Audacity Forum

Hi there!

Been searching through the forums and internet a while but can't find the solution for my problem.

My problem is that I can't record any sound with Audacity that are beeing played on the computer. Doesn't matter wich settings (input/output options) I choose in audacity because I always get a flatline...

My setup are:
Windows Vista SP1 x64
Realtek High Definition Audio (6.0.1.5532) Running digital audio with an optical cable connected to my surround speakers.

Some screenshots of what settings I can choose of:
Recording Devices: http://sounken.se/blandat/Recording.jpg
Playback Devices: http://sounken.se/blandat/Playback.jpg
Audacity Preferencies 1: http://sounken.se/blandat/Audapref1.jpg
Audacity Pref 2: http://sounken.se/blandat/AudaPref2.jpg

Ive already tried that thing that every tutorial say, wich is to enable "Stereo Mix" under "Recording Devices" and turn the volume up to 100%, then disable all other devices and just hit record in audacity. Still get a Flatline...

If anyone already knows a thread or link to a guide that got a solution on this please post it. All help is appreciated!

Thanks!
//Mike

Well your problem is obvious, you are using vista
Download windows 7 rc x64 bit edition and youll be just fine

Sounken wrote:Recording Devices: http://sounken.se/blandat/Recording.jpg

You have the digital input of the sound card selected, but I suspect that you are trying to record from an analogue input.

Set the default recording device to the one that you are using.
If you still are unable to record (and you are sure that you have the Windows settings correct), try changing the device settings in Audacity to "Microsoft Sound Mapper"

I have the same problem. I have been using Audacity for years on a USB drive on XP and Vista 32 machines. Today I plugged it into a Vista-64 machine and could not record. The drop-down menu where you select the input is grayed out. Even tried the XP compatibility mode and the menu is still grayed out. Any help would be appreciated.

Anything here help: http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php? ... bar_Issues
or perhaps here: http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php? ... ng_devices

I solved my problem. The drop down input menu is still grayed out, but I was able to get Audacity to record by doing the following:

• In the Control Panel, selected "Realtek HD Audio Manager" and set the defaults to "Speakers" and "Stereo Mix".
  
  In the Control Panel, selected "Sound" and set Playback default to "Speakers" and set Recording default to "'Stereo Mix". May need to right click the window and select "Show Disabled Devices" and "Show Disconnected Devices" if they do not appear.
  
  Open the "Volume Mixer" by right clicking on the "Speaker" icon in the system tray at the bottom of the screen. There is probably another way to open the Volume Mixer from the Control Panel, but I could not find it.
  
  For Recording: In the "Volume Mixer", make sure that the "Speaker" slide bar and the slide bar for the application that you are recording are high.
  
  For Playback: In the "Volume Mixer", make sure that the "Speaker" slide bar and the slide bar for Audacity are high.

Hope this works for anyone else having problems with Audacity, Realtek HD, and Vista 64.

Continuing the post above, I had to configure Audacity as follows:

Under Edit --> Preferences --> Audio I/O
Selected Playback Device as Microsoft Sound Mapper - Output
Selected Recording Device as Microsoft Sound Mapper - Input

Turns out it also worked if I selected Playback Device as Speakers (Realtek High Definiti and selected Recording Device as Stereo Mix (Realtek High Definiti

I also had to uncheck the "Play other tracks while recording new one" and "Software Playthrough (Play new track while recording it). If Playthough was enabled, I got feedback looping through Audacity.

Good Luck!

Unless Vista is doing something weird (which wouldn't be that surprising), you should be able to have "Play other tracks while recording new one" switched on, but as you correctly state "Software Playthrough" should be off.