Audio: Stereo Mix Recording Option in Windows Vista

[Mike Elmore]

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Want help related to audio recording in Windows Vista. In Windows XP I can still manage to make the recording option through Stereo and Mono. But in Vista I cannot find anything related to that. I had two speakers here, where I can hear the different. I work for a advertising firm where I had to manipulate a number of changes in audio. I am looking for settings that can allow me to setup two option in Windows Vista. The first one is Microphone and the second one is Line Input. I want help to configure Stereo or Mono Mix on my choice at the time of recording.

[Malcolm H]

That is one of the reason I had not upgraded to Windows Vista. Compared to that I found Windows XP as one of the best OS till yet. I too work for audio editing. There are number of changes that I have to make with third party software. Now the solution which you are asking is only possible through different software. I am not sure whether Vista has something internally. There are tools on web that you have to search based on your requirement. Answering a few of them here is not worth at all. There are also advance tool that allow you to make changes on existing recording hardware also. Try to find something on Google.

[watercress_soup]

I was actually looking for the same. I do not know there is a fix available for that. I hope to get some better update on it. Also is there a another way to use this thing. I want to manage my recording on the basis of Stereo and Mono Mix. I have a 3.55 stereo to stereo cable used in my system. I am sure there will be something that that I can usually try to make my job much better. If anyone has any answer on this please post here urgently.

[Uber Q]

I can provide you some settings that can help you to make that thing work. And this settings are for Windows Vista. For that go in Control Panel and look for Sound. You have to click on Classic for that. This is the view by which you can see the list of all icons inside it. you can search the same also. Now in the sound right click and choose Show Disabled Device. You have to do that in the blank area. Here you can see Stereo Mix. This is by default disabled and you can enable it. Once you are done check back your audio recordings. Hope this can help. If this solution works for you, there is no need to look for a third party software.

[pierrer]

My friend has deal with the same issue long time before. He owns a Dell Dimension 9200 laptop. It has Windows Vista in it with onboard sigmatel audio card. He called me long time before to find the stereo mix option in this laptop. It was a new one and he expected to have that by default. We had wasted hours to find that thing. I had checked all the settings, but there was no option available where you can change the mode to Stereo. After referring a number of websites we were not able to find anything on it. Now we had asked Dell for help. They ask to pay nice hourly fee to fix the thing. I had already posted this query on many forums, but there was no appropriate solution yet available. The stereo option showed in the sound settings was grayed out. Now after talking to Dell's Technician after paying we were shock to find that he was not at all aware about the same. That was the complicated situation that we had faced and still not able to find proper answer for it. I am unsure why Windows Vista miss such a important update in its system. For those who work on audio editing has to face many issue. You cannot simply rely on any third party option that can allow you to fix this thing. As it is the hardware thing. And for laptop upgrades are more costly. There must be clear indication at the time of buying that this type of laptop does not own a Stereo mix feature.

[JET (DOGman) KIRK]

It is not all included in Vista. I am too shock to find that Microsoft missed this thing. I work for a company which offers free tech support through website. Now I had received around hundreds of emails that says me the same issue. The users suffering from the issue also mentioned in quoted text the reply that they receive from their manufacturer. Most of them ask for a fee and yet no guarantee to solve that. I think using some kind of usb sound card can give you the option that you are looking for.

[rock4ever]

Mine is Sony Vaio which has the same Sigmatel Integrated Audio installed. The thing is that you must not buy such laptops. You must look for a sound card that offer you stereo support and surely the devices that we own a simply garbage. I am for temporary basis using a software called as REPLAY AV8. This tool helps you to capture streaming audio instantly. Try this out, and I hope it can help you.

[elly110]

I too was frustrated and mad, But I figured out a solution. Hope this will work for you.

I followed some of there steps above. but it too, did not work for me.
I will give you all the steps I took to fix it so I can record like before in xp with stereo settings. Without using line in


Click Control panel....click sounds....make classic view
Click recording tab.....Right click on white part, Check mark show disabled devices

This is what you should see:
Micraphone /line in
Micraphone Array
Playback Capture

Now = Click Micraphone Array make it your default
Click Playback Capture....make this your default now
Click Micraphone Array.....click to disable

This is what you should see now:
Micrahone /lin in ........ currently unavailable
Micraphone Array....... disabled
Playback Capture....... working

Now all you have to do is set the settings of your recording software to this.
It worked for me. Hope it workes for you...Please let me know if it helped. I feel your pain

[DaGnarlyman]

To elly110.
I can't quite understand the way you write "This is what you should see".
I tried to follow your instructions,but my screen looks a bit different.
I didn't work for me....can you explaine it a bit differently:-)

[djhead]

to elly110 thank you so much for the info just got win 7 arfter many months had xp before so different and thanks to you i can do what i want to do now

[Alanka]

I found I could not get my Toshiba laptop running Windows Vista to record sounds internally, despite trying to follow all the tutorials and advice given. I even downloaded special software that claimed to solve the problem -- with negative results.

So in the end I decided to try a simple hardware solution -- I bought a 3.5mm-to-3.5mm stereo jack lead for £1.56 on eBay and connected the headphone output directly to the microphone input, et voila!

Big Al