Just because it's not been asked before (?) - "Stereo Mix"

Okay, this one was beaten to death on this forum before I could even spell "Windows 7" let alone had installed it.

But today I wanted to invest 49 seconds or so to record a sound clip from the web, and one failure and lots of research later, I've discovered that my sound card (if that's what it's called on my computer) - "high definition audio device" - does not support the "stereo mix" option needed to record sound that's being fed to the speakers.

Looks like the only two options are to update the driver (just following the Windows prompts for this tells me my driver is up to date) or purchase i-Sound Recorder from i-Sound Recorder for Windows 7 and Windows Vista

So now that I've proved that I'm up to speed on "conventional wisdom" I am hoping against hope that a better solution exists. Ideas?

Barman58 said:

One thing to check is to right click on the "recording Devices" tab and check the "show hidden Devices" checkbox

Quite often the "Stereo Mix" or "What you hear" is hidden even when it is available

Yeah, I tried that and no luck. The only available devices are two microphones and a line in, all of which are "enabled." Nothing hidden.

I had forgotten about Audacity as an option. Great program, and looks like it does what I'm trying to do - although I have not yet confirmed this.

450125 said:

I had forgotten about Audacity as an option. Great program, and looks like it does what I'm trying to do - although I have not yet confirmed this.

Darn. Same problem with Audacity.

My sense is that I need a new sound card - not a desired road to go - or a new driver that supports my sound card.

How/where would I find such a driver? Again, Windows tells me that the driver is up to date.

Have you tried to install the driver in compatibility mode?

Have you tried a Vista driver?

Go to the sound card manufacturer's web site and get every possible driver and try them all. A lot of this is trial and error, but you may ultimately fail---in which case:

You might have luck by running an RCA cable from speaker outs to microphone in.

An external USB sound card is pretty cheap ($35).

I've discovered that my sound card (if that's what it's called on my computer) - "high definition audio device" - does not support the "stereo mix" option needed to record sound that's being fed to the speakers.

Looks like the only two options are to update the driver (just following the Windows prompts for this tells me my driver is up to date)

It shows as that because you haven't installed the driver for it yet, and it is just using the default Windows sound driver. Also why it wouldn't update through Device Manager.

Assuming the motherboard in your specs,

GIGABYTE - Motherboard - Socket 1156 - GA-H55M-S2V (rev. 1.4)

It has the Realtek ALC888 on it and you can find links to the latest driver for it here,

Latest Realtek HD Audio Driver Version

stormy13 said:

It shows as that because you haven't installed the driver for it yet, and it is just using the default Windows sound driver. Also why it wouldn't update through Device Manager.

Assuming the motherboard in your specs,

GIGABYTE - Motherboard - Socket 1156 - GA-H55M-S2V (rev. 1.4)

It has the Realtek ALC888 on it and you can find links to the latest driver for it here,

Latest Realtek HD Audio Driver Version

Thanks, much appreciated.

But I'm still left confused.

Your link to the Realtek sound drivers then has a couple download links in it. Clicking on either takes me to a Realtek main site or mirror of it.

Then I have to search for ALC888.

I eventually (pages load VERY slowly) get to a page that has the following:

Vista, Windows7 Driver (32/64bits) Driver only (Executable file)R2.602011/5/686020k HK1 US1 CN2

The three links at the end all are javascript:void(0)

I click on each (they're all download mirrors) and nothing happens. This is in FF 4, with the adblock turned off. I cannot even get that far in IE.

So I'm at the page from which I ostensibly can download the driver, but it won't let me - which doesn't give me a lot of confidence in what will happen if I run it.

Any ideas what I'm missing or doing wrong?