# Windows 7 Audio Input - Stereo Mix - Line In - Help please



## TheSkymouse (Jan 12, 2012)

Hi,
i am totally stumped, and would appreciate some help. 
i have an acer aspire 5742/win7 64HPrem./realtek HD audio onboard. 
all i want to do is plug a 3.5mm jack into the mic input and record some mixes (of my own) from my other laptop using Audacity. 
I can use audacity ok, so i dont think its that. 

So, the input works as the mic input, but of course the sound quality is very poor and very distorted. 
so i need to turn the mic input into a line-input .
So i un-hid Stereo Mix and enabled it, and disabled the mic.
i can select Stereo Mix in audacity, but there is no input still. Nothing. 

i have read now loads of forum posts about this, and it all seems oddly complicated. Surely it cant be that hard to do?? It was easy in XP.. 

I also updated the drivers from Realtek to the very latest (previous ones from 2010). Now however, i have totally lost Stereo Mix. It isnt there anymore (as some forum posts warned in fact). 

So, in summary, please can anyone help me to get decent audio quality into my laptop? 
It must be possible....

Thanks in advance for any help.


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## Noyb (May 25, 2005)

TheSkymouse said:


> .. the input works as the mic input, but of course the sound quality is very poor and very distorted ..


I'm a little confused .. let me try a guess.
The Mic in is High gain .. You might be overloading it .... Clipping distortion ???
Try turning down the source input level ... and adjust the other gains.

I'm wondering why you just don't move the sound file from the other computer rather than re-recording it ??

And Welcome to the TSG Forum


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## WorkerGuy (Jan 30, 2012)

I have the same laptop (Acer Aspire 5742/Win 7 Home Premium/Realtek Audio) and a very similar problem. 

Everything I record with either the built in mic or with a headset mic plugged into the 3.5 mm jack is extremely poor and distorted. The distortion seems slightly worse using the headset mic but the difference is not great. Voice recognition does not work at all and in fact I can barely make out what I record myself.

The sound recording was fine when I first got the laptop a few weeks ago. I have downloaded the latest Realtek drivers from Acer (6.0.1.6141) and after uninstalling the drivers and reinstalling the sound worked for a day but it then deteriorated again.

Thanks,


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

Why did you change the drivers? Drivers aren't something that should be changed, unless there is a compelling reason.

But if the previous drivers worked better, try rolling back and using those.


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## WorkerGuy (Jan 30, 2012)

Sorry I should have been more clear. The sound became distorted before I reinstalled the Realtek drivers. I reinstalled the Realtek drivers in an attempt to solve the problem.

I should note that I have just removed the Realtek drivers and gone to the Windows High Definition Audio Device drivers (driver version 6.1.7601.17514). That has solved the distortion problem but my recorded levels are very low. I've got the recording level at 100 and the boost at +30db but the recording is still very faint. At least it is understandable though.


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## Noyb (May 25, 2005)

Try turning the source sound level down and the recording volume up.


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## TheSkymouse (Jan 12, 2012)

REF: WorkerGuy
HI Guys. So the solution to this seems to be that teh input is only any good for microphone and NOT for line in purposes. 
So i gave this up and now i'm using a Tascam Us-144 interface. This is now great and teh sound quality is perfect. 
It seems that there is no way to get a quality line-in signal directly into the laptop. i have scoured numerous forums and most people seem to be saying that i am dumb to be trying any other way. 

You can buy cheap USB soundcards (cheaper than the Tascam). I saw one for about £30 the other day with multiple inputs. This must be the simplest choice, and you know its going to work for definite, 
Cheers for teh comments and help everyone.


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