Tutorial - Selecting Your Recording Device
- Peter 29Jan15: WDM-KS host will not be in 2.1.0
- Peter 24Jul14: Yes I think the page title should be changed and I would opt for a proper "Move" rename rather than a DISPLAYTITLE.
- Peter 28Jul14: I renamed the page with a Move and fixed the related links in other pages - removed the P1.
Now that you know you're getting sound into the computer and you've made your Audacity settings, it's time to set up your recording device.
Setting up the audio host and playback device
Device Toolbar is displayed by default in a new installation of Audacity. If Device Toolbar is not visible, click on .
You may want to expand the size of the Device toolbar by dragging right on the drag handle.
Choose your preferred Audio Host, Recording Device and Playback Device from the dropdown menus. This selects the particular interface with which Audacity communicates with your chosen recording and playback devices.
The "Audio Host" is the interface between Audacity and the sound device. On Windows, the choice is between the following audio interfaces.
- MME: This is the Audacity default and the most compatible with all audio devices.
- Windows DirectSound: This is more recent than MME with potentially less latency.
ToDo-2 will need to restore this if and when WDM-KS support is added back to Audacity.
- Windows WDM-KS: "KS" stands for "kernel streaming" which achieves low latency through bypassing the kernel mixer that is normally used to mix outputs from multiple applications. You may be able to achieve latencies as low as 5 milliseconds by reducing Audio to buffer in Recording Preferences until the sound breaks up, then slightly increase the buffer. When recording overdubs at such low latencies, you'll need to either set the default latency correction in Recording Preferences to zero, or take our Latency Test to set the optimal correction value. 24-bit recording is supported.
Under WDM-KS, only one application is allowed to access the audio device at a time. So for example if you are already playing audio in the browser or another application, you will not be able to play audio in Audacity using the same device that the other application is using.
- Windows WASAPI: should not be selected because these inputs are only "loopback" inputs for recording computer playback on Windows Vista and later.
On Mac OS X the only choice is Core Audio.
On Linux there is often only one option: ALSA. Other options could be OSS and/or Jack Audio Connection Kit (also known as "Jack" or "Jackd").
- On Windows XP or earlier (given a recent computer), DirectSound's much shorter path to the hardware should produce much lower latency than MME.
- On Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8:
- Windows DirectSound may by default have only slightly lower latency than MME.
- Selecting Windows DirectSound or Windows WASAPI and enabling both "Exclusive Mode" boxes in Windows Sound allows Audacity to request audio direct from the device without resampling.
ToDo-2 will need to restore this if and when WDM-KS aupport is added back to Audacity.
- On Windows XP or earlier (given a recent computer), WDM-KS's and DirectSound's much shorter path to the hardware should produce much lower latency than MME.
- On Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8:
- Windows DirectSound and WDM-KS may by default have only slightly lower latency than MME. However WDM-KS can produce latencies as low as 5 milliseconds if you reduce "Audio to buffer" in Recording Preferences as described above.
- Selecting Windows DirectSound or Windows WASAPI and enabling both "Exclusive Mode" boxes in Windows Sound allows Audacity to request audio direct from the device without resampling.
- When using WDM-KS, the currently playing application has exclusive access to the audio device irrespective of Windows "Exclusive Mode" settings. See the Wiki page for Windows 7 for more explanation.
- For output device, choose the named sound device your headphones or speakers are connected to (not a device like Microsoft Sound Mapper that uses the system default device). If you are using a USB-connected guitar, microphone or keyboard on Windows, you may also need to reset the default system playback device to your computer sound device in order to hear audio in other programs.
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Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8 computers almost always only have microphone inputs enabled by default. Earlier Windows systems may also need some inputs to be made visible before Audacity can use them. If your line-in or other inputs are not shown in Device Toolbar, go to the system mixer for Windows Vista or later or Windows XP or earlier, show and enable the missing inputs, then use or restart Audacity. |
Click on , accept the default values in the dialog then click OK: a 30-second tone will be generated into a new track. Press SPACE to begin playback - you should hear a loud tone coming from your computer speakers. You can use the output slider on the Mixer Toolbar to control the volume at which you listen to your Audacity project.
Note that the Playback Meter does not change as you adjust the output slider: this meter always indicate the volume of the mix of your Audacity project.
Setting up the recording device
Now that you know that you can hear what Audacity is playing you can continue setting up for recording.
Choose your preferred recording device from the Recording Device dropdown menu in the Device Toolbar.
In the Recording Channels dropdown menu choose whether you want to record in mono (1 channel) or stereo (2 channels). In general if you are recording a microphone or guitar you will want to record in mono. If you are recording a keyboard and the keyboard has stereo outputs you will want to record in stereo.
Audacity Preferences
If you prefer, you can make the above settings in the Audacity's Preferences. To access this, use
The image below shows the Devices section of Preferences:
There are many other settings that can be made in your Preferences do take some time to explore and understand these.
Links
> Forward to: Tutorial - Making a Test Recording
