Audacity doesn't see my mic

[gawest]

I've been using Audacity 1.2.6 successfully on my Windows XP sp3 machine. Imagine my dismay when I upgraded to Audacity 1.3 Beta, and I can no longer get any input from my mic. I've tried all the different combinations of Preferences (Host: MME or Windows Direct Sound)(Recording: SB Live! Wave Device). The Mixer window shows Microphone, in addition to Record Master, SPDIF-in, MIDI, CD audio, Line-in, Auxiliary, TAD-in, (whatever THAT is...) and Wave. But when I speak or test my mic, there's no meter response. And lately, when I press Record, it won't even start showing movement - just creates a new Track and sits at the beginning, pulsing. What am I doing wrong? I've spent hours looking for a similar problem in the forum and on the Wiki, but I'm out of ideas. Help, experts!

[kozikowski]

Good description, but you left out the microphone. What is it? How is it connected? USB?

If you've been doing this for a long time, did you finally start to fill up your hard drive?

Defrag
-- Right Click Start > Explore > Right Click Local Drive C: > Properties (Used, Remaining)
-- Tools > Error Checking & Defragmentation

Audacity will not run into a badly fragmented hard drive, either. The new larger Audacity may have pushed you over the edge. You need to maintain at least 10% free space for any kind of audio production.

Koz

[gawest]

And I tried SO hard to get all the information included in my first post! Darn!

I'm using a SoundBlaster Live card, with a headphone-mounted mic. A previous version of Audacity continues to work fine. I have recently cleared out lots of space on my C: drive, and I defrag fairly often, but I'll try that and let you know if it helps.

Thanks for yourinput - please continue!
George

[kozikowski]

It's good to know the earlier version works. That eliminates a lot of possibilities. You should go into Audacity Preferences and make sure they're pointed to the same place that your Windows is -- devices. You could also open up your old version and write that down as a reference for y our new one.

Koz

[Macanan]

It didn't see my mic at first then I went through the settings of Audacity and it was showing in there, and clicked apply and it worked from there on.

[gawest]

I just finished defragging C: and there's no change to my problem. Still shows no input from mic, and when I click Record, the cursor doesn't move from the beginning of the track. When I look at Preferences - Devices, my choices are MME and Windows Direct Sound. Both give the same result. For Playback and Recording, I have SB Live Wave Device or Delta 1010LT (a card that I have had installed for a long time but don't use.) When I look in Audacity 1.2.6 to see what the settings are there, I see, under Audio I/O, SoundBlaster Live! Wave Device for both Recording and Playback. (The Delta 1010LT is also listed, but not selected.) As for free space, my C: drive shows 19 gig free out of 75 total, and my F: drive shows 19 free out of 28 gig total. More suggestions?

I guess I should change the "title" of this thread; Audacity "sees" my mic just fine - it shows in the Mixer panel, but there's no signal coming through anywhere. And there's the problem of no cursor movement when trying to record. (?)

[steve]

The problem with Audacity 1.3.12 is still on the same Windows XP computer as you have been using (and still can use) with Audacity 1.2.6?

Audacity "sees" my mic just fine - it shows in the Mixer panel, but there's no signal coming through anywhere. And there's the problem of no cursor movement when trying to record.

That's a better description of the problem

The fact that there is no movement of the cursor suggests that Audacity is waiting for audio data but not getting any. What we need to work out is why that is.
Can you record using "Windows Sound Recorder"?

[gawest]

I don't know how to access Windows Sound Recorder. Where would I be most likely to discover it? And Yes, I'm still using the same Windows XP computer that (still) successfully records with Audacity 1.2.6.

OK, I just found Windows Sound Recorder and I CAN record sound using that utility. Thanks for sticking with me!

[kozikowski]

Just a quick note as we do this, you should restart Audacity every time you make a change like this for the new values to "stick."

There is a note in the help system:

http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php? ... Recordings

But that may not be applicable because you already have a version of Audacity that works.

Koz

[steve]

If Sound Recorder works for both recording and playback, then Audacity 1.3.12 should work if you set:

Edit menu > Preferences > Devices
Host: MME
Playback: Microsoft Sound Mapper
Recording: Microsoft Sound Mapper
Channels: 2 (stereo)

and
Edit menu > Preferences > Quality
Default Sample Rate: 44100 Hz