Missing stereo mix in Windows Pro 64bit

[andyhtc68]

Please help. I'm using Windows 8 Pro 64 bit and I used the .exe to install.
I'm trying to record from BBC radio but I can't find stereo mix in the options. I've tried to enable it by right clicking on the task bar volume icon, click recording, right click and show hidden device, but it isn't there. I've checked all drivers and they seem fine and up to date. The driver is a realtek R1.95 and it's a Nvidia MCP61 chipset and a Foxconn M61PMV motherboard.

Does Audacity support Win 8 yet? Any help would be greatly received.

Thanks in advance.

[waxcylinder]

See this page in the Wiki: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Windows_8_OS

Basically it's not whether "Audaccity supports W8" it's more "does W8 and associated drivers that you need support Audacity"

When W7 was released many device manufacturers (not just audio but other peripheral devices too) were somewhat tardy in releasing updated drivers that worked properly with W7 - so a game of catch-up began ...

Manufacturers do seem to be making it harder to record streaming audio on PCs, so you may be a victim of that. It's just the luck of the draw, my newest W7 laptop did it fine OOTB but my wife's one couldn't be persuaded to perform this party trick no matter how hard we tried (she gave up and bought TotalRecorder for recording streaming audio).

WC

[andyhtc68]

Thanks for the reply and the link. Gave up trying to use it with Windows and recorded what I wanted using Ubuntu. Audacity worked first time, with no problems at all.

[JeffB]

I just bought an Acer "ultrabook" and I'm having the same problem. It took me awhile to find the device manager in Windows 8, but it had an option to update drivers automatically. It said they were all up to date, but the Audacity Wiki said Windows might use generic drivers, so I took the Wiki's recommendation to go to the website of the manufacturer for the most up-to-date driver. Device Manager listed Realteck High Definition Audio for the speakers, microphone and "sound, video & game controllers", so I went to the Realtek site http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/dow ... Down=false . But it said:

Audio drivers available for download from the Realtek website are general drivers for our audio ICs, and may not offer the customizations made by your system/motherboard manufacturer. To be sure you obtain the full features/customizations provided in your original audio product, please download the latest drivers from your system/motherboard manufacturer's website.

I am not sure how to find who manufactured the motherboard, however. I don't see it listed anywhere in the device manager. Should I try using the Realtek "general drivers"? Or how would I find the site for the motherboard drivers.

I love using Audacity to record streaming audio... often sporting games I would miss otherwise. Any help recommendations would be appreciated.

Btw, is there some inexpensive way to connect a radio or stereo to input audio that could be recorded by Audacity. Some of the games are carried over the air, but are not streamed.

[kozikowski]

Audacity will record anything presented to it by the operating system.

You can jack the Headphone Out of a personal radio or the Stereo Line-Out of a larger radio or music system to your computer Stereo Line-In (usually blue) or in the case of a Windows Laptop, you may need to add a Stereo Line-In USB sound device similar to the Behringer UCA202.

http://www.kozco.com/tech/audacity/pix/ ... Lenovo.jpg

I do that with radio shows in Los Angeles that either don't stream or stream badly.

Please note that Mic-In (pink) on a Windows laptop is mono, not stereo and easily distorted and damaged.

Koz

[JeffB]

Audacity will record anything presented to it by the operating system.

You can jack the Headphone Out of a personal radio or the Stereo Line-Out of a larger radio or music system to your computer Stereo Line-In (usually blue) or in the case of a Windows Laptop, you may need to add a Stereo Line-In USB sound device similar to the Behringer UCA202.

http://www.kozco.com/tech/audacity/pix/ ... Lenovo.jpg

I do that with radio shows in Los Angeles that either don't stream or stream badly.

Please note that Mic-In (pink) on a Windows laptop is mono, not stereo and easily distorted and damaged.

Koz

Thank you very much. This laptop doesn't have separate line in & line out or RCA jacks. It has a single 3.5 mm jack for a headset. You couldn't even have a separate mic & speakers. I found some inexpensive converters for a 2.5 mm headset I bought for a regular phone to the 3.5 mm jack, but haven't seen any similar 3.5 mm out to 3.5 mm in to connect a radio to the mic in.

That Behringer UCA202 is a little more expensive than the option I was thinking of, but looks quite excellent and a good value for the money. It wouldn't connect to the radio I was thinking of, but would be a lot more versatile and would undoubtedly do a much better job anyway.

Thanks again on the heads up on the Behringer UCA202. I'm supposed to run the sound system at my kids' grade school Dance Assembly again this year and that device looks like it would be a better way to record the audio portion than the system used by the guy who video tapes it for them. His mics pic up a lot of background noise and the audio is rather poor over all. Maybe I could use that to record it as it's coming out of the sound board and they could dub it onto the video. It might be worth a try.

