I can’t record streaming audio or any other sounds going to my speakers. I’ve spent the last hour or two googling and trying various options and different audio programs, but the long and the short of it is that I can’t record system audio.
There’s no “Stereo Mix” option in the Recording tab under Control Panel/Sound. The SB card has “Auxiliary,” which I assumed would be the same thing, but when I select it as default, and/or select it in the recording programs, it doesn’t record anything. I’ve tried using the audio from Youtube videos and the playback of an audio file on my hard disk as tests. (The programs do record from the mike of my Webcam.)
I’ve e-mailed Creative’s technical support, but I’m not hopeful. Do you have any suggestions? Thanks.
Dell Precision T3400
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
Sound Blaster Audigy SE card, latest drivers
This is a common problem and different systems will have different solutions, but if you’ve done a fair bit of Googling already, you’ve probably tried many of them without luck.
In that case, you could try a software-based solution like Virtual Audio Cable, which gives you a virtual (software-only) “sound card” that can record.
Or you could buy a short 3.5mm audio cable and connect it from the headphone jack to the microphone jack on your card and record things that way.
Right-click on the speaker icon. Select recording devices. Right-click in the record devices list window. Select “Show disabled devices.” Right-click and enable stereo mix.
Reply: I tried VAC, but even though I’ve worked as an audio engineer, I found it very complicated and hard to understand, and I’m not sure it will do what I want in any case.
While that’s the general formula, a lot of soundcards had this ability stripped out of their drivers for Windows 7 to try to prevent copyright problems. That’s why software solutions like the one Reply mentions exist.
The only freeware one I found on a quick search was Freecorder 4, but it’s a web browser plugin, so I don’t recommend it.
There’s also JACK, which is free. It’s a little tricky to set up, but it lets you send the audio from a program anywhere you want, like sending the audio from your browser to the input of your recording software. If you want you can even do things like disconnect the audio from your browser and still be able to listen to music. Yay! No more “Congratulations, you’ve won!” covering up the quiet bits in Dark Side of the Moon.
There are interfaces available for it that look like a patchbay, with all inputs on one side and all outputs on the other so you can just connect them with virtual “wires”.
That’s a real pisser, because I bought this sound card specifically because I thought that the problem was with the computer’s onboard sound hardware. I’ve tried taking the SB out and going back to the onboard sound and looking for “Stereo Mix,” but it’s not there. Since the SB does nothing for me that the onboard system doesn’t, I haven’t bothered putting it back.
Tried it, didn’t work, and even if it had, I didn’t like it much.
I did find this, which does work, but costs $30 for the non-hobbled version. If I can’t find anything else that’s free and relatively easy to use, I may pay for it.
I use a product from this company, which specializes in streaming media capture. (The one I actually use does not seem to be in production any more, but they offer several different bundles of more up-to-date software, at least one of which ought to meet your needs.)
