What the hell is wrong with my computer?

[Alyn]

OK, I'm new and didn't really know where best to put this, so the newbies section seemed to feel right. OK, here's my problem, I've posted this a couple of other places with no sucessfull responces:

I'm using Acid Pro 4.0 for all mixing purposes, I also have Soundforge 7.0 for any editing/tweeking and Fuityloops 3.56 which I use for drum programming.

My problem is I can't record anything without recroding any other sounds on my computer, I.E. the click track/drum part, which I'm using to keep time.

I think the problem is this:

OK, as you can see, the currently selected option is "Stereo Mix", the problem is it won't let me change the selection, no matter what it stays on "Stereo Mix", any ideas what this is? Could this be a problem with my soundcard or just a software/options problem?

Any help will be very very very much appreciated!

Cheers in advance,

Alyn

 

[JeffLancaster]

Hmm...Are you sure you don't have it set to play the click track both when recording and playing back? I don't know Acid, but there's an option for that in Sonar.

 

[Alyn]

Nah, that's definately not the problem, the same occurs even if I use windows sound recorder or Sound Forge to record the sample, and it can literrally be any sound playing on my computer, for example, if I got an error message, the error beep would record, if I was (although I obviously wouldn't) playing somthing in media player/iTunes it would record that. It's like it's recording the output of the soundcard instead of the input of the line in.

 

[JeffLancaster]

When you installed your soundcard drivers, did it install one of those 3rd-party control panel utilities. Sometimes those things will over-ride the windows control like the one you showed. Perhaps there's some weird setting in there telling it to send all output back into the input.

Have you checked your soundcard connections? You didn't accidently connect one of your outputs to an input did you? (No, I don't mean to insult your intelligence, but sometimes we all make a dumb mistake and fail to check it).

 

[Alyn]

By all means, insult my intelligence, as long as I eventually solve this annoying problem

I personally didn't install the soundcard drivers, it was done when I got the computer, do you know of any way in which I could check what you are talking about? As for what's plugged into my sound card, only the pre-amp into the line in and the speakers in the line out. Or do you mean actually inside the computer?

Thanks for helping by the way!

 

[JeffLancaster]

If you have Windows XP, try clicking on Start | Control Panel, and look for something in there. For example, on the laptop I'm working on at the moment I have an icon in there entitled "Turtle Beach Audio Advantage". If I click on this, I get a special little program that configures different options on the little USB sound card I have on here. Now I don't think there's any setting I could select in there which would route the output back into the input, but you never know what settings you might find in any given sound card's control program.

As far as the physical connectors go, I was referring to the cables hooked to your card. If you have a large tangle of cables behind your computer, it could be possible to accidently plug a cable going from an output into an input.

Not sure what else to tell you to check, unfortunately. Maybe someone who uses Acid for recording knows about settings in there...

 

[Alyn]

Nope, unless I'm missing something there's nothing like that on my control panel:

I've checked what is plugged into my computer and all is normal.

Again, thanks for helping, but sadly, still no banana.

 

[cpl_crud]

what soundcard are you using?

 

[whjr15]

my buddy had that same exact problem... i think...

lets say you have 2 tracks recorded so far, drums and bass. Now youre trying to record the guitar... On that guitar track, would both the drums and bass be present? Like not just "headphone bleed volume," but actually as loud as it is on the other tracks?

If thats the problem, i'll ask him what he did to fix it, as i have never ran into that problem myself thankfully.

 

[Alyn]

Realtek AC97 apparently:

It's the one that came with my computer.

 

[Alyn]

my buddy had that same exact problem... i think...

lets say you have 2 tracks recorded so far, drums and bass. Now youre trying to record the guitar... On that guitar track, would both the drums and bass be present? Like not just "headphone bleed volume," but actually as loud as it is on the other tracks?

If thats the problem, i'll ask him what he did to fix it, as i have never ran into that problem myself thankfully.

