Can't record sound on Vista Laptop

[jeemo]

I've used Audacity for years on my XP dexktop system to record audio playing in Windows Media Player, videos, etc. My desktop gave up the ghost so I switched to using my laptop, a Dell Inspiron 1501. I installed Audacity 1.2.6 but found it wouldn't record the sound as it had always done. In searching for a solution, I found the 1.3 beta and installed it as it was supposed to be better with Vista. This hasn't solved the problem and I still can't record from the media player.
While I've been recording this way for years, I'm still a novice in really understanding audio and how it works on Audacity. Any suggestions, hopefully with as little technical stuff as possible, would be greatly appreciated.
John

[waxcylinder]

See this Wiki article: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Recor ... e_computer

But note that a lot of modern PCs have had the abilityto record the audio playing on the computer either fully removed or deeply hidden in attampt to thwart piracy. Whether yours can do it or not is down to your soundcard and its associated drivers and you Windows settings.

If you find you can't then there is an excellent software solution called TotalRecorder which costs $17.95 which you can get from here: http://www.highcriteria.com/

My wife bought this package when she got her new W7 laptop as she couldn't configure it to record streaming audio and it works well. She records in TotalRecorder and then transfers the output to Audacity for editing.

WC

[jeemo]

Hi WC
Thanks for your reply.
snip : "note that a lot of modern PCs have had the ability to record the audio playing on the computer either fully removed or deeply hidden". I was starting to think that might be the situation.
The Wiki link say "Choose the inbuilt sound device at Edit > Preferences: Devices in Audacity Beta. Then choose the appropriate "stereo mix" or similar input source in the Audacity Mixer Toolbar dropdown selector." My beta copy doesn't seem to show any stereo mix selection unless I'm not understanding the terms correctly. I do have it selected on the dropdown for stereo as against mono.
I like your recommendation of TotalRecorder and will proceed that way. Thanks for your help.
Regards
John

[Gale Andrews]

My beta copy doesn't seem to show any stereo mix selection unless I'm not understanding the terms correctly. I do have it selected on the dropdown for stereo as against mono.

That's just the choice whether to record in mono or stereo. To see if you have "stereo mix" you need to go to "Sound" in the Windows Control Panel, click the "Recording" tab, show the disabled devices then enable them all. No guarantee you have such a stereo mix device, but worth a look. See: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Mixer ... _Issues#cp then scroll down that page to see the instructions for working in Sound.

I like your recommendation of TotalRecorder and will proceed that way.

A free alternative is Freecorder as mentioned on the above Wiki page - that works as a browser toolbar which you may or may not like. Version 3 (linked to) is superior to the current version 4 in audio features. V4 only records audio to MP3 but does download video from YouTube and other sites. If you update your web browser you may find V3 incompatible or you may get an "upgrade" to V4 forced on you. But Version 3 works fine with Internet Explorer 8 for me on Windows 7 (and on XP, though I know that's not the point).



Gale