work.
Any help would be much appreciated. I have tried freecorder but it does not do the same job as Audacity as no editing can be done.
Thank you.

solarman wrote: there is no box for Audio I?O tab

In Audacity 1.3.x it's "Edit menu > Preferences > Devices"

Thank you Steve.I have found that box but in the channels option there is only 1 (mono) shown without a choice of stereo. Is a stereo option only shown if the sound card is working in stereo ? Sound card is shown as stereo mix but can still only record in mono.

solarman wrote: Is a stereo option only shown if the sound card is working in stereo ?

Yes. In Vista (and Win 7) the sound card must be set to record 2 channel stereo (depending on the sound card it may default to 1 channel mono).
Right-click over the speaker icon in the System Tray and select "Recording Devices",
then right click over the device that you wish to use to access the device properties.

There's some information here that may help: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Mixer ... trol_Panel

Thanks for that Steve, Although I have set the sound card to Sterio It still wont work so must be a problem with the sound card. If I bought an USB sound card would that definatly work with Audacity (Providing it has stereo setting) ?
Many thanks for your help.
Geoff

Normal 2 channel (stereo) USB sound cards should all work with Audacity provided that they are supported by your operating system.
Your mileage may vary with multi-channel USB sound cards as they may use non-standard drivers that do not support Audacity, though you should still be able to get basic mono/stereo recording and playback.

Vista and Windows 7 often sets the default number of recording channels of USB devices to 1 channel (mono) and a ridiculously high recording level, so it is usually necessary to go into the Windows Control Panel and change the default settings for the USB device.

When using a USB sound card with Audacity it is necessary to connect the sound card and for it to be recognised by the operating system before you open Audacity.

We have (obviously) not been able to test all USB sound cards.