trouble recording in Audacity

[Chuck Engels]

Ooops, I just remembered that I have SoundMax audio, not SigmaTel

[Jayell]

Well that is just strange, don't you love computers

Well .. about 85% of the time

Just to wander into this audio thing a little further, since I have a -10 understanding of it. I always thought that if you had your headphone plugged in, any sounds from the computer came through that headphone.

Just now I was doing some video editing in PE2. My USB headphone/mic was plugged in. The sound from the PE2 video came through my normal computer speakers. But when the Avast once again updated, THAT sound came through the headphone. And if I play some music from my hard drive (using Windows Media), it plays through the headphones. Huh?

[Chuck Engels]

Have you tried a normal mic and headphone that plugs into the mic and headphone jacks on your computer?
I never liked those USB ones much and you are confirming my suspicions.

[Jayell]

Yes, Chuck .. a normal mic works OK. I've just been trying to figure out whether my almost new USB has gone south .. or whether there was some other issue. Thanks for your guidance along the way

[Chuck Engels]

It sure does seem like there is some problem there. Can you take it back and get a different one?
What brand is it, maybe we can do some checking around.

[Jayell]

I can find no brand name on it .. made in China. The headset came with my Rosetta Stone software. It only had a 30-day warranty on it. They offered to sell me another one Guess I'll go back to my regular mic .. and forget about it. Just wanted to make sure I'd checked out all my options.

[Jayell]

This gets stranger all the time. Since it won't record my voice, but DID record the Avast audio, I decided to play some music from my hard drive (using Windows Media Player). With the headset plugged in .. the music coming through the headset .. it DOES record that (softly, but it does record). I am sooooo confused . That would seem to tell me that the mic is not working (since the headset plays sound just fine). But then how is it recording what's coming through the headset?

Edit: What I just discovered is that this allows me to record sounds from my computer, Internet, etc. Pretty poor quality (which I'll play with a little) .. but interesting discovery!