Audacity won't record from line in

[nstock]

I know there are other similar posts - but the solutions there don't work or even apply in my case.

I will explain - i am using Audacity 1.3.12 on Windows 7 - and i have separate video/audio capture card (Videomate SAA7134). No matter what I select as an Input, Audacity records nothing. However I have Serif MoviePlus X3 which I use to capture video and that records of off the line input fine. So I no matter cpature card works and that the line in signal is available - so why doesn't Audacity see it?

[steve]

I don't know much about that capture card, but according to their website it uses a "Hybrid Capture Device driver", so I'm presuming that the same driver captures both video and audio. If these are multiplexed as one data stream, then Audacity (being audio only) would not know what to do with it.
Why do you want to record audio with Audacity from a video capture card?

[nstock]

Hmm, that would explain why Serif does "see" it as it is interested in audio and video. The reason for wanting to use Audacity to capture audio from that card is that I wanted to use a single line input whether I was capturing from my turntable or from my camera (I have my stereo, separate turntable and camcorder audio going into a switching box I have built so that I can select the source and destination easily without the need to swap cables around).

[steve]

How about using the switching box for your stereo and turntable into your regular sound card, and have your camera go directly into the video capture card?

[nstock]

That is what I intend to try next - though I am pretty sure that I tried connecting the switching box into the motherboards line in connector before, but will give it a try again (Serif Movie Plus does allow you to select the source for your audio and video separately so might still get away with the one audio connector.

Anyway thanks for your help so far - the quick response has been very much appreciated!!

[steve]

You may find that the recording quality of the on-board sound card is not very good. This is a very common problem with on-board sound cards, and the reason why I bought a Behringer UCA 202 (cheap, no frills, but pretty good sound quality). The audio recording quality of the video capture card is likely to be adequate for video capture and has the advantage that it is likely to avoid sound synchronisation problems when doing video capture, but for straight audio recording a dedicated sound card will probably be best quality.

Reasonably good quality sound cards need not be expensive, though to some extent you get what you pay for. Another user recently had to replace their sound card and bought a new on for $10. The recording quality was rubbish. On the other hand, I used an old SoundBlaster AWE-32 for many years and got some very respectable recordings with it. I later replaced it with a SoundBlaster Live (value) which was at least as good and IIRC cost me about £5 GBP second hand.