Audacity Forum

Hi, guys/gals:
I've been through the FAQs tutorial on how to use Audacity to record off You Tube (or from my internal computer) with zero luck -- no matter what I've tried, I get a flatline, or sometimes about one second of what appears to be a jagged recording line, followed by a flatline.

I have Windows 7.
I've installed Audacity 2.0.2
My recording choices are the following:
First box: "MME" or "Windows Direct"
Second box: "Microsoft Sound Mapper," "Speakers (Plantronics)" and "Speakers (Realtek High)"
Third box: "Microsoft Sound Mapper," "Stereo Mix," "Microphone (Realtek High)" and "Microphone (Plantronics)"
Fourth box: "Mono" or "Stereo."

I think I've followed all other instructions, but must have missed something somewhere. I've selected "Recording Devices," I've selected "Show Disabled Devices" and "Show Disconnected Devices," but seem to hit a brick wall at this point.

Can anybody offer insight on how to solve this problem?

Thanks very much,
Dennis

In Audacity you need: Third box: "Stereo Mix".
You must also set up your computer to play through "Speakers (Realtek High)" and not your headset.

I'm not sure about the Windows Control Panel settings as I don't use Windows, but there's a tutorial here: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/tu ... puter.html

For YouTube, if you use Firefox as your web browser there are several "Add-ons" that allow you to download YouTube videos as FLV or MP4 (for example: "Easy YouTube Video Downloader 6.5"). Audacity can import the audio from these if you have FFMpeg installed http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/FAQ: ... Ins#ffdown

Many sound cards & drivers simply do not support "Stereo Mix" or "What-U-Hear".

However, there are some applications mentioned in the tutorial that can get-around this limitation. Total Recorder seems to be popular, but it's not free.

The tutorial also explains how to use a loopback cable from line-out (or headphone out) to line in (if you have a desktop computer with line-in).

Thanks for trying.