Audacity Forum

rambomhtri wrote:

That may not be a good thing, if Windows downloaded that driver of its own accord. You'd hope that Lenovo would post the latest correct audio drivers...

I know that not a newer driver means only improvements, but generally, the newer a driver it is better. So what's the problem of have a newer audio driver?

By the way, I've downloaded it from a driver updater I have.

The problem is that the driver may not be perfectly matched to your hardware (it may only be a generic Realtek driver like those you can get from the Realtek site).

You can (or should) be sure that the drivers on the Lenovo site are perfectly matched to your hardware.

rambomhtri wrote:Anyway, If you said that a newer/older driver is not gonna fix my delay, why does it matter?

It matters for other people reading this.

Windows Update and third-party driver programs can and do find generic audio drivers rather than ones perfectly matched to your hardware. Driver program manufacturers often want to sell you their program by "proving" they can find new drivers for you.

If the "perfectly matched" drivers lack a required feature (such as stereo mix) then sometimes a generic driver that has the feature can be seen as an improvement, but 99 times out of 100 you want to get audio drivers for a branded computer from the computer manufacturer's site.


Gale

rambomhtri wrote:I knew it, I knew I was right, I knew this sound card should have NO freaking delay. [...]

And 30 min ago, I've found a guy that said:

-Although the option is not where every user would search when facing microphone issues, there's a slider for the mic of the input jack that is pure hardware. You don't have to mess around Microphone options, it's PLAYBACK options where you have to find it. Go to speakers properties, and then "level" tab. There you'll find a slider for the volume of the micro plugged in through the jack.



There! Now I have no delay at all, hell yeah, as it should be. Although you guys have convinced me that I had no hardware playthrough, that new laptops have cut features from audio and all of that, I was pretty confident I didn't have that feature, but even though, I wasn't convinced completely, and today I've searched for it.

From my first reply ( http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... 78#p233678 ):

You can go to the *playback* side of Windows Sound and see if there is a volume slider for the microphone. If there is, you can unmute the slider and turn it up. This should be hardware playthrough with little or no latency, but not many computer sound devices have this feature these days.

I then confirmed in my reply after that to look on the "Playback" tab of Windows "Sound". But yes (as with the "Recording" tab) you have to right-click over the device you want (or select it), choose "Properties" then look on the "Levels" tab to find the sliders for that device.

It's nice to know that some laptops still have hardware playthrough but despite what you think it is now very much the exception rather than the rule.

rambomhtri wrote:Well, now I have the next dilemma:
Is a USB sound card (10-40€) gonna record better than my laptop, better enough to worth its purchase? I know I've asked to you this quest, but I didn't understand the answer very well. I mean, is there a way I can compare 2 recording devices, as I compare processors, graphics cards... (I feel there's no such thing).

Define "better". What is noticeably wrong with the recorded sound now? Does the black mic device support 24-bit recording? To find out, go to the "Recording" tab, right-click over the device, choose Properties, then click the "Advanced" tab, then look in "Default Format".

If you sometimes find clicky noise, then yes a USB device might help there. A USB device may just record "better" (clearer, or sharper) but this would be rare unless you were spending more than €40 or the built-in sound card recording was complete rubbish. On €200 netbooks and €300 laptops, the sound card recording may well be "rubbish".


Gale

No, it has no issues at all, it records well, but nothing compared to the studio guitars. May be I should try to config better my.amp and pedals. I think that's what is producing not too clear sound.I love to set gain to maximum, xD.

About better I mean, I don't know, much clearer sound. But I feel its my actual rig configuration what sucks in the recording process.

So problem solved. Nice to talk with you guys. I hope pitch and speed changer in real time come soon, they'd be extremely helpful. See ya!