Recording mic/stereo mix at the same time

[auzer666]

"Stereo Mix" is "stereo" (not surprisingly), so if you are playing stereo audio and recording stereo mix, then it will record on both channels.
If you are recording with stereo mix and the sound that is playing is panned all the way over to one side, then you can record that in one channel, so what you need to do is to have your microphone connected to a stereo input and have that panned all the way over to one side, and your other sound panned all the way over to the other side, then you will get your voice in one channel and the other sound in the other channel.

I'm not quite following either.

Are we talking about recording computer playback and mic simultaneously by playing the mic through the speakers then recording stereo mix? If so and you mean a single input stereo jack, that needs a balance control on the mic input which a lot of machines don't have these days.

Or do you mean a recording interface with separate Left and Right, mic into one input and cable from audio out into the other input, recording from the interface?



Gale

I wanna record calls made with Skype. I want my voice to be on one channel, and the other person's voice/any other sound to be on the other channel. And I'd like to record in WAV, 16-bit, 44.1k.

And I wanna do this without having to buy anything. Which, I don't think is unreasonable, since I can already do this with a simple Skype recorder, just not in WAV.

How can I accomplish this?

[Gale Andrews]

I know what you want, I was asking what Steve meant

How are you (auzer666) recording mic and stereo mix at the same time now (as one stereo mix)?


Gale

[auzer666]

I know what you want, I was asking what Steve meant

How are you (auzer666) recording mic and stereo mix at the same time now (as one stereo mix)?


Gale

Oh. Lol.

I can record mic and stereo as one mix with Audacity. I just can't figure out how to record separate channels.

[kozikowski]

I can record mic and stereo as one mix with Audacity.

Since no normal mortal can do that, we're asking you how you did it.
Koz

[Gale Andrews]

@Koz, the obvious way you do it is by playing the mic through to the speakers then recording stereo mix.

@auzer666, have you got two computers?

Have you tried recording stereo mix with one program (not sending the mic playback to stereo mix) and recording the mic with another program? It ought to work if the computer is fast enough. I've just done it with Audacity 1.0 and 2.0.4 alpha (the reason for 1.0 being that later versions would stop two two instances of the Audacity executable running).

I found synchronisation was reasonable over 5 minutes.

But you can record with some other program and current Audacity in any case.

Then you have to import the two mono recordings into Audacity, make stereo using the Track Control Panel and see what it sounds like.


Gale

[auzer666]

I can record mic and stereo as one mix with Audacity.

Since no normal mortal can do that, we're asking you how you did it.
Koz

Lol.

Well, it looks like Audacity has saved my settings I was using earlier to do it, but if this doesn't work for you let me know and I'll double-check to make sure these settings are correct.

Windows Direct Sound as the audio host - Speakers as the output - Primary Sound Capture Driver as the input

And for my Windows sound options, I think the only thing I did was enable Stereo Mix for recording devices.

[auzer666]

@Koz, the obvious way you do it is by playing the mic through to the speakers then recording stereo mix.

@auzer666, have you got two computers?

Have you tried recording stereo mix with one program (not sending the mic playback to stereo mix) and recording the mic with another program? It ought to work if the computer is fast enough. I've just done it with Audacity 1.0 and 2.0.4 alpha (the reason for 1.0 being that later versions would stop two two instances of the Audacity executable running).

I found synchronisation was reasonable over 5 minutes.

But you can record with some other program and current Audacity in any case.

Then you have to import the two mono recordings into Audacity, make stereo using the Track Control Panel and see what it sounds like.


Gale

Yes, I have 2 computers, but they're dekstops and in different rooms.

No, I haven't tried that, but it sounds like it would work. You're saying I need 2 computers in order to do it, though?

[Gale Andrews]

You need two computers each running one recording program, or one computer running two recording programs.

Or a program that records multiple sources at the same time which is (possibly) what Kristal does.


Gale

[auzer666]

Damn. This is more complicated that I thought.

I think I'm just gonna go with the record that will do it as an MP3. Question, though...if I import the MP3(256kpbs, 16-bit, 44.1k) and then edit it, what should I export it as? Same settings? As a WAV? Does it matter?

Also, as far as quality goes, I've read that MP3 compression affects mainly the highs and lows in a file. So, since I'm gonna be recording voices, would the quality still be good as an MP3?

I've already tested it, and it sounds pretty good to me, but my sound set up is very low end, so...

[steve]

auzer666, please get out of your mind that what you really want to do is simple - it's not. The Windows sound system is a basic in/out affair, and that is fine for what it is designed for. Skype works, Audacity works, and your voice changer program works. They are not designed to all work together.

I'm not quite following either.

Going back to the original question:
"Can I use Audacity to record my mic and stereomix at the same time, putting my voice from the mic into it's own channel, and putting the stereo mix in a separete channel, so that I can go back and edit them individually?"

This is not a question about Audacity, this is a question about routing sound signals and as I wrote previously, the Windows sound system probably can't do this without a lot of help.

The approach that I would take is not to use Stereo Mix at all, but to run all of the audio that I want to record through a mixing desk. Then I can pan each audio source left/right as required.

If auzer666 has a really fast i5 computer (with hardware virtualization), then he can probably do what he wants by running Linux as the host system, with Jack audio system, and running the voice changing software in a virtual machine under Windows, and then using "Jack Control" to route all of the audio signals as required *** but this is not simple ***