Stereo Mix shows up, but doesn't record *anything*

Hi guys.

I've been on Windows 10 for less than a month. I have been running Windows 7 for over a decade before that with the same machine. You can see my new specs below. But I digress. Let's go to the issue.

On Windows 7, everything worked when it came to sound with a few caviats because of the age of my PC then. With my new PC, I can hear sound. I can record the microphone. People can hear me through my microphone. However, Stereo Mix does not work whatsoever.

I've tried every fix I could find by googling. I've updated the driver to the newest version, the one in the pinned post. To no avail. Neither Audition or Audacity pick up anything. It's just blank. I use a pair of headphone (Audio-Technica ATH-M50X) plugged into the "Line Out" of my motherboard (there's Mic, Line Out, Line In, Rear and Sub).

- Update driver
- Enable Stereo Mix
- Make Stereo Mix the default device
- Disable Microphone
- Yadayadayada...

Absolutely nothing works... I suspect that it is blocked by the Privacy stuff in Windows 10.
Any advice?

sandyt said:

Stereo Mix is considered "legacy" in that it uses the analog mixer.

Now you can shift one digital signal to another program to record. There is no loss in quality because it's pure digital signal all the way through.

It's like the old CD-ROM drives with analog audio cables. Those analog audio cables went away when the DVD burners displaced the CD-ROM drives.

CD-RW Installation Connection

That does not help me at all.
Legacy or not, it's a function that's available and most (if not all) software that can record sound supports Stereo Mix/What You Hear. It's available. I want to use it.

Hi, I'm not going to give you an answer, so please don't be really disappointed or irritated.

If you search (as you probably have done) e.g. for
stereo mix not supported
stereo mix missing
etc
you will find a LOT of results.

You're actually better off than many in that you actually have Stereo Mix visible. Many don't.

Audacity is often mentioned as a means of being able to record when other means fail.

As said here: your situation is not unknown- might be you need an older driver for your sound card.
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...6-6eaca9bd537a

You might also wish to research WASAPI - digital only without conversion to analogue (which is what stereo mix does) as Sandyt mentioned e.g.
Tutorial - Recording Computer Playback on Windows - Audacity Manual

I changed from using Stereo mix to making ActivePresenter recordings.

I use the free edition of ActivePresenter for this. It records video and audio.

I found these links useful in getting to grips with it -
Tutorials - ActivePresenter - Screen Recording & Interactive ELearning Authoring Software
ActivePresenter Community

I use ActivePresenter's own editing capabilities to trim out any unwanted bits at the start & end
- I always have bits to trim off because I get the recording running and then worry about starting the webinar or whathaveyou.
- To trim bits off, I click in the timeline itself rather than the waveform display and then drag around the start-end markers that appear.

All the best,
Denis

I have 1 laptop with Realtek - and stereo mix. I have another with Realtek- and no way to make stereo mix visible.

Lebon:

I'd suggest you go direct to Audacity's own forum and ask if anyone is having recording issues on newest generation (X570) motherboards. Maybe AMD specific?

Audacity Forum - Index page


I hope you can resolve this because I want to upgrade next winter to the newest generation Intel boards and I would desperately need stereo mix to work properly.

I have it working perfectly with Audacity and Realtek 1150 right now, but I'm using a Z170 board that is 5 years old.

I just upgraded Win 10 Home to 20H2 19042.928 without any recording or playback problems. Just as it was with earlier versions.

I'm using Audacity 2.1.3, which is an older version that I see no reason to update.

Please post back in this thread with any updates....good or bad.

Thanks for the various answers.

dalchina said:

Hi, I'm not going to give you an answer, so please don't be really disappointed or irritated.

If you search (as you probably have done) e.g. for
stereo mix not supported
stereo mix missing
etc
you will find a LOT of results.

You're actually better off than many in that you actually have Stereo Mix visible. Many don't.

Audacity is often mentioned as a means of being able to record when other means fail.

As said here: your situation is not unknown- might be you need an older driver for your sound card.
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...6-6eaca9bd537a

You might also wish to research WASAPI - digital only without conversion to analogue (which is what stereo mix does) as Sandyt mentioned e.g.
Tutorial - Recording Computer Playback on Windows - Audacity Manual

The problem is that my platform is pretty recent. So, finding old drivers older than the AMD X570 platform and get them working might not be possible.

Try3 said:

I changed from using Stereo mix to making ActivePresenter recordings.
I use the free edition of ActivePresenter for this. It records video and audio.

I found these links useful in getting to grips with it -
Tutorials - ActivePresenter - Screen Recording & Interactive ELearning Authoring Software
ActivePresenter Community

I use ActivePresenter's own editing capabilities to trim out any unwanted bits at the start & end
- I always have bits to trim off because I get the recording running and then worry about starting the webinar or whathaveyou.
- To trim bits off, I click in the timeline itself rather than the waveform display and then drag around the start-end markers that appear.

All the best,
Denis

That's a cool solution that works for you. I used to be able to make everything work off the bat in Audition 1.5. Didn't need anything. Then, again, I was using an Audacity SE Sound card with my last build. And that's pretty old. Now, I only have PCIe slots.

fireberd said:

I have a home built Z390 motherboard with Realtek. I have Stereo Mix and it works as it should. I don't use Audacity as a I have a recording studio with pro recording programs. I don't record with Realtek but if I want to record some streaming audio or whatever via Realtek, I use "Goldwave" and it does it without problems.

Did your system come with some sort of audio enhancement software? If it did and not configured properly, or the correct Realtek driver installed that can be a potential problem. First thing, use the motherboard vendor's Realtek driver, if you are not now using that.

No, it does not come with anything special. It's a Realtek ALC1220-VB sound card with a ESS Sabre9118 integrated DAC. I'm using the drivers that are on Gigabyte's website. It's the driver only, it doesn't have any software.

You know what's weird? The manual for X570 Aorus Master has an appendix section that shows how to enable Stereo Mix...............

dalchina said:

I have 1 laptop with Realtek - and stereo mix. I have another with Realtek- and no way to make stereo mix visible.

FeelsBadMan

ignatzatsonic said:

Lebon:
I'd suggest you go direct to Audacity's own forum and ask if anyone is having recording issues on newest generation (X570) motherboards. Maybe AMD specific?
Audacity Forum - Index page
I hope you can resolve this because I want to upgrade next winter to the newest generation Intel boards and I would desperately need stereo mix to work properly.
I have it working perfectly with Audacity and Realtek 1150 right now, but I'm using a Z170 board that is 5 years old.
I just upgraded Win 10 Home to 20H2 19042.928 without any recording or playback problems. Just as it was with earlier versions.
I'm using Audacity 2.1.3, which is an older version that I see no reason to update.

Please post back in this thread with any updates....good or bad.

I never liked Audacity. It feels clunky, no way to personalize Fade Outs, the multitracking is half-baked at best... I always used Audition 1.5. Old but mature software. Some added "filters" to add some audio format compability. The only downside is that it does not support unicode and, well... WASAPI since it dates from the XP era.

And I just had an idea. I'll look into virtual cable to see if I can Y-split the headphones out to a Line In.

And I'm not gonna bother replying to that last condescending reply.