I connected my Audio-Technica turntable (analog with preamp) to my desktop PC's "SB X-Fi" sound card via the line-in/microphone flexi-jack and set OS and Creative to use "line-in". Plays perfectly thru the speaker output of the same sound card but I cannot mute or adjust the playback volume except with the Windows master volume. When I open Audacity (or any audio editor) and monitor the "line in" for recording, I then get a second audio stream but with a slight latency. It's nasty sounding. This second audio stream is the only audio I want.

Searching the forum here, I found a workaround from 2017. In Audacity, set the device to "Windows WASAPI" and set the input to "Speakers...(loopback)". But as stated in the original post, the recording volume is then too low to be usable.

Besides, this must be an OS or hardware issue, not the sound editor, as I cannot control the line-in playback volume no matter what. As soon the needle drops on the record, I have audio, without even launching any audio player software. The audio can only be controlled by the master volume in Windows. I have experimented with every sound setting in Windows that I could find, including any Creative SB settings. The smoking gun is in the Advanced Sound Options (App volume and device preferences), where there is a volume control specific for "Line-in (Creative SB X-Fi), but adjusting that volume slider has no effect. I did not have this issue with Windows 7. Creative and Microsoft support is useless. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Pat
Windows 10 Pro 1903