Input Level Meter Grayed Out - Wasn't Before!

[Audioguy]

My harddrive crashed and I had to reinstall Windows 7 and Audacity 1.3.13 on a whole new drive. I'm using a very basic M-Audio 24/96 sound card and reinstalled the driver (same driver as the previous one on my old hard drive). I'm using the 1/2 analog input on the M-Audio and the optical out to my receiver. Everything works beautiful, but I can't set the recording level as it's grayed out. It wasn't before. Not sure what I'm doing wrong this time.

I think on my old drive I had installed Audacity 1.3.12. Now I have 1.3.13. Could this be the reason why the recording input is grayed out now? Personally, I don't think so, but don't really know.

When I go to the Sounds portion of windows 7, everything is set properly....The default playback device is S/PDIF. Default recording is Line 1/2. When I go to the recording properties "levels" tab, I can control the input volume control fine.

Could this be a setting on my M-Audio Delta Control Panel? I've looked it over and nothing jumps out wrong. So how can I fix the "Cannot control input volume; use system mixer" problem?

PS - In Audacity's device settings, I've tried MME Microsoft Sound Mapper and Windows Direct Sound. I can record and hear fine in both settings, but the recording level is still grayed out.

[steve]

I think on my old drive I had installed Audacity 1.3.12. Now I have 1.3.13. Could this be the reason why the recording input is grayed out now? Personally, I don't think so, but don't really know.

There's an easy way to find out.
Download Audacity 1.3.12 as a ZIP file from here.
Unzip (extract) the file somewhere on your computer and double click on the "audacity.exe" file to launch the program.

[Audioguy]

Steve, thanks for providing 1.3.12. I just installed it and I have my recording level control back! So looks like this may be a bug in 1.3.13. Everything is working perfect now. I think I'll stick to 1.3.12 until this is fixed in a later version.

Thanks again!

[steve]

I think I'll stick to 1.3.12 until this is fixed in a later version.

It's not an official release, but you can download the ZIP file for Audacity 1.3.14 from here. It will be useful for the developers to know if issue is still there.

Also, could you test thoroughly to ensure that the recording level slider is actually working in Audacity 1.3.12 (doing what it is supposed to do) and not just looking like it does.

[Audioguy]

I just went back and did a quick test. The recording level is fully functional for me under 1.3.12.

Then I loaded 1.3.14 alpha. The recording level is grayed out, just like 1.3.13.

If there's anything else I can test, please let me know.

[Gale Andrews]

The reason is probably either the update in 1.3.13 to a later version of the PortAudio Audio I/O interface, or the Device Toolbar changes in 1.3.13, but much more likely the former.

I don't think there is much you can do (short of building Audacity with the previous PortAudio to test the theory) other than go to the M-Audio site and make sure you have their latest drivers for the exact version of Windows 7 you have.

You could try Transport > Rescan Audio Devices in Audacity. Occasionally that fixes misbehaviour that 1.3.13 shows but 1.3.12 does not, but I would not be very optimistic.

Let us know when you have checked out the drivers.



Gale

[Audioguy]

Hi Gale, I just tried the 'Rescan Audio Devices', but that didn't help.

I checked the M-Audio website and the driver has not changed since November 2009. Since I bought the card about 4 months ago, I had the same driver loaded before my hard drive crash as I do today (I always download drivers directly off manufacturers website). And I have the same M-Audio control panel.

So you're probably right as it's the new I/O interface. I'm not a technical guy, I just know I love Audacity and used it to digitize about 30 albums so far (and I have 200 more to go!). Thanks for all the effort the developers have put into this. I'm happy with using 1.3.12 as it works perfect for my purposes.

Please let me know if I can help test further.

My system:
Home built PC
Intel D945GCCR Motherboard with E4600 (2.4 Dual Core) processor
2 Gigs memory
M-Audio 2496 Sound Card
Window 7 - SP1 - 32 Bit

[Gale Andrews]

Okay thanks. I've logged this here on our bugzilla for want of anywhere better.

It's not actually uncommon for Audacity to be unable to directly control the input level of a USB device. We prefer to grey out the slider rather than have Audacity just apply a software gain (that is, just make a distorted signal quieter without stopping the distortion by turning the hardware input down). These are usually driver issues, though I appreciate this case is a regression on 1.3.12.



Gale

[audalov]

Steve, thanks for providing 1.3.12. I just installed it and I have my recording level control back! So looks like this may be a bug in 1.3.13. Everything is working perfect now. I think I'll stick to 1.3.12 until this is fixed in a later version.

Thanks again!

This situation is SOoo IRONIC because my situation is the OPPOSITE whereby Audacity 1.3.12 version recently became suddenly grayed out at the maximum audio level after installing my new ASUS motherboard-processor XP professional SP3 with built-in VIA HD Audio Deck which I don't really like alot, while my NEW freshly installed Audacity 1.3.13 is working perfectly GREAT in excellent condition so far with everything seemingly working properly including the fully ACTIVE RECORDING slider bar again as it ALWAYS should be!!!! So I feel the CAUSE of this surprising recording-control malfunction disability is NEITHER version of Audacity but somewhere else as yet, or perhaps possibly something in common with both versions taking turns unpredictably on different systems I don't know !?!? So far I really LOVE the newest .13 version working so great - except for some lost files being reported as missing and displayed as SILENCES sometimes after a crash or unfavorable closing. Nevertheless a big thanks to EVERYONE for a great latest Audacity!!!!

[Gale Andrews]

Steve, thanks for providing 1.3.12. I just installed it and I have my recording level control back! So looks like this may be a bug in 1.3.13. Everything is working perfect now. I think I'll stick to 1.3.12 until this is fixed in a later version.

This situation is SOoo IRONIC because my situation is the OPPOSITE whereby Audacity 1.3.12 version recently became suddenly grayed out at the maximum audio level after installing my new ASUS motherboard-processor XP professional SP3 with built-in VIA HD Audio Deck which I don't really like alot, while my NEW freshly installed Audacity 1.3.13 is working perfectly GREAT in excellent condition so far with everything seemingly working properly including the fully ACTIVE RECORDING slider bar again as it ALWAYS should be!!!! So I feel the CAUSE of this surprising recording-control malfunction disability is NEITHER version of Audacity but somewhere else as yet, or perhaps possibly something in common with both versions taking turns unpredictably on different systems I don't know !?!?

Thanks, audalov. The usual reason for changes like this actually is the portaudio version Audacity is using, assuming the device, its drivers and the inbuilt sound device/drivers did not change.

It could be quite relevant that your device is new but Audioguy's (driver) is at least two years old.

So far I really LOVE the newest .13 version working so great - except for some lost files being reported as missing and displayed as SILENCES sometimes after a crash or unfavorable closing.

We would really hope recovery after a crash is almost always perfect, but we do have a set of related problems where if you save an Audacity project and reopen it there can be "orphan" or "missing" blockfiles or even some audio silenced without a warning dialogue displayed. See:
http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Relea ... at_Release .

If you have any problems like this please e-mail our feedback address with as much detail as you can of the problems you encounter and anything you recall about the actions you took in the project last time it was open. Note we are not concerned about orphans if you Edit > Cut or Copy some audio then close the project and re-open it while Audacity is still running. The orphans that occur in that case are not really orphans and 1.3.14 when released will no longer report those as orphans.


Gale