Bad sound using Stereo Mix

[wildbill001]

Win 7 Pro
IDT HD Audio Codec v6.10.6341.0 (supposed to be the latest/greatest)

My problem is, unlike lots of others, I am able to record via Stereo Mix. BUT in playing it back in Audacity, it sounds "flat" or tinny. No midrange, very little bass. I've made sure all settings match as far as sample, bit-rate, etc. I've spent the last few hours searching the forum with no luck.

Anyone have any ideas? I did notice that in the sound control panel under Advanced in the properties tab, that the default format lists 2 channel, 16bits, CD Quality. There are lots of other choices involving DVD quality and Studio Quality but whenever I select those I get "format not supported by this device."

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Bill W

[kozikowski]

Just to cover the bases, so you have the Windows Conferencing Services turned off?

http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/FAQ: ... hancements

This can also be a symptom of your sound system being wired wrong.

http://www.kozco.com/tech/LRMonoPhaset4.wav
The last segment is intentionally damaged to sound weird, if the third segment sounds weird instead, you have a sound system problem.

Koz

[wildbill001]

Well, that sounded ok. The last segment did sound "odd" but everything else seems to be ok.

Now to add to the mystery, I got freecorder and tried that. Awesome sound from that compared to the same recording in Audacity. Yet, audacity plays back the freecorder mp3 just fine. I can live with freecorder for now but would like to have "my audacity sound" back. I have a sneaky feeling the issue is this hP laptop. My previous HP laptop did fine. When I had to switch to the current laptop is when the sound got bad.

Sometimes i just hate computers......

Bill W

[kozikowski]

Do both the red recording meters and the green playback meters jump when you make a recording? Do you have Playthrough selected in Audacity Preferences? Koz

[PGA]

I have a sneaky feeling the issue is this hP laptop. My previous HP laptop did fine. When I had to switch to the current laptop is when the sound got bad.

Your original description of the sound that you hear is typical of many laptops. Some models can deliver "reasonable" sound and others cannot. Have you tried plugging in some proper loudspeakers or listening on headphones?

[wildbill001]

Yes, meters move on both record and playback.

Yes, I've tried both good speakers and good headphones. Anything recorded with Audacity is "flat". Anything recorded with freecorder (using the Aldian codec or whatever it is called) is terrific.

I'm baffled by it. Is it ok to post samples? I can whip some up if it is.

Bill W

[steve]

Is it ok to post samples?

Yes, that can be helpful. Try to keep them fairly short samples.
See here for how to post them: http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... 77#p176977

[wildbill001]

Two files, one recorded via Audacity, one via Freecorder. Freecorder saved the file as mp3. I brought it into Audacity to trim it down to size and saved as a 16-bit PCM wav file. The Audacity recording was also trimmed and saved as a 16-bit PCM wav file.

[steve]

I agree that the Audacity recording does not sound good, but it does not sound bad enough to indicate that you are doing anything wrong or that there is any actual "fault". The difference between the two recording is, as far as I can tell, just the difference between the "sound card" that is being used.
Audacity uses your real (IDT HD) sound card, but Freecorder bypasses the sound card and uses a "virtual" sound card to record from.

Try applying the Normalize effect to the Audacity recording with these settings:

Normalize.png (20.73 KiB) Viewed 9508 times

[kozikowski]

It sounds like Audacity is the "real," flat-sounding, off-balance one (especially after you adjust the L and R levels) and FreeCorder has gone through one of the "Concert Hall" effects. I posted elsewhere that we had a new computer in the shop and everybody logged in to get used to it. One of the other techies left a concert hall effect running by accident and I tried to do critical sound tests. I failed.

"I'm not sending sound down the left channel, where the frog is it coming from?"

Avery Fisher Hall #2, I believe.

Koz