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#221
Here are the options for the Realtek HD Audio driver on my newer Toshiba laptop.
I tried the internal mic - but I think my external mic is better.
I found the Realtek interface was better than using the equivalent options within Sounds in Control Panel, which somehow managed to get the driver in a state when I couldn't record anything at one point.
From my testing on my Windows 10 Laptop (old hardware from about 2006 or 2007), changing the Realtek options to sample at 96KHz seems to be best (although not very different to 48KHz). Both seemed better than 44.1KHz. And on this laptop, turning microphone boost down to zero and switching off the microphone effects seems to give best quality, as long as you're prepared to tweak/boost it later in Audacity, which can do a better job as it's not trying to process on the fly - good for videos, not so good for online video chats!
On my newer 8.1 laptop (where the screenshot came from) I've set it to 48KHz because that's what Movie maker uses. This particular hardware doesn't seem to have the 96KHz option. But with that one, turning on the microphone effects for noise reduction means that the quality is better than without. Whatever I try, I haven't found a way to make it as good as the quality in the older, slower laptop with less memory (but perhaps better audio hardware).
For both of my laptops, microphone boost of +10dB is nearly as good as using 0dB and boosting in Audacity, but turning it up any more (+20 or +30) gives too much distortion for my liking. +10dB seems a reasonable compromise and may mean you don't need to boost the sound later.
I think my conclusions are:
- YMMV (Your Microphone hardware May Vary)
- Check you have latest drivers (made a noticeable difference to me)
- Test out the settings on your own hardware
Anyway I think the sound is better - here is my test video (not for adding to Kari's list as it probably doesn't teach anything.
Compare that speech with the 'chirping' in this:
I think I've learned some things on how to do sound better in the next one....
New video: Windows 10 Build 10122 - Clean Install with a Local Account:
VIDEO DELETED AS IT IS NO LONGER ACTUAL.
Last edited by Kari; 11 Dec 2015 at 07:19.