Audacity Forum

When recording phone conversations the graphic present when Audacity is recording the dial tone runs for a few seconds then disappears. This began happening when I bought a new HP pc and loaded Audacity 2.2.0. Can anyone tell me what is happening?

shocked123 wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 11, 2018 7:21 am

When recording phone conversations the graphic present when Audacity is recording the dial tone runs for a few seconds then disappears ...

Perhaps you have sound-activated-recording enabled : if sound drops below a volume-threshold recording stops ...


https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/tut ... rding.html

Or perhaps the graphic (the waveform) has scrolled off the screen ...

Trebor: Thanks for your two suggestions and visual aids. The Sound Activated Recording is unticked. I adjusted the volume so the WAVEFORM occupies the middle third of the AUDIO TRACK. On Audacity 2.1.0. on an ASUS mobo in a pc I assembled six years ago everything works fine. It has an i7 @ 2.8 gigahertz CPU. The problem started on my new store bought HP with an i5 and digital harddrive. I use a Sound Blaster external sound card as the HP uses a "MICRO-ATX" mobo so I am limited as to what I can use for a sound card. As I said the waveform disappears and reappears. I know I did not mention that the waveform reappears but it is intermittent. Another problem: the playback sounds like the voices are in a "can".

I'm sorry. I should have gone through the settings. The "MICROPHONE BOOST" box was ticked so I was getting distortion. Once I unticked the box the sound became INCREDIBLE! Perfect dial tone. Perfect voice. All running through a new pc and sound card. My life doesn't get any better than this!

shocked123 wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 11, 2018 7:38 pm

... the playback sounds like the voices are in a "can" ...

That sounds very-like the work of Windows "enhancements", which need to be turned off ...
https://www .thewindowsclub.com/disable-audio-enhancements-windows

I was wrong. The "microphone boost" setting wasn't the problem. The waveform simulating the dial tone of a landline telephone begins as soon as the dial tone occurs but only for a few seconds. Or inches. Is the dial tone on the 2.3.0 Audacity triggering some sort of mechanism that makes the dial tone waveform disappear? Everything else functions normally. Any ideas?

I disabled Win10 audio hijinks as soon as I got it. What MS won't do to amuse themselves with special effects. Eh? NOTHING gets in the way of me and my AUDACITY 2.3.0! Nothing!

shocked123 wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 12, 2018 6:38 pm

... The waveform simulating the dial tone of a landline telephone begins as soon as the dial tone occurs but only for a few seconds. Or inches. Is the dial tone on the 2.3.0 Audacity triggering some sort of mechanism that makes the dial tone waveform disappear? Everything else functions normally. Any ideas?

Noise-reduction & echo-cancellation "enhancements" built-in to the computer will squelch sounds which are constant-pitch, (like a dial-tone), in less than a second. There are speaker enhancements you need to turn off too ...
https: //manual.audacityteam.org/man/faq_recording_troubleshooting.html#Why_do_my_recordings_fade_out