Audacity Forum

Hey everyone,

I have a lenovo R61i thinkpad. I have done enough research on the Lenovo Thinkpad SoundMAX Integrated HD Audio sound card "stereo mix" dilemma to know a tad about the situation. It was a while ago, but I manged to sneak around intentional inhibiting block that lenovo put on the stereo mix recording device on these laptops, and I now have the stereo mix icon showing under my recording devices and it says its working. However, when disabling the other recording devices and enabling/making default the stereo mix, I am still not able to achieve any sort of recording from audacity. I have the "Stereo MIx (SoundMAX Integrated...)" set as my recording device under preferences, and the channel set to mono. I am by no means a computer whiz, but I can manage my way around well enough for my liking. However, this problem has stumped me completely. Any one have any advice?

Operating System? Has it ever worked?

Koz

I'm running Windows Vista, and I have never been able to record through my stereo mixer. It was only recently that I hacked the registry files and exposed the stereo mixer in my audio/recording settings using the following instructions, obviously applied to a my Thinkpad not a dell:
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First, you need to open the computer’s registry. In Windows XP, go Start-->Run...-->type regedit-->click Okay. The Registry opens. Look for this folder:
HKEY Local Machine-->System-->ControlSet001-->Control-->Class-->{4D36E96C-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
Click through to the sub-folder 0005 and scroll down within that folder to the value IniPath and check it for the path to the exact SigmaTel .ini file your computer is using. In the case of my Dell Latitude D630, that path is: c:program filessigmatelc-major audiowdm92XXM4-3.ini. *Note yours down because you will later be going to that .ini file and changing just one value to enable Stereo Mix.
But first, still within the registry location you are in, you must open the 0005 sub-folder further until you see the sub-nested folder called “rear.” When you open that folder, you will see the value called DigitalStereoMix and that its current setting is 00 (meaning “off”). You must change that setting to 01 (meaning “on”). Do that by right-clicking on DigitalStereoMix and changing the last two zeros to 01. That will enable Stereo Mix when you reboot after the next and final step. Close and exit the Registry.
Go to c:program filessigmatelc-major audiowdm92XXM4-3.ini -- or to the exact .ini file you found in the Registry that applies to your Dell computer.
Open the file 92XXM4-3.ini (or the .ini that applies to you) in Windows NotePad and look for the entry DigitalStereoMix. (The quickest way to find this entry is to use the Edit—Find menu in the NotePad application.) Change the value for DigitalStereoMix from = hex: 0 to = hex: 1. Do nothing else! Save the file under the same name in the same location it’s already in and exit NotePad.
Reboot your computer. When you now open any sound recording application on your computer, you’ll see that you have “Stereo Mix.” It should also show up as an option in the bare-bones Windows XP recording mixer.
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I now have stereo mix in my recording devices menu, and I can choose to enable it. However, after applying all the settings required to record from stereo mix with Audacity, it will still not pick up the audio that is playing on my computer.
Additionally, I have located this Lenovo admin thread that specified the following:
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Re: Why has stereo Mix been disabled on thinkpads & when do we get a formal response
04-18-2008 08:32 AM - last edited on 04-18-2008 08:33 AM
All,
Thanks for you patience as this was investigated through engineering. The official answer provided is as follows:
"The '61 series systems do not have any way to provide the same loopback function or
"Stereo Mix" that previous systems have provided. This is by design of the hardware.
There cannot be any driver update to enable this function as the hardware layer does
not support it."
I do not have any more information as to why this feature was not carried forward as a requirement in the development of the '61 series ThinkPads, as many members have noted the capability on prior systems in the forum discussion around this issue. I am not aware of any specific reason for the omission.
Message Edited by Mark_Lenovo on 04-18-2008 08:33 AM


I am wondering if any other audacity users have experienced this problem and have found a fix besides using a VAC, or if, like the admin specified, my laptop is just blocked from the stereo mix functionality.

-Kyle

Hello,

I have XP and I am having the same problem with Audacity. I cannot select Sterio Mix.

I followed the instructions above, but when I got to the 0005 folder I did not see "IniPath".

Has anyone found a solution to make Audacity work with XP? I have a Thinkpad T61.

Thanks,
FW

fiddlewallop wrote:Has anyone found a solution to make Audacity work with XP? I have a Thinkpad T61.

The problem is not with XP as such - I use a Toshiba laptop at work with XP and have no problem at all with using Stereo Mix in Audacity - the problem is with some sound card drivers and/or hardware.

Trying to get stereo mix to work if it is not enabled/supported by the drivers and/or hardware is likely to be an uphill struggle. There are some workarounds suggested here for cases where stereo mix is not an option: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Mixer ... _Issues#cp