Stereo Mix not recording

[Lyesmith]

Okay, I've spent HOURS trying to fix this. If I had hair, I'd pull it out. I'm trying to record a YouTube video. I change the setting to stereo mix, after finding, enabling, and setting it it to default. The volume levels at 100. I start the video. Hit record.... And nothing. No recording. No signal at all. I've tried changing the playback output device to everything it gives me an option to change it to. Nothing. Happens.


Asus g50vt - Vista 64bit
Any help would be grateful. I'm not sure what to do next and I feel like its got to be something insanely obvious.
Thank you in advance.

[Gale Andrews]

I've tried changing the playback output device to everything it gives me an option to change it to.

You have to play the sound on the same sound card that has the Stereo Mix device. The sound that is playing has to be audible and unmuted or you cannot record it.

If you still need help, go to "Upload attachment" where you posted your message, and upload images of the "Playback" and "Recording" tabs of "Sound" in the Windows Control Panel while you are trying to record stereo mix in Audacity. To capture an image, press ALT + PrtScr, then open Paint, paste then save as a PNG file.



Gale

[Lyesmith]

Here's the screen shots. I can hear the sound, but I'm not getting any signal to Audacity when I hit record. I can switch from Stereo Mix to the Mic and it records. I've tried switching the Output Device; it gives me three options. I've tried all three with Stereo Mix as the Input Device and I'm still not getting anything. What am I missing? I've watched videos, I've lost count of how many posts I've read, and I think I'm doing everything that's supposed to be done. Thank you so much for you help!

[Gale Andrews]

There is no sound coming through those vertical meter bars to the right of each device in Sound.

So if you can hear audio in that state, things are really broken. Are you sure when you right-click over the speakers and stereo mix > Properties, then the Levels tab, that you don't have them muted?

Once again, if you are playing audio on the Realtek Digital Output, you probably won't be able to record it. You have to play it on the Speakers Device. Speakers seems to be default device from your picture, but...

Have you looked in Realtek's own Control Panel?

Have you got proper sound drivers for Vista 64-bit as supplied by the motherboard manufacturer? See:
http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Updat ... ce_Drivers

You can download any YouTube video without recording it. Freecorder does that from the web browser, but the current version (v4) only records computer playback in MP3.


Gale

[Indigo2]

In my Windows 7 in 64-bit there is no stereo mix or wave out-mix.
This is not realy the right forum to ask this question, as it is possibly a soundcard problem or even a general Windows 7 problem.
But has anyone found a way to record from what was in previous versions of Windows called Stero Mix?
If it is a soundcard driver problem, then I would like to hear from anyone who has been able to find the stereo mix option in his Windows 7. Then I would spent some more time investigation the soundcard side of this....

[Lyesmith]

Okay, first and foremost, Gale, thank you so much for your help. Get ready to laugh your butt off.



So I totally misunderstood what screenshots you wanted. I thought you just needed the settings I was using while recording, not screen shots of those setting WHILE recording. but I decided to try Freecorder instead of taking new screenshots. Freecorder broke my recording up into 2 second recordings. Dozens of them. Frustrated, I looked for a fix on their forums. Apparently, this is an issue lots of people are having. They have switched to Soundtap. Sigh. So I download Soundtap. Soundtap records, but gives me terrible distortion when the recording sound gets a little high. Again, I look to their forums. NO ONE seems to have had this issue. Okay, so I'll just take the proper screenshots Gale asked for and re-submit them, see if they have any idea. In the middle of taking said screen shots, I notice...


It's working. It's recording. It's getting signal. I have no idea what changed. Outside of downloading two other programs, I restart my computer. That's it! And it works! Great! Fine! Super! The Gods are laughing at me. I'm convinced Loki hexed my laptop just to watch me pull my beard out.


Again, thank you for your assistance!

[Gale Andrews]

In my Windows 7 in 64-bit there is no stereo mix or wave out-mix.
This is not realy the right forum to ask this question, as it is possibly a soundcard problem or even a general Windows 7 problem.
But has anyone found a way to record from what was in previous versions of Windows called Stero Mix?
If it is a soundcard driver problem, then I would like to hear from anyone who has been able to find the stereo mix option in his Windows 7. Then I would spent some more time investigation the soundcard side of this....

Please read this green panel "HELP WITH RECORDING COMPUTER PLAYBACK" by clicking the link below.
http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Mixer ... _Issues#cp

Then read how to list and enable the hidden inputs in Windows 7:
http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Mixer ... es#vistacp

If you already did that, go straight to the green panel for other solutions.


Gale

[Gale Andrews]

Freecorder broke my recording up into 2 second recordings. Dozens of them. Frustrated, I looked for a fix on their forums. Apparently, this is an issue lots of people are having.

All versions of Freecorder will start a new recording if there is no audio stream, for example if you pause the web player. I don't have any problem with Freecorder v3 starting new files if the stream becomes quieter. I agree v4 is more prone to this, but it seems to depend on the site. Recording YouTube is usually quite OK even on v4 but then v4 lets you download the video anyway, so you don't need to record it.

Unfortunately v3 won't work on Vista/7 without wanting to update to v4, but v3 works on XP and is a high quality tool in my opinion including recording to WAV. It's a shame because I don't know of any other free Vista/7 Recorder that can record computer playback reliably if the sound card cannot do this.



Gale