[JeffB]

How to Find Out Your Motherboard’s Manufacturer and Model http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/ ... -Model/236

I found the drivers for the devices on that motherboard, but I'm not too confident it will fix my problems recording in Windows 8. The device manager had an option to check for the latest drivers and said they were all up to date. Hopefully updating them manually will fix things, but I may have to wait for them to update their drivers for Win 8... or figure out how to install Ubuntu and see if that will work.

Out of the box it wouldn't record anything streaming, and there was no option for "Stereo Mix". It barely recorded anything with the built in mic even with the sliders pushed up to max volume.

[Gale Andrews]

How to Find Out Your Motherboard’s Manufacturer and Model http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/ ... -Model/236

I found the drivers for the devices on that motherboard, but I'm not too confident it will fix my problems recording in Windows 8. The device manager had an option to check for the latest drivers and said they were all up to date. Hopefully updating them manually will fix things, but I may have to wait for them to update their drivers for Win 8... or figure out how to install Ubuntu and see if that will work.

Most users with a branded computer will want to go to the computer manufacturer's web site (so in your case to http://www.acer.co.uk/ac/en/GB/content/drivers or the US equivalent). For other computers, go to the web site of the motherboard manufacturer. Almost no manufacturers of sound cards built into the motherboard (like Realtek or SoundMax) will supply appropriate drivers direct to the public. If you had a PCI sound card then that would be one case where you would go to the sound card manufacturer's site.

Are the drivers you have now meant for Windows 8 or Windows 7? Windows 7 drivers should work fine in most cases, but there is no guarantee Windows 7 or Windows 8 drivers will offer stereo mix.

Ubuntu does not normally record stereo mix out of the box, especially if the sound device does not offer that choice, but installing the pavucontrol utility usually fixes it. See http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/tu ... linux.html .


Gale

[JeffB]

Thanks for the reply, Gale.

Most users with a branded computer will want to go to the computer manufacturer's web site (so in your case to http://www.acer.co.uk/ac/en/GB/content/drivers or the US equivalent). For other computers, go to the web site of the motherboard manufacturer. Almost no manufacturers of sound cards built into the motherboard (like Realtek or SoundMax) will supply appropriate drivers direct to the public. If you had a PCI sound card then that would be one case where you would go to the sound card manufacturer's site.

I did belatedly end up at the Acer site which manufactured the motherboard. I downloaded all of the drivers & then did a manual driver check/update in the Control Panel's Device Manager. I basically just told it what file folder to look in, and it immediately said all of the drivers were up-to-date. I'm not sure if that is the only or best way to update drivers, but since Windows did it I'm guessing it will always pick the same drivers as "the most up-to-date" based upon whatever parameters they use.

Are the drivers you have now meant for Windows 8 or Windows 7? Windows 7 drivers should work fine in most cases, but there is no guarantee Windows 7 or Windows 8 drivers will offer stereo mix.

Windows 8 64 bit. I'm guessing trying to install older Windows 7 drivers wouldn't fix the problem? I wouldn't know how to do so in any event.

Ubuntu does not normally record stereo mix out of the box, especially if the sound device does not offer that choice, but installing the pavucontrol utility usually fixes it. See http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/tu ... linux.html .

From the Audacity Tutorial you linked to (http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/tu ... linux.html):

If not already installed, add PulseAudio Volume Control (pavucontrol) to your system. This is usually available in the distribution repository.

From the Pulse Audio Wiki http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/PulseAudio:

PulseAudio is designed for Linux systems. It has also been ported to and tested on Solaris, FreeBSD, NetBSD, MacOS X, Windows 2000 and Windows XP.

I have some programs that I brought over from XP to Vista & now to Windows 8 that seem to work fine. Think the XP version of Pulse Audio might be able to fix the lack of a "stereo mix" option problem in my current Windows 8 version?

[JeffB]

Wow!

I had opened the Control Panel -> Hardware & Sound -> Manage Audio Devices window earlier but couldn't find anything that looked like it would help. I was getting ready to shut everything down and turn off the computer for the night and browsed around again for a bit. The Playback tab showed only 1 item - Realtek Speakers. The Recording tab also showed only one item, the Realtek microphone. I just happened to right click within the window which showed some options which included:

an unchecked "show disabled devices". I checked it and "Stereo Mix" was one of the available, but disabled devices. It was there all the time, but just hidden from view. I clicked the option to enable it, and presto, it now shows up both there, and in Audacity. See attached screenshot.

Awesome!