Realtek HD Audio mic playthrough problem in Vista

edited April 2009 in Hardware
System:

Acer Aspire 5315 laptop
Vista Home Basic 32bit SP1
Realtek 268 HD Audio (inbuilt)

I've been attempting to use this setup to record audio, and keep running up against the same issue. How do I monitor microphone input (either from the inbuilt mic or the 'pink in' socket) through the speakers whilst recording? There doesn't seem to be any way to enable this function, the result being that I can only hear what I'm recording by playing it back afterwards.

On most other systems, you can normally monitor mic and/or line-in input by simply clicking on the system tray speaker icon to get the mixer, then turning up the relevant slider. It seems that this option is now simply unavailable. All I get on the Vista mixer is volume controls for the speaker, Windows sounds and whatever applications that happen to be running at the time. The Realtek control panel has options for 3D sound, mic boost, default sample rates etc, but no mixer and no option to enable playthough for the mic.

I've tried a number of drivers, including the latest updates from both the Realtek and Acer sites, and also some older versions. While there are differences between these drivers, none of them seem to provide the option I need.

Having Googled this issue, it seems it is a common problem. A few places (like this one) give a workaround that involves changing a Registry setting. However, the settings given don't correspond with what I have on my machine. I've tried speculatively tweaking a few likely-looking things in my registry, but to no effect.

And yep, I've tried all the obvious fixes:

- In "Sound>Playback>Speakers Properties>Levels", there are only volume sliders for "Realtek HD Audio output" and "PC Beep", nothing else. Both set to full volume.
- In "Sound>Recording>Microphone Properties>Levels", the "Microphone" and "Microphone Boost" sliders are set at full volume and the microphone is enabled.
- In both the playback and recording tabs, "Show Disabled/Disconnected Devices" are both selected. Changing default recording device from "Microphone" to "Stereo Mix" had no effect, so I put it back to mic.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Comments

  • leishi85leishi85 Grand Rapids, MI Icrontian
    edited March 2009
    take a look at the following link

    http://www.vistaheads.com/forums/microsoft-public-windows-vista-hardware-devices/158918-realtek-microphone-monitor-heres-how.html

    sorry, didn't realized u read the link about the registry editing thing already, i wasn't sure if u have the same drivers/chips as the poster in that thread or not, disregard what i posted.
  • RichDRichD Essex, UK
    edited March 2009
    My assuptions on this problem are that most laptops these days only have a mic input and not a line input. This causes me a real pain in the arse as I record line audio more than mic.

    Any way basically, if you have a mic plugged in and working and you unmute the mic so that it plays back through your speakers you can get feed back problems. i.e. you speak into the mic and it comes out of your speakers even louder, the sound from your speakers gets picked up by the mic and amplified again and so on. That is the high pitched wine that you get when you point a mic at a speaker on a PA system.

    You may want to have it enabled if you are doing audio recording so that you can play stuff back through headphones and still record but generally if you want to do this you would need a better sound card than the on board one.

    If you can tell us what you are trying to record and what your project is we might be able to offer an alternative.
  • edited March 2009
    Yes, I do just have a mic socket, no line-in.

    To be a little more brief than my initial post, my problem is that there simply isn't an option to unmute the mic.

    As well as this new Vista-based Acer laptop that I'm having the problems on, I also have a 3-year-old Acer that has XP but is otherwise very similar. It allows me to listen to the mic input without any problem whatsover. Indeed, every computer I've ever owned (going right back to a 1994 vintage Compaq) has had this facility. There must be some way of doing it!
  • RichDRichD Essex, UK
    edited March 2009
    Sorry, I get that you want to un mute the mic but what is your end goal. Are you doing music production, gaming...
  • edited March 2009
    RichD wrote:
    Sorry, I get that you want to un mute the mic but what is your end goal. Are you doing music production, gaming...
    Yes, music production. But just low-level home demo stuff, nothing a laptop shouldn't be able to handle. As I say, I was doing this kind of stuff 10 years ago on far more basic machines.
  • RichDRichD Essex, UK
    edited March 2009
    What software are you using? I use cubase and that has an option to monitor the record source in there. might be worth poking around in whatever app you are using
  • edited April 2009
    I also am interested in the solution. I do digital mode amateur radio using the soundcard as a "modem" to send text and image files as radio signals. I also have an Acer that I thought I would use for this too but not have the audio pass through I have too much trouble using it to do "digital" on the Acer. I hear the transmit signal but the incoming received signal are not audible with the Reakltek card. One needs to hear to determine when a station is on teh air, especially when your tuning through the bands, to tell how many are there and especiall which "mode" they're using- they have different tones and youhave to choose theright one for the software to pick out the data.
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