Can't record in stereo

I am using Audacity 2.2.2 and Windows 10.

I am simply digitizing vinyl, playing from a turntable through an ART PhonoPlus preamp, which I connect to the USB port on a Lenovo Yoga 900. Everything works fine except that when I play back the Audacity recording, it is mono. When I monitor at the preamp, it is stereo. I have stereo selected in Audacity when I record.

I previously used the same set up on an old Dell Inspiron with Windows 7, and those recordings were fine. I am stumped for what else to try. Any ideas are appreciated.

One trick to figure out what’s happening is watch the Audacity bouncing sound meter. If the bounces are identical, then yes, you are recording mono-mix, or Left-Only.

You set that in the Audacity tool bar after the microphone symbol. “9” in the illustrations.

https://manual.audacityteam.org/

But you can also set it in Windows.

Right-click the speaker icon > Recording devices.

Some Windows licenses have the ability to switch devices on and off, but if that was wrong, you wouldn’t get anything.

Koz

Koz,

Thanks for the reply. The recording mode is definitely set to “2 (Stereo) Recording” in Audacity after the microphone icon. I have checked it many times. I still get mono. Any other suggestions?

Any other suggestions?

Yes. What do the bouncing meters do? Do they track each other perfectly, or are they different during a performance?

Koz

They track exactly. I am definitely getting mono.

Yes, the meters track exactly the same for both channels. Listening the the recording, it seems pretty clear it is mono, that is, both original channels combined rather than one channel being replicated.

Listening the the recording, it seems pretty clear it is mono

You don’t have to listen to it. The bouncing sound meters tell us enough.

So Windows is delivering either mono-mix or left-only dual-channel to Audacity.

Right-click the Windows speaker icon lower right (the illustrations are Win7) >

Win7-RightClickSpeaker.jpg
Select Recording Devices

Win7-SoundControlPanel.jpg
Select your device > Properties or Configure. The panel will probably show a microphone whether it is actually a microphone or not. That’s Windows metaphor for recording device. The first device in this illustration is not a real microphone.

If you just can’t tell where mono is happening, clean shutdown Windows 10—Shift-Shutdown. Disconnect your network or WiFi. Don’t let anything else start when it starts back up. Some communications, conferencing, and chat programs interfere with Windows sound management.

Are you using special Art drivers or other software? Do they have control panels or adjustments?

Audacity gets its sound from Windows, not the Art. If it’s OK at the Art and bad at Audacity, Windows is in the middle.

What does the Audacity window say between the little microphone and Stereo.

Screen Shot 2018-07-14 at 11.42.45.png
Koz

Dear Koz,

Thanks again for another follow-up.

I was originally using an ART driver for the device. In the list of recording devices, it was showing up as an ART device (I forget the exact name). In the advanced properties panel, it was hard-coded to 2-channel, 32-bit, 48000 Hz. That is, the default format selection menu was grayed out.

On the chance that there was some problem with that driver, I uninstalled it, causing Windows to use its own USB codec driver. The device now appears as a microphone and I can select the recording format. I was going to send you screenshots of the settings, but I don’t seem to be able to paste a picture into this posting. What I am seeing is:

In the Sound settings, Recording tab, the top choice in the list is “Microphone, 2-USB Audio CODEC, Default Device”. It has the green checkmark.

In the Properties for that device, in the Advanced tab, I have selected “2 channel, 16-bit,
48000 Hz”.

In Audacity, in the line you indicated, the menu selections are, in order from left to right:

MME
Microphone (2-USB Audio CODEC
2 (Stereo) Recording

I tried several options for a “clean restart”. I first tried safe-mode, but I can’t even see the sound device configuration and Audacity won’t run. I then disabled my Wifi and did a normal restart. This did not change the recording behavior.

I certainly agree with you that the problem seems to lie between the input device and Audacity, and not with either of those. I suspect it might be something very specific to this model; I am also on a Lenovo forum trying to get ideas there. So far, it has been to check the same things you have suggested.

Again, I appreciate the help, and am willing to try other suggestions. My plan here is to install Audacity on my son’s laptop to see if the same problem occurs there.

Walden

I don’t seem to be able to paste a picture into this posting

You can’t paste directly into the forum. Put the image in your desktop. Go down from a forum message window > Attachments > Add Files. Select your graphic > OK. If you do nothing else, the graphic should appear at the bottom of your message when you preview it.

Place the cursor in your message and Place Inline and the graphic will show up integrated with the message.

The forum will only accept ordinary, generally accepted file types. I doubt it will accept a Photoshop document, for example.

If the graphic shows up as an address rather than a graphic, drag-select it and click the scenic button in the toolbar.

Koz

I tried several options for a “clean restart”. I first tried safe-mode, but I can’t even see the sound device configuration and Audacity won’t run. I then disabled my Wifi and did a normal restart. This did not change the recording behavior.

Nobody liked how long Windows took when it shut down and started, so Win10 has a “fancy” shutdown where it remembers many preferences and settings so it doesn’t have to dig them up or make them fresh during start. It’s much faster, but technically, it doesn’t actually “start over.” It’s still using old settings.

Shift-Shutdown makes it forget everything. I don’t think Win7 had this, and no, Safe Mode is very different. Safe mode runs juuuuust enough Windows so it can diagnose itself. You can’t do production in Safe Mode.

Koz

Shift shutdown didn’t help either.

I’m hate to suggest this… But you might try uninstalling and re-installing the driver. That might clean everything up, or it might dig you deeper into a hole… Or, maybe nothing will change…

(The your ART interface uses the Microsoft-supplied USB audio drivers and uninstalling won’t delete the drivers.)

You can try updating the driver first, but it will probably just tell you that you already have the latest driver.

Select the device, then Properties → Properties → Driver.

…I don’t have a USB audio device on this computer. It’s a tower with a regular soundcard. So, I selected line-in and uninstalled the driver. That “killed” the whole soundcard (not just recording or just line-in). I re-started the computer and the driver was re-installed automatically.

With the USB device, the driver will probably get re-installed if you simply un-plug and then plug-in the device. But, I haven’t tried it so… You’re on your own… :smiling_imp: (Actually I have done it and it solved my problem, but it’s been awhile and I’m not sure of the steps I went through, and it was a different problem.)

I suspect it might be something very specific to this model;

There’s something “different” about your computer but I’m pretty sure it’s NOT a hardware problem (your USB port is working) and I’m pretty sure it’s not Audacity… I think it’s a Windows/driver configuration problem…