Unable to record from the computer.

Alric-Knebel wrote on 10/20/2024, 5:52 PM

I want to record sounds from videos, such as dialogue from movies that are playing on my computer. I have done this with Sound Forge in the past, and today I downloaded Sound Forge 17. I have been trying the different solutions that were recommended from the previous times this question was posed, for earlier versions, and none of them are working. I have Windows 11, and I'm on a HP Pavilion laptop. Some of the options described in these other answers are not available. For instance, one recommendation suggested Options>Preferences>Audio>Audio device type/recorder. That is not what's shown on SF 17 for those options. The meters on the SF 17 screen show no sound coming in.

I have been working on this for about four hours now. Any help would be appreciated.

 

Comments

SP. wrote on 10/21/2024, 2:48 AM

@Alric-Knebel Firstly, you need to make sure, that audio recording is enabled in the Windows security settings or else it will be blocked by Windows. Please check https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/turn-on-app-permissions-for-your-microphone-in-windows-94991183-f69d-b4cf-4679-c98ca45f577a

Secondly, you need to check if your computer's audio device has the ability to record audio from itself. If you press the Windows key and R on your keyboard, you open the Run command window. Type mmsys.cpl and press Enter. This will open the classic Windows sound settings. Navigate to the Recording tab and make sure you have an audio source (for example Stereo Mix or What U Hear) enabled. If nothing is visible try right clicking on the white area and make hidden devices visible via the right click menu.

Thirdly, make sure to set up your audio device drivers correctly in Sound Forge. Usually, a basic driver like Microsoft Sound Mapper should work fine.

If everything works fine but you still don't get sound from certain videos, it may also be important to know that copy protection of some streaming services or other sources may block digital recording of audio.

rraud wrote on 10/21/2024, 10:56 AM

'Some 'PCs just cannot 'record what you hear'. All my Dell PCs allowed it, going back to Win 95, OTOH, I had two Toshiba Satellites that could not without a third-party utility like VB-CABLE
As I recall "Record what you hear" was originally a term used on the old Sound Blaster cards. On many Realtek cards, it is refereed to as "Stereo mix". If that is the case, set you PC's record sound settings to that
For more info, search 'record what you hear' in this forum. There has been many comments on this issue.

btw, welcome to the Magix Sound Forge users community @Alric-Knebel.