Audacity Forum

brand new laptop. built in speaker work with other things. videos, music .

when i record something then play it back, the sound goes in and out. louder then softer. dont know wtf is up with that. audacity works fine on my pc.

is this common in laptops?

dirtyhippyscum wrote:brand new laptop. built in speaker work with other things. videos, music .
when i record something then play it back, the sound goes in and out. louder then softer. dont know wtf is up with that. audacity works fine on my pc. is this common in laptops?

Laptops tend to have slower disk speeds, and you may need to be more careful than on a PC about turning other programs off before recording, so as to avoid dropouts or noise.

But what you are describing sounds as if it could be an unwanted "enhancement" applied by your sound device. If you are recording from a microphone, go to the control panel for the sound card (probably in the Windows Control Panel, or accessible in the System Tray where the clock is), and where you set the level of the microphone, uncheck "noise reduction" or any other optional features.

If you are recording computer playback, you could look for any global effects added to recording such as extra dynamic range and turn them off. Otherwise, the sound device just isn't capable of recording properly. I have had just this problem on several new computers shipped with AC97 sound devices which are supplied only with generic Microsoft drivers. You should try updating the sound device drivers to the latest ones for your computer model and version of Windows, supplied by either the motherboard manufacturer or the device manufacturer.

Gale

<<<is this common in laptops?>>>

Some of the newer ones.

As I'm finding out from a completely different perspective, you may decide to turn all that stuff back on again if you use video conferencing or one of the on-line telephone services. As a Global rule, Macs are set up for very high quality production entertainment audio and Windows machines are designed to plug in a communications headset and dial up your mum in Paris for a talk.

I'm sure you didn't think about this at the time, but I bet your playback ducks in volume every time you make noise in the room like sneezing or dropping a pencil. This is all part of computer echo cancellation.

And yes, if you want to force your machine into production, all that will have to go.

Koz