Cured Ya!!

squirrel1970 · 27-10-2007, 22:09

I'm currently running Vista (Home Premium) and encountered something the other day that I hadn't previously noticed - it won't record from the soundcard... well, not being one to give up too easily and having gone and looked at the configuration settings, I came up with a solution... one mic cable, male attachments either side and a splitter... in this case, a little attachment I use to connect two pairs of headphones to one mp3 player - and bingo! It works brilliantly!

Just wondering if there's a cableless way of configuring the laptop soundcard so that I don't have to connect a lot of cables, jacks and stuff just to do something (I have a lot of VST instruments...!)

My system works nice now as it is (at home) but, I'll be travelling about soon and I don't want to be connecting up a load of cables... heck, it'll be bad enough that I'm packing sandwiches in my laptop bag aswell.....

(which is big enough and has side pockets....) so I'm sure you'll see my point.. I don't want to trip up over anything....

I should also add, I've been through the device settings more times than I really want to and nothing shows up that I know should be showing up.. devices that require the audio show up on the windows mixer as and when - but NOT vst instruments!

Thanks in advance

dragon · 28-10-2007, 01:11

I'm not sure I get what the problem is....

Is it that there's a line-in jack on the laptop but it doesn't work or that the laptop lacks a Line in but has a microphone socket?

Or that the sockets are there but not enabled.

squirrel1970 · 28-10-2007, 01:22

mic socket works fine - as do the headphones.... its like this...

I can record audio using a microphone and play it back through headphones... I cannot record from the laptop itself... suppose you needed a sound from a website... unless you plug something from the headphone socket into the mic socket... maybe it's a feature, maybe it's a bug, maybe it's something i've overlooked, but there is nothing on the windows mixer in Vista that enables recording to and from the soundcard. All the drivers are uptodate (laptop is a month old and I got fanatical about getting it as uptodate as possible with everything...)

there are only two jacks on the laptop - mic and headphones..

handyman · 28-10-2007, 01:38

I think this has always been the case, however I did have a freebie utility that came with an old sound card that had the function your after. Cant remember what it is called though.

dragon · 28-10-2007, 01:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by cj_abi

mic socket works fine - as do the headphones.... its like this...

I can record audio using a microphone and play it back through headphones... I cannot record from the laptop itself... suppose you needed a sound from a website... unless you plug something from the headphone socket into the mic socket... maybe it's a feature, maybe it's a bug, maybe it's something i've overlooked, but there is nothing on the windows mixer in Vista that enables recording to and from the soundcard. All the drivers are uptodate (laptop is a month old and I got fanatical about getting it as uptodate as possible with everything...)

there are only two jacks on the laptop - mic and headphones..

Ah right I think it depends on the soundcard and if the software supports recording of "what you hear"

squirrel1970 · 28-10-2007, 01:19

yup.. there is no support for 'what you hear'... I guess it means cables all over the place...

dragon · 28-10-2007, 12:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by cj_abi

yup.. there is no support for 'what you hear'... I guess it means cables all over the place...

Sounds like it, usually I think it depends on the soundcard drivers/software to support it.

Unless someone can come up with a "virtual soundcard" type thing or some software to do a loopback.

Alien · 28-10-2007, 15:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by cj_abi

suppose you needed a sound from a website... unless you plug something from the headphone socket into the mic socket...

Why not just save the file from the website, then extract the bit you want?

OldGeezer · 28-10-2007, 15:52

Total Recorder will do what you want. Not free but cheap.

squirrel1970 · 28-10-2007, 19:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alien

Why not just save the file from the website, then extract the bit you want?

Sometimes, that option is not available

---------- Post added at 18:19 ---------- Previous post was at 18:18 ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by OldGeezer

Total Recorder will do what you want. Not free but cheap.

I use Adobe Audition and have done for years.. it's a good solid program, but when the support I need is lacking from the soundcard, then another program isn't the answer - but thanks

Alien · 28-10-2007, 19:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by cj_abi

Sometimes, that option is not available

It's pretty rare that it's not possible to snag a media file from a website, got an example link?

squirrel1970 · 28-10-2007, 22:39

I was thinking audio from say (for example) youtube or dailymotion and those sites that allow you to hear a sound but not download.... (seriously, it's sometimes not worth the hassle of downloading/ripping a file from these sites where I may only need a sample of a second long....) I'm also a fan of online text to speech engines - some of which do not allow you to download what you want the engine to speak!

If there was the support on the soundcard for 'what you hear' (which there isn't) then it wouldn't be an issue... in fact, today, I've left everything set up (and used it) to do what needs to be done... and I've had a wonderful fault-free afternoon

Alien · 29-10-2007, 10:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by cj_abi

I was thinking audio from say (for example) youtube or dailymotion and those sites that allow you to hear a sound but not download....

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4318
Just tested, & works for both youtube & dailymotion.

There's also this 1:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2584
It used to work for youtube, but doesn't any more, but you may find it useful for other sites, & it may do youtube again the next time it gets updated.

Quote:

Originally Posted by cj_abi

(seriously, it's sometimes not worth the hassle of downloading/ripping a file from these sites where I may only need a sample of a second long....)

If it's a big file, 10+ minutes long, then I can see your point, but otherwise it doesn't take long if you have a half-decent computer.

If I wanted to do it, I'd use SUPER to save out just the audio from the .flv, then Audacity to get just the bit I wanted.

Quote:

Originally Posted by cj_abi

I'm also a fan of online text to speech engines - some of which do not allow you to download what you want the engine to speak!

It depends on how it sends the audio data to your PC. If it uses a streamed file [possible, but unlikely with such a short file], then that can be a bit more tricky, but usually it just sends the file but doesn't allow you to save it.

1 drawback of Firefox is that its filenames in the cache folder are meaningless to the human observer. Sometimes you can get around this by dragging a link to the file from Firefox to an associated program & then save from there.

With IE/Maxthon it's a bit simpler. You can either search the temporary internet files for files with the right extension [if you're not sure, sometimes a look at the page's source code can provide the answer], or alternatively search the temporary internet files for all files, then sort according to date & look for 1 that's got the right time & a suitable file size &/or extension.

squirrel1970 · 29-10-2007, 12:39

As I said at some point earlier in this thread... VST instruments are my main priority - and it seems that the windows sound card/mixer doesn't support 'what you hear'... thanks all, but I'll just stick with what I know works for what I'm doing... I don't expect that at some point the 'what you hear' option will appear for Vista... I have explored all the options and I know what I'm happiest with that works for me

It's probably some really bizarre security thing thats yet to be fathomed out and as Vista is still (technically) a 'baby' then as it grows, develops and matures, something will come along thats of use to my system

dragon · 29-10-2007, 19:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by cj_abi

As I said at some point earlier in this thread... VST instruments are my main priority - and it seems that the windows sound card/mixer doesn't support 'what you hear'... thanks all, but I'll just stick with what I know works for what I'm doing... I don't expect that at some point the 'what you hear' option will appear for Vista... I have explored all the options and I know what I'm happiest with that works for me

It's probably some really bizarre security thing thats yet to be fathomed out and as Vista is still (technically) a 'baby' then as it grows, develops and matures, something will come along thats of use to my system

Actually its more down to wether the soundcard drivers support it for instance "what you hear" was actually a feature of creative cards some cards call it loop back and some let you select the line out as the recording input.

Then there's the ones that support none of the above.