Samson Meteor Mic and Recording level

I have an HP spectre, Windows 10.

I have audacity 2.2.1

My problem is that the recording level drops to zero for no apparent reason.

This is true of either my on board microphone or my new, pretty samson meteor mic USB.

I turned off speech-enabled recognition in Audacity. I looked for any weird enhancements in Windows.

I set recording level to .7 or .8 and it records fine for 1-2 minutes and then the level will drop to zero.

I can go into windows audio settings and make Samson the default microphone. It still doesn’t matter.

I read through FAQ and manual for recording. I think I am doing everything right.

Thoughts?

Make sure [u]Windows “enhancements”[/u] are turned OFF.

I tried that. I don’t see windows enhancements in my sound settings. Is that still a thing in Windows 10?

Thanks for help!
sound settings.png

Select something and then Properties, lower right. Keep digging.

Modern computers are not general purpose machines any more. They’re business computers. They come out of the box all set up for voice processing so you can call the home office in Zurich on a conference call. You don’t even have to think about it. Just connect and go.

The processing generally hates music including singing.

If you have a special microphone, some microphone driver software can do it, too.

And as if that wasn’t enough, some Windows machines apply effects only on playback. I once got a machine stuck in “Cathedral Effects.”

Koz