Yes, that is EXACTLY the problem! Cheers man!

 

[cpl_crud]

I'd like to say put some concrete in your coffee, harden the fuck up, and buy a decent soundcard, but that's probably just the sake talking.

The realtek lines are for onbaord sound, and hence don't really have the capability to do anything of any use to anyone, let alone allow you to configure it to work properly.
It seems to me that you've got some form of audio stream recording enabled. I do believe that the AC97 "cards" have a third-party software client that looks after it. It's usually located in the taskbar. Look for anythign along the liknes of "recording source", and make sure that anything along the lines of "waht u hear" is disabled (those are creative terms, however I get teh feeling that realtek does a lot of cloning from creative).

Basically, what's happening is that the soundcard is telling windows what it will and won't record, so playing wit hte hwindows settings won't help you much. To solve the problem requires poking around with teh realtek settings. Unfortunately, I have 0 experience with these and can't help.

Crud

 

[Alyn]

All I can find is this:

But the only relevant option on there is "Select recording source" which simply opens the windows volume controll still with the same problem.

Thank you everyone, I know I should get a new soundcard but I'm just a poor student, I can't afford one at the moment, although my brithday is coming up, is there any particular one you could recomend (cheaper the better)?

I'll keep looking!

Cheers

 

[ssscientist]

I can't afford one at the moment,

If you can't afford a decent soundcard you can't expect to plague us with your troubles dealing with a cheap one.

Good PCI sound cards can be had for less than $100 --- LINK --- and if you can't beg, borrow or find $100 somewhere you don't deserve all that pirated software you listed.

 

[Alyn]

I didn't actually put the software on my computer and it's been there years, everything else on my computer is legit, and I do have a legit version of Nero Sountrax which I could use. I don't in any way condone piracy. I don't have £100, there's other things I need which cost less than that I also can't buy.

 

[cpl_crud]

I'll think you'll find the crux of your problem is the recording buss on your soundcard. There should be a way to seperate the playback and recording busses, but then again, with a cheap, on-board soundcard, there simply might not be enough circuitry to do it.

One thing I'm fairly certain of though is that this is a hardware issue, or at least a driver issue (maybe try downloading hte latest drivers/software- maybe they have a fix)

If you insist on keeping the AC97, and seriosuly can't get an audiophile, let me know. My mobo has an AC97 on it, I've just disabled it. Admitedly, I use Cubase, so my solution might not work on your box, but, eh, you can only try, right?

 

[Alyn]

Cheers man! You're a great help! I'll look into getting a new soundcard around the time of my birthday, thing is I really want a Router as I'm trying to teach myself how to build a guitar, hence money being short, plus uni on top of that doesn't help.

I'll have a look round for a new driver, see what happens.

Cheers for all the help!

Al

 

[NYMorningstar]

Double click the little yellow speaker in the lower right corner. Go to options/properties. Select recording and check only line-in. Above all, make sure "what you hear" is unchecked.

 

[Alyn]

Um, by little yellow speaker I assume you mean the grey one by the clock on my desktop as I can't find a yellow one anywhere. There isn't a "what you hear" option anywhere. Other than that, what is selected is simply which volume controlls are visible, not which are going to be recorded. I've also tried turing "Stereo Mix" to 0 and Line In up, the problem is I then don't get anything recorded at all.

 

[NYMorningstar]

Um, by little yellow speaker I assume you mean the grey one by the clock on my desktop as I can't find a yellow one anywhere. There isn't a "what you hear" option anywhere. Other than that, what is selected is simply which volume controlls are visible, not which are going to be recorded. I've also tried turing "Stereo Mix" to 0 and Line In up, the problem is I then don't get anything recorded at all.

I'm sorry, I didn't see your the picture you posted earlier but anyhow the recording control panel is what I needed you to look at. You should be able to select other options besides stereo mix. If you can't then I'd say you need to reinstall the drivers for the soundcard.