volume automatically drops while recording

[julianuribe23]

I plugged my guitar amp directly into my laptop (no interface, just plugged my guitar into the amp, then plugged my amp to my laptop via the 'record out' port) to record. thing is, it works, but then the input volume automatically dips while recording (the volume of the recording drops, the backing track volume stays the same). It also happens when I use my digitech pedal heres a video of me showing the problem http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtwFy_q74Ow Im using windows 7 and from the .exe installer

[kozikowski]

The reason you haven't heard from us long before this is you have a perfectly normal problem -- for Win7. Win7 has Conferencing Processing that tries to automatically set sound levels. WinXP doesn't...

We need to see what the Windows elves have to say. They're eight time zones to my right.

Koz

[julianuribe23]

PLEASE HELP

[kozikowski]

I can tell you that Audacity doesn't do anything in real time. It just records and plays back the work straight. So it's almost a certainty that it's your Windows that's doing it -- or the software that came with your sound card.

You should go into your Windows Control Panels and see if there's anything in there.

Do you use Skype? Do you leave it running in the background? Skype has tools like this and Skype is notorious for taking control of the sound.

Are you plugged into the Mic-In of your laptop? That's probably a bad idea. The blue waves of Audacity should not go all the way up and down in the display. That's overload and clipping and the music can sound rough and crunchy if you do that.

The signal from your amp is likely to be a lot higher than if you plugged a microphone into the laptop which is what's supposed to happen. Your sound level dip may be the computer trying to protect itself.

Some computers have high level, Stereo Line-In, but most Windows laptops don't.

My Windows XP work PC has a Control Panel called AC97 Audio Configuration. It has all kinds of special effects and tools -- Microphone Noise Suppression, Concert Hall Effects. Any one of those can affect the recording.

Koz

[julianuribe23]

I dont use skype or any program like that. So what should I do to be able to record? I have the amp plugged in from the record out into the 1/8 jack thats next to the headphone jack on my laptop.

[Gale Andrews]

I dont use skype or any program like that. So what should I do to be able to record? I have the amp plugged in from the record out into the 1/8 jack thats next to the headphone jack on my laptop.

Which as Koz says, is probably the problem. You said "the input jack" of the laptop. If there is only one input it is probably a mic jack, and the signal from the amplifier will be too strong for it (because the mic jack expects a weak mic signal, so applies amplification to it which the amplifier has already done).

You wouldn't want the clipped recording that you start out at. If the level settles at the lower level and sounds OK, you could work round it by strumming for a few seconds while waiting for the input level to be adjusted down.

Otherwise, look at your computer manual to see if that input can be switched to line-level. If it can, possibly there is a control in the sound card control panel or even on the laptop to do this.

You can check if unwanted enhancements are being made to the recording by reading this link http://manual.audacityteam.org/help/man ... hancements .



Gale