Audacity - Unable to record

That's an interesting idea - my pc has a "Line-in," as well as a "Mic-in," and it has something called SPDIF out - I don't know if SPDIF will work for the "Line-out" function or not - of course, I also have a "Speaker" output, but I suspect the level would be much too high on that connection -

I think I have one of those Y-adapters around here somewhere, guess I need to dig through the boxes - thanks for the idea, maybe it'll work!

noyb said:

If your Laptop has a Line out (headphone) and a separate Line/Mic in ...
And you can record from Line/Mike in ... (I can't tell from the HP specs ???) ..

Then you should be able to wire around ( Line out >> Line in) ....
With one of These .. and record what you're playing...
Until you can find a working driver with Stereo mix.

You will Not be able to use the internal speakers to monitor the audio ...
They will probably be shut off when you plug into Headphone out.

nood said:

There is a simple solution to this

Open Control Panel and click Sound
Click the Recording tab
In the white area right-click and tick Show Disabled Devices
Stereo Mix appears
Right-click and enable it
Restart Audacity

Thanks Nood! This was the solution on my computer! :)

I have a Gateway NV 52 Laptop Vista / upgraded to windows 7 Conexant HD Stereo Driver. I also would like to use Audacity to record thur the on-board sound chip. There is no stereo mixer or multimedia controller.

I have tried using the speaker out and mic. That won't work. The solution I found was to download Freecorder :)

Freecorder 5 - Free Video Downloader

nuluis said:

Are you using an on-board sound card? It might be your hardware. I have an external m-audio sound card and audacity with no problems recording live or anything else.

well i am using my m-audio synchroscience conectiv card, however when i try to record any mix i make i just hear straigh feedback or static. i dont know what is going on. everyone tells me to set the sample rates but i still have no idea on how to do that and its been going on to 4 days trying to figure this out. can you explain to me what you did?

I used to use Audacity on my older Win XP Pro laptop all the time to record radio shows but on my new Win 7 64 bit machine I was having all kinds of trouble (really low audio when played back, hissing, etc) when trying to record the same shows, until a few minutes ago. This is what I tried and it worked for me. I uninstalled it and when reinstalling I right clicked and selected the "Run as administrator" option. The playback volume still isn't perfect because I have to amplify it, but this setup is pretty close to what I was used to on my Win XP laptop. Hope it works for you guyss too.

I've got the Audacity SE and have tried the "show disabled" solution but "stereo mix" never appers as a choice. Help if anyone has an idea. Win 7 64

I had the same problem (missing "Stereo Mix" for recording w/Win 7, on-board RealTek sound) and fixed it, after much fiddling, by trying various driver versions until it showed up. Apparently the absence of "Stereo Mix" is purposeful and done as part of the DMCA fiasco.

On the off chance that you've got a RealTek setup, here's the driver version that shows "Stereo Mix" for recording (from Device Mangler):
Provider: Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
Date: 8/30/2011
Version: 6.0.1.6449

Hello, my 1st post on this great forum (have been reading a lot). Had to register just to tell the tale about my quest for w7 stereomix recording (never had any problems with xp recording).

This pc is a HP laptop, amd + ADI soundmax. All sound worked well, with either Soundmax or MS driver. First, figured out quickly that the stock MS driver had no stereomix, hidden or not. The Soundmax driver had it hidden, & no problem in getting it active and setting it to default. But still no recording luck, neither Audacity or any other recording programs got any signal, & the stereomix barmeter in control panel > sound > recording was there, but showing no signal.

After some mad reinstallation of drivers and all kinds of experiments and 150 reboots with no luck, when on the verge of reinstalling w7 I found the solution for this particular case: the modem (yes, telephone line) was disabled in bios, and had influence on parts of the audio system. Got a clue when I looked at the 'communications' in sound control ("When windows detects communication activity" > mute all > reduce volume etc). Enabling the modem and restart: Stereo mix alive and well ! Jez.

This may not be of help to anyone with different systems, but it shows how frustrating the setup of stereo recording can be in w7, and it seems like different pc's may need their own special solution. But, at least I can safely say that whatyouhear recording in w7 is possible and works, just a matter of solving riddles.

4wd said:

...I found the solution for this particular case: the modem (yes, telephone line) was disabled in bios, ...

I have no sound when the "Power" service isn't running. Does that make any sense?