Windows 10 has ruined my life

Jacquerie · Post by **Jacquerie** » July 15th, 2017, 4:40 pm

Well, I suspect the recent upgrade has ruined my recordings anyway. There's a loud background sound now and it sounds like I'm recording in a tunnel (I'm not). I've tried all the usual adjustments to my Yeti Blue mic, the audio settings, noise cancellation, echo suppression, etc. The mic test said my mic signal was low, so I went online searching solutions but didn't find anything that worked with my Dell Inspirion. Is anyone else having this problem -- and hopefully a solution? I have a short sample file I can send.

Thanks,
Chris

Post by **annise** » July 15th, 2017, 5:22 pm

upload a sample to the tests folder and paste the link , it might help.
Are you running Skype ? it takes over the settings sometimes.
Anne

Post by **chocoholic** » July 15th, 2017, 6:30 pm

You've probably already checked, but is Audacity recognizing your Yeti or defaulting to the onboard mic?

Jacquerie · Post by **Jacquerie** » July 15th, 2017, 8:32 pm

Thank you for your replies, ladies. Here's the link to the test file:

https://librivox.org/uploads/tests/really_bad_audio.mp3

I'm not using Skype, but I'll check to see if the Windows updated turned it on automatically. Audacity is recognizing Yeti. At first the voice was muffled but with a few adjustments to device volume it got louder. But there's still a tunnel sound and a loud background buzz.

Thanks again!
Chris

tovarisch · Post by **tovarisch** » July 16th, 2017, 5:36 am

Chris,

Try to start over. With Win X is relatively easy - you should be able to remove the Yeti device altogether from Settings / Devices. Reboot (just in case). Then plug in your Yeti, then go to Start/Settings/Devices. You should see Yeti in the list. Select it and click "Remove Device", confirm. It should uninstall the drivers. After that unplug the mic, wait a couple seconds (again, just in case). Then plug it back in. Windows should recognize it as a new one and start installing it, after which all the settings will be default (usually OK for our purposes).

Once you re-add Yeti to your system, start Audacity (the Yeti is already plugged in, yes?), then select Yeti in the recording device list. Test it.

Looking forward to hearing about it. Good luck!

Jacquerie · Post by **Jacquerie** » July 16th, 2017, 2:21 pm

tovarisch wrote:Chris,

Try to start over. With Win X is relatively easy - you should be able to remove the Yeti device altogether from Settings / Devices. Reboot (just in case). Then plug in your Yeti, then go to Start/Settings/Devices. You should see Yeti in the list. Select it and click "Remove Device", confirm. It should uninstall the drivers. After that unplug the mic, wait a couple seconds (again, just in case). Then plug it back in. Windows should recognize it as a new one and start installing it, after which all the settings will be default (usually OK for our purposes).

Once you re-add Yeti to your system, start Audacity (the Yeti is already plugged in, yes?), then select Yeti in the recording device list. Test it.

Looking forward to hearing about it. Good luck!

Valiaant effort, but to no avail. The mic works on my Mac, so at least I have a backup until I figure out the Windows angle. Thanks for the suggestion!

Chris

Post by **mightyfelix** » July 16th, 2017, 6:17 pm

I just installed the new Windows update a couple of days ago, and haven't had any issues. In fact, if anything, I've been surprised at how little background noise I've had on my recordings over the last couple of days. It never occurred to me that it could be related.

Or, maybe not. I'm using a Samson meteor mic. I do hope you figure it out!

Post by **Availle** » July 16th, 2017, 6:23 pm

Since you say you can record on a mac, I would assume that it's not your microphone.

How old is your windows machine?
When my laptop was dying, the first thing noticable was an atrocious background noise in all my recordings. But since this has only started when you upgraded windows, maybe that's not the issue.

I went for a standalone microphone a few years ago, the only thing I need the laptop for is to display the text and to do the edits afterwards.

tovarisch · Post by **tovarisch** » July 16th, 2017, 6:49 pm

Not to hijack the thread, but... What's "a standalone microphone"? Do you mean that you use a standalone recorder?

Post by **Availle** » July 16th, 2017, 7:16 pm

Okay, yes, IT says "recorder", I says "microphone". Doesn't make a difference to me.

https://www.amazon.com/Zoom-H2-Portable-Stereo-Recorder/dp/B000VBH2IG

Jacquerie · Post by **Jacquerie** » August 6th, 2017, 9:29 am

Availle wrote:Since you say you can record on a mac, I would assume that it's not your microphone.

How old is your windows machine?
When my laptop was dying, the first thing noticable was an atrocious background noise in all my recordings. But since this has only started when you upgraded windows, maybe that's not the issue.

I went for a standalone microphone a few years ago, the only thing I need the laptop for is to display the text and to do the edits afterwards.

My laptop is antique - about 5 years old. However, it doesn't appear to be dying. At my office when we did this upgrade, they had to also install an audio driver update. So I checked again and found a Dell audio driver update that has only been available for a few days. It seems to have solved the problem, which by the way was only a playback issue, not really a problem with the mic or the aup file. Anyway, I'm also updating the audio card reader, just in case.

Good tip about the standalone recorder/mic! I didn't know they existed. That could be a nice Christmas present to myself!

Thanks to everyone for advice -- nice to know you're out there when I need you! Mischief managed.

Chris