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Question

Windows 8 sound problem

Aug 31, 2013 11:14PM PDT

When listening to any sound source like Youtube or BBC iPlayer the quality on this Windows 8 machine, HP Pavilion, is ok. If I record the music on either Audacity or Windows sound recorder the playback sounds weird like the speakers were under water. Tried changing levels but no difference made. Any suggestions, folks?

Discussion is locked

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Answer
This is a deep issue to discuss
Sep 1, 2013 5:38AM PDT

I won't repeat prior discussions about Microsoft trying to protect the audio channels in the OS. The usual hard fix is to get a Y splitter cable on the audio out to the audio in and record it there.

Sorry if you feel shortchanged but there is plenty about this on the Audacity and other forums and I'll skip to the end solution I've used too many times.
Bob

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Answer
Deep issue?
Sep 2, 2013 6:49AM PDT

Thanks for coming back on this and I am sorry to be thick but did not fully understand your helpful suggestion. Are there any links you could give where I can update myself to further understand what you have said in your reply.

The point is that the sound quality is ok when you listen to stuff available on-line. It is only when you record the audio using Audacity or Windows sound recoder that the problem is there on playback. I have tried changing the sampling rate on Audacity with no obvious good effect. I don't see that there can be any question of acoustic feedback as there is no mic and the problem is there when I have the speakers on or off during the recording. I guess the analogue audio signal is being quantified by the software recorder hence my looking at sampling rate but so far nothing has indicated that this could be the cause of the problem. I get the same effect when I download stuff from Youtube and strip off the video. Sounds ok until I load it into Audacity and then on playback the problem appears. I use Audacity to normalise and edit the recordings. So real time recording or downloading and transfer to the recorder same effect, distorted audio on playback. Did not have this problem on my last machine with Windows Vista which makes me wonder if this is another Windows 8 problem..........JR

PS I do re-save the audio in WAV format so could that be anything to do with this problem? I don't think so as the distortion is there on playing the recording on Audacity before I save it.

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Sorry no.
Sep 2, 2013 6:54AM PDT
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protected_Media_Path is just one of thousands of discussions about this area. There are forums for Audacity to be read as well so rather than repeat all that I shortchanged you and shared the fix I use when I need this to work.

You didn't do anything wrong. Microsoft and the industry are trying to lock down this sort of recording and while other drivers might help, I never suggest it since folk tend to break their systems with that advice.
Bob
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Answer
Still a streaming audio problem
Sep 4, 2013 8:59PM PDT

Ok after much fiddling can now load files of music and edit and resave them with no obvious distortion. However distortion very obvious when playing back after recording streaming audio. Not too much of a problem except where you cannot download files as in BBC iPlayer radio. I notice that when recording streaming audio the slider at the top right hand side of the Audacity control panel with the loudspeaker symbol controls recording level which strikes me as being odd. The other slider with the microphone symbol does nothing but then I don't have a mic connected to this machine.........................JR

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So what you are saying is
Sep 5, 2013 1:17AM PDT

I hear you saying the streaming suppliers and Microsoft have succeeded in protecting their content.

I see I shared the usual fix above but there are owners, users and everyone else that can't fathom what is going on here. That is, I could supply reasons and articles for a year and a few won't catch on that it was designed this way.

The fix is known and I see I shared it.
Bob

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Answer
Windows 8 sound problem
Sep 5, 2013 8:14PM PDT

The issue that you are facing might be related to the audio settings and the
recording settings. You can go to control panel and make the recording
settings as default or else you can uninstall the audio drivers and then
restart the computer and install the drivers again to get the default
settings

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Answer
Stero mix
Sep 6, 2013 5:05AM PDT

Thanks on checking only stero mix is enabled. Windows says drivers are up to date..................JR

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Answer
Another recorder works ok!
Sep 7, 2013 4:44PM PDT

As an experiment I have downloaded a trial copy of Wondershare streaming audio recorder. This does not produce the distortion that I am hearing with Windows recorder or Audacity. So I can download music with Wondershare and then transfer the file and edit with Audacity but it is strange that Wondershare works ok in Windows 8 and Audacity and Windows own recorder has this problem. Someone has suggested that Beats Audio on this machine may be at fault..............JR

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I agree.
Sep 8, 2013 2:45AM PDT

But it's very important to report these failures to the Audacity developers. Otherwise they won't know there's something to tweak for this model.
Bob

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Answer
Not just Adacity
Sep 8, 2013 3:52AM PDT

Windows Sound Recorder gives the same bad results and I have posted on the Audacity forum too........JR

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I belive VLC player
Sep 8, 2013 4:16AM PDT

will record streaming content. Bob Knows ! Mischief

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I've had limited success with that.
Sep 8, 2013 6:01AM PDT

The thing about this area is to never restrict yourself to one title. As they found another title that gets around what is going on but unless folk report this in to the Audacity authors, no one will look into a fix.
Bob