Lantecy Correction HELP!

[tehehe]

All was working fine until today when I tried to record something and it wouldn't, the little line that usually moves down the timeline doesn't budge and nothing is being recorded. The pause button has also been selected as well as the record button even though I never clicked pause and I can't un-select it. the only way to un-select both the pause and the record button is to press the stop button, and then a message appears that I've never seen before that says "Latency problem" at the top follwed by this message: Latency correction setting has caused the audio to be hidden before zero. Audacity has brought it back to start at zero. You may have to use the time shift tool to drag the track to the right place. I checked preferences and my lantency was at 100 and -130...I tried diffrent numbers but nothing new happened. Any ideas?
thanks so much!

[billw58]

Make sure that Sound Activated Recording is not checked in the Transport menu.

-- Bill

[tehehe]

Thanks, its recording now but its still not picking up any sound...

[steve]

What are you trying to record? Please give a comprehensive description of what, how and with what.

[tehehe]

Just my voice, but all that appears is silence

[tehehe]

And just as I normally do it, by clicking the red record button and then speaking....

[bgravato]

That doesn't give us any relevant info...

We need to know what kind of mic are you using? How do you connect it to the computer?

Is it a laptop? Desktop computer? Built-in mic on laptop? External mic? Where do you connect it? Is it USB mic? Which windows version? Which Audacity version? What options have you selected in Preferences -> Devices ? You need to select the mic as the recording device.

[steve]

Please give a comprehensive description of what, how and with what.

Which version of Windows, which exact version of Audacity, what sort of microphone, what sound card, how is the microphone connected, what settings have you made in Audacity, what settings have you made in your computer sound system, does the microphone work, is there any indication on the Audacity recording meter while you are recording, anything else that might be relevant?

[tehehe]

Oh, wow. okay, I'm not that great with computers, but I'll answer what I can.
I'm recording from my laptop, running windows 7. I'm using a built-in mic called realtek high def audio that has been working fine as far as I know. I'm running audacity 1.3.13 and I have noo idea what a sound card is, but its probably whatever the most basic default comes-with-the-computer one is. I have not made any computer sound system setting changes, so again it is probably default settings. But I have not touched any of this stuff before the problem occurred. I also don't believe I made any changes on my audacity settings, but I was trying some things out on it and I may have accidently touched something. For Host I have MME selected, under playback for Device i have speakers realtek high def audio and under recording for device I have microphone realtek high def audio and under channel I have 1 (mono). When I record, nothing happens in the input/output level meter and they are both set to -24. under Preferences>recording under playthrough I have selected software playthrough, latency is at 100 and -130, sound activated recording has been unchecked and sound activation level is at -56.
I'm very sorry I hope this is enough information I really don't know much about these things.... but every thing was working fine one day and all of a sudden this occurred the next so I'm not sure what else I can tell you.
Thanks so much for helping!

[steve]

"Software Playthrough" should be off (not selected). The quickest way to change that is from the Transport menu (near the bottom of the menu).

Go to "Edit menu > Preferences > Interface" and set "Meter / Waveform dB range" to -96 dB. This will not fix the problem, but if your microphone is picking up anything at all the meter will now show it.

Can you see the "Mixer Toolbar" in the Audacity interface? http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/Mixer_Toolbar
If not, go to "View menu > Toolbars" and enable it.
Are you able to adjust the recording level (Input Slider) in the Mixer Toolbar? If so, is the level turned up?