Windows 10, AMD Ryzen: Poor digital mic-like recording

[Schertler]

Hi there,

Use older Audacity version on my old Vaio laptop under Windows XP, it works fine.
However, just downloaded new version for my new HP Envy laptop under AMD Ryzen, Audacity works fully but the recorded quality is as being recorded with a poor quality digital cellphone's mic......

One of the similar themes notes of " .... its conferencing processing turned on and it didn't used to be.... ""
Reading other themes too.....

Any real case and fixing the issue ??

Thank you!

[steve]

for my new HP Envy laptop under AMD Ryzen, Audacity works fully but the recorded quality is as being recorded with a poor quality digital cellphone's mic......

You're not the only one. There are many such reports of bad microphone quality with the HP Envy.
HP's "solution" is here: https://support.hp.com/gb-en/document/c03421813
though I personally doubt it will make much if any improvement - I expect that it is just a poor quality sound card chip on the motherboard (as it is in my i7 laptop).

If you only want to make a few casual microphone recordings and don't need "professional" quality, I'd suggest trying an inexpensive USB mic (such as the ATR4750-USB for well under $20 in the US - it won't get any awards for sound quality, but it doesn't break the bank either).

[Schertler]

Thanks for the feedback!

Actually, the mic sounds normal in the headphones, no issues related to mic..... after recording the playback sounds that different, kind of a chewed sound you may hear talking on GSM cell-phones; furthermore, the sensitivity is very low, my old Vaio laptop has 4-5 times more volume, also, HP does distort the sound at much lower volumes......

Well, I would like just to realize whether the mic settings are set properly to deliver a true mic sound, not a skype or camera-mic sound !!

Any more experience ??

[Schertler]

Just noticed the following: in my old Vaio laptop, I have my mic switched off in the settings, however the signal goes to Audacity anyway and it records it fine. I can not do the same in my new HP, if I turn the mic Off, nothing goes to Audacity......
That unpleasant chewed sound heard on a recording is just the mic-sound laying onto the playback ........
I have got installed another software and there is the same chewed beer-can sound in the playback.....

So, any idea of how to switch the mic exclusively to audio-cart and switching it off from the sound settings ??

Thank you!

[Schertler]

Well, tried everything and everywhere with settings, having changed/modified/enhanced/removed ......... nothing does help with that strange "under the sea" sound. With HP Envy default audio settings, every recorded track was of such a chewed sound, it improves a bit under disabled default settings of 'Enhanced Audio' but, anyway, that chewing noise comes in the back of a recording.
Attached are two files recorded by Audacity, the first (acoustic guitar) is recorded on my 15+ years old Vaio laptop, the second is that unpleasant sound fragment.

So after all this tryout I would like to have this second question: Can I improve my audio recording quality with this internal audio-card but with another audio driver ??? In other words, perhaps, the solution can be found in changing audio driver ??

Many thanks!

[steve]

If that was you playing guitar, you deserve to treat yourself to a decent microphone and something better than a PC sound card to record with.

Have you considered recording on a portable digital recorder (a very popular and good quality example being the "Zoom H4n" though there are many others to choose from ranging from around $100 upwards)? One of the big advantages of portable digital recorders is that there is no fan (so no fan noise). If the PC has a flash card reader you can drag and drop recordings from the flash card to the computer hard drive.

perhaps, the solution can be found in changing audio driver ??

I doubt it.
You may get reasonable recordings from a line level input (for example recording from a cassette player), but microphone signals are tiny and require much better electronics. The sound quality of "Untitled_0.wav" sounds pretty much like the sound card in my laptop (terrible).

[Schertler]

Steve, thanks!

The purpose of such recordings is not a music production, it is all about demo and practice.... actually, that short recordings were made for showing the internal mic pickup system's characteristics, and certainly this is not the way for recording music! So for this type of demo-audio, using PC-Audacity combination is super easy and compact requiring just few minutes to be done......

You mention of a similar recording quality of your laptop's audio-card, could you please tell me how old is your laptop and what model it is ? Thanks!

If this new HP Envy's audio-card is totally a non-solvable case, then I will have to keep all such recordings done under my old Sony Vaio, it really seems to be having a decent audio in the housing.

[waxcylinder]

I have a W10 HP Envy Laptop 17-ae0xx - it's soundcard is Realtek High Definition Audio(SST)

I have no issues with sound quality on this HP Envy.

Recording from the on-board mic is nowhere near hi-fi quality (I wouldn't expect that), but not as bad as a "poor quality digital cellphone".
It does sound a bit as though I am recording in a large pipe.

In contrast my Macbook Pro of similar vintage(both about 3 years old) running Big Sur macOS 11.0.1 produces much better quality sound from its on-board mic.

WC

[steve]

could you please tell me how old is your laptop and what model it is ?

It's probably about 5 years old. A generic i7 laptop with SSD + hdd. The build quality is reasonable and it's a good number cruncher (it's very fast for the price, which is what I needed for software development). The fan is quite noisy and the sound chip is rubbish, but a decent display with NVidia Optimus graphics. Overall I've been very pleased with it (at only half the price of a slightly lower spec Mac Mini with no display).

If this new HP Envy's audio-card is totally a non-solvable case, then I will have to keep all such recordings done under my old Sony Vaio

The sound quality from your Sony Vaio sounded pretty good for a laptop, though a portable digital recorder is likely to sound noticeably better. As a musician I find my "Zoom H2" (old model) very convenient, especially for recording things like band rehearsals - just put it on a stand and press Record.

If your HP Envy is still under warranty it may be worth contacting the supplier - you may just have a bad one.

[Schertler]

I have a W10 HP Envy Laptop 17-ae0xx - it's soundcard is Realtek High Definition Audio(SST) I have no issues with sound quality on this HP Envy.

Recording from the on-board mic is nowhere near hi-fi quality (I wouldn't expect that), but not as bad as a "poor quality digital cellphone".
It does sound a bit as though I am recording in a large pipe.

Thanks! Sounds very interesting, perhaps you do have a few demo-samples to listen to ........!
My laptop's audio quality is decent when listening to a studio-quality music, but the recordings I make in Audacity are below the zero point, this should be due to either internal audio-card or audio driver...... I am still hoping for a solution with the audio output of my laptop.