Windows 7 Recording What You Hear Function?

[Roy Thomson]

I use Audacity for my recording now that I have
a new computer loaded with Windows 7.

It's all wonderful but last night I found out that
Windows 7 will not allow recording "What You Hear".
Regardless of what Recorder you use?

Anyone else have this problem?

I have checked a few other Forums and there does not
seem to be a simple solution? If at all?

Anyone.....

Thanks

Roy

[Jack Stoner]

What is the new PC?

However, there are SOME new PC's that do not have the "System Mixer", "Stereo Mixer" or as SoundBlaster calls it "What You Hear".

Go to Control Panel, then Hardware and Sound and finally Sound. In the Sound Panel, click on the Recording Tab. If you see the System Mixer (or equivalent) shown, make it the Default Recording Device. If it is not shown, RIGHT click in a blank area on the Panel and then click both the Show Disabled Devices and Disconnected Devices. If you have the System Mixer it will be shown and you can then make it the Default Playback device.

[Roy Thomson]

Thanks Jack!

I will give it a try and see what happens?

UPDATE

I JUST WENT THRU THE ABOVE PROCEDURE AND I GUESS
I DON'T HAVE A SYSTEM MIXER.

Can I enquire about an Windows upgrade or is there
such a thing as an add on?

ROy

[Mitch Drumm]

Roy:

Your general choices are:

1: Put on your sheepskin chaps, bite a bullet, and enter driver hell. Try every Vista driver for your sound card you can find. Install it every way you can think of. Hope to get lucky. Resort to your best Google-fu. That may work, after you have torn out most of your remaining hair.

2: Get another internal sound card that is known to support "what you hear" recording on Windows 7. I think HT Striker and Asus Xonar are 2 such cards.

3: Get a short standard RCA cable and connect your sound card's speaker outputs to the sound card's microphone inputs. This assumes your sound card has those connections.

This situation didn't exist on XP and wasn't this bad on Vista. I think it happens now because your friend and mine, Bill Gates, is playing footsie with those trying to control the sound content on your PC. That would be Hollywood and the recording industry.

But vee haff vays to get around it. See above 1, 2, 3.

[Ken Lang]

I had to take a cord and go from the line out out on the computer back to the input on the computer. That was what I had to do in Vista. Maybe the same in windows 7.

[Roy Thomson]

Thanks to all.

Now I know the facts...and that is so important
in these situations. Saves me a lot of frustration
trying to troubleshoot.

I am going to record from my PC to my external
Roland Digital Recorder and then back through my
line in.

Should work OK?

RT

[Ken Lang]

S0, you're going to take some music you have on your computer and thru the line out to the line in on the external recorder so it will be able to record it.

Then you're going to take a cord out of your external recorder line out, and run it to your computer's line in so you can ? hear it?

Your adding to your digital recorder while it's playing?

Not sure what your doing but it should work.

[Earnest Bovine]

I have
a new computer loaded with Windows 7.

What is the sound card in your new computer?

[Bill Terry]

What brand of PC? Some of the Dell PCs in the past didn't allow this function, it was disabled in hardware somehow. I went through every driver on the planet trying to make it work, finally Jack Stoner (a Dell support guy in some capacity) advised me it just doesn't work with the integrated (on the Motherboard) audio on some Dell computers. The option was to install a third party audio card in a slot and disable the motherboard audio. Maybe Jack will see this thread and chime in.

[Roy Thomson]

My Computer is a "Gateway"

I don't know what sound card is in there?

Roy

[Mitch Drumm]

Look in Device Manager under "sound, video, and game controllers".

You should see something listed as an audio controller.

Right click whatever it is and look at properties to get greater detail. You'll see some reference to a driver version. Then try to find other drivers from the same manufacturer, possibly for earlier versions of Windows. They may work for "what you hear" and they may not.

[Jack Stoner]

Most of the Gateway's I've worked on in the last 10 years (desktops) have used standard components including Intel motherboards, unlike some others that use a lot of proprietary components.

Depending on the age of the PC it could have an ADI198X (Soundmax) integrated sound card, a SigmaTel integrated or a RealTek integrated. Generally, you have to use the PC and/or motherboard Vendor's drivers for the integrated audio systems as they only supply the chips and with the various implementation by the PC and/or motherboard vendor it can vary. It if has a separate PCI sound card it's most likely an OEM version of a retail SoundBlaster and you can use the retail SoundBlaster drivers.

You can tell whether you have the Integrated (on the motherboard) audio or a separate sound card by where the Speaker/Mic/Line In connections are. If they are on the motherboard I/O cluster (where the USB, Ethernet, etc) then you have an Integrated Audio. If it's a separate card it will be located in the expansion area, usually below the motherboard area on the rear.

As I mentioned previously there are some that this function is not available and if this is the case the ONLY alternative is a separate (or new separate) sound card that will do what you want.

[Peter den Hartogh]

By using a loop-back cable you will loose some quality due to several Analog to Digital and Digital to Analog conversions.

A new separate soundcard is a good option and may not be expensive. Maybe the PC shop has one installed on one of their PCs allowing you to check out the mixer functionality.