recording problem with microphone input

[user621]

Hi,

System Info:
I am recording with a mic that has a TRS connector. I checked the Edit/Preferences/Audio I/O setting, and it points to my sound card (Realtek AC70), and my sound card has the latest driver. Audacity is v1.2.6, OS is XP Home Edition.

Problem:
I was recording yesterday, and things were fine, then it just stopped showing sound waves, and there's no sound on playback. The record head move, but a thin blue line is all that gets produced. I've checked all the resources I can find, but nothing solves the input issue. I also checked that the mic works (it does).

Any suggestions? Appreciate any help.

Mic

[kozikowski]

Pretend I didn't say this: Did you plug the microphone into Line-In instead of Mic-In by accident? This happens to other people only, never to me.

Koz

[user621]

I only have one input (microphone) on my laptop's sound card, so I don't think that's the issue. When it stopped working (literally from 1 minute to the next), I tried all the input options on the Input Selector on the Mixer Toolbar, and then tried the Audio I/O tab in preferences. Nothing has solved it. Maybe I changed something and didn't realize it, but I can't see how. I recorded 1 track, listened to it, adjusted the Input Level in the Mixer Toolbar, and then when I tried to add a second track, the input wasn't registering (just a thin blue line, no sound waves).

My laptop is 3-1/2 years old, maybe the input on my sound card just bonked?

Mic

[steve]

Check that the recording input is selected (not muted) in the Windows Mixer (in the sys tray near the clock).

[user621]

I checked the Recording Control properties window in the Sounds and Audio Devices Properties, it's not muted. Hopefully that's what you mean by the windows mixer.

I know these things are usually user-error, but so far no luck figuring out what that could have been.

I appreciate the suggestions.

[bill powrie]

Hi

I get mains hum when recording from cassette, through my USB turntable, but not withn vinyl off the same midi sytem?

same problem if i go direct from cassette to PC input ( cutting out the USB turntable)

Any suggsetions please ?
Bill

[steve]

I checked the Recording Control properties window in the Sounds and Audio Devices Properties, it's not muted. Hopefully that's what you mean by the windows mixer.

I actually meant a Mixer application/control panel for the audio device that is accessed from an icon in the sys tray (near the clock) - it usually looks like a loudspeaker and is opened by double clicking on it.

I notice that you are using Realtek AC70. Unfortunately it seems that every manufacturer has their own implementation of this and use different graphical interfaces, so it is difficult to say with any certainty exactly what to look for, but there should be some kind of mixer/control panel application for your sound card driver - probably accessed from the sys tray - it may look something like this:
or possibly like this:

I get mains hum when recording from cassette,

Sounds like an "Earthing" problem - you could try adding an earthing wire between the cassette deck and the turntable, or get a new cassette deck. If you need to discuss this further, please start a new topic.

[user621]

Thanks Steve(thefiddle?).

I did check that panel, and the Options/Properties/Record. Everything looks as it should, Audacity just doesn't register any input from the mic. It's a stumper...

Mic

[steve]

Sorry that I can't just give a "Click on ...." answer but the Windows sound system is a bit of a complicated beast at the best of times, but having sound card drivers that vary from one computer to another makes it all the more problematic.

The basic scheme is this:

• Sound comes into the soundcard through an input jack (using a microphone or any other external device), or through a connection inside the computer (recording from your CD ROM, software synth, midi file etc.)

• The soundcard is a bunch of electronic components, either on its own little circuit board, or built into the mother board.

• The soundcard manufacturer will usually provide "drivers" that instruct your computer in how to access the soundcard hardware - sometimes these drivers are "generic" drivers built into the operating system.

• The soundcard driver not only interfaces your operating system to the hardware device, but also provides a graphical user interface (GUI) so that you, the user, can control the card.

• Since there are several different audio inputs and outputs in your computer, you need to tell Audacity which ones to use. You do this by selecting the appropriate driver input in Audacities Preferences.

• Audacity can then capture (record) sounds via the driver, write the audio to disk and all the other magical stuff that Audacity does, and then send (play) the audio back to the audio hardware via the driver.

So it goes:
Sound Card (hardware) -> Driver (with GUI) -> Audacity -> Driver -> Hardware.

The driver need to be set up through its GUI (the mixer application in the pictures of my previous post) so that the correct input socket is selected and the recording level set.

The driver also needs to be set up through the GUI so that the playback gets routed to your speakers or headphones and the output level set. As you can see from the blue/green mixer, this is sometimes done by selecting a different "tab" for setting inputs and outputs. In the silver/grey mixer, the different pages for input and output are selected from the "Options" menu.

I assume that some audio will play on your computer (computer beeps, Windows Media Player etc.) so the output settings are OK.

Setting up Audacity to use the correct driver input is usually fairly simple. The settings are in "Edit > Preferences > Audio I/O". You should see in the drop down lists that there is a Realtek recording input and a Realtek playback output. Some drivers provide multiple input and output options which can cause some confusion. Finding the correct output option is usually quite easy - you just import an audio file into Audacity and try to play it, and go through each of the output (playback) options until you find one that works.

Finding the correct input device (driver input) can be a bit more tricky as it relies on the driver being set up correctly.

There is another option that sometimes works on Windows, which is to go into the Windows Control Panel and open up the "Sounds and Audio Devices". Go onto the "Audio" tab and check the "Realtek" is selected for both Playback and Recording. If you are able to do this, then click on "Apply" and exit. Restart Audacity and select "Microsoft Sound Mapper" as the recording device. Then all you have to do is to figure out the Realtek mixer.

[user621]

I appreciate your help. I know it's hard to tell what's going on when you can't grab the mouse yourself.

I checked the Control Panel the first day, the settings look right (attached sound.jpg):

sound.JPG (82.03 KiB) Viewed 2095 times

I also tried both the Realtek and Microsoft Sound Mapper settings on the Edit/Preferences/Audio I/O tab (attached i-o.jpg):

i-o.JPG (49.17 KiB) Viewed 2094 times

Neither solved the problem. The only thing I can think of (besides a hardware failure) is that I hit a keyboard shortcut accidently that changed something, but I can't figure out what it was. I've tried all the settings in the documentation, and I still can't record.

I have a work around, though. My roommate has a computer and I installed Audacity on their machine. I just shuttle the recordings from their's to mine. Cumbersome and unsatisfying as a resolution, but at least I can move forward with my project.

Thanks, again.

Mic