This is a short tutorial on how to adjust the volume levels using your soundcard's mixer window (for standard and onboard soundcards). At the end there is also a tutorial on how to use the soundcard's mixer with a recording program to adjust the volume levels so that you will not clip while recording. To demonstrate this I will use the free recording program
Kristal Audio Engine.
Contents:
•
Soundcard Mixer
•
Setting Volume For Recording Program
Soundcard Mixer
To open the soundcard's mixer, double click on the speaker icon in the task bar.
http://www.guitarforbeginners.com/te...ker%20Icon.jpg
NOTE: If you do not see the speaker icon, then go to the Control Panel and open Sounds and Audio Devices then under the Volume tab, check the option to Place volume icon in the task bar. The speaker icon should now be visible in the task bar as shown in the image above.
The first screen when you open the soundcard's mixer is the
Playback Mixer.
We will go into these controls later, but first click on the
Options menu, then
Properties.
This is where you can select which volume controls you want to see (so you can adjust them) and also where you choose to adjust the volume levels for
playback and for
recording. Choose to adjust the volume for recording (I generally make sure all of the volume controls are selected except for video) and press ok. You should now be looking at the
Recording Mixer.
This is where you adjust the volume for recording. First you need to make sure that whichever input you are plugged into on your soundcard is selected. For example, if you are plugged into line input on your soundcard, then select "
Line In" in the recording mixer. Likewise, if you are plugged into the mic input on the soundcard, then select "
Microphone" in the recording mixer. The fader determines the volume that is sent to your recording program. The section below describes how to use the recording mixer to set the volume for recording program.
NOTE: In the recording mixer, if you select Stereo Mix (this could also be called "Record What You Hear", or something similar depending on your soundcard) then this will record "everything" that goes through your soundcard. In otherwords, if you have a backing track playing on one track in your recording program and you try to record your guitar to another track with the stereo mix selected, your new track will contain BOTH your guitar and the backing track. Or if you record with a click track, your click track will be recorded along with your guitar. This is usually not desireable, so if you notice this happening then go into the recording mixer and select the line input (or the mic input if that's what you're using) instead of the stereo mix.
Now we'll go back to the
playback mixer. The playback mixer is used to control the master volume, media file playback (wave), cd-rom volume, as well as the volumes for the line in and mic input. In the playback mixer, adjusting the volume for the mic/line input does not affect the volume of the signal that is sent to your recording program. These volumes only adjust what you "hear" while you're recording. So for example, if you are plugged into the line input you can turn the line in volume all the way down in the playback mixer and you won't hear anything through your speakers, but your recording program will still get volume from the line input as long as the line input is turned up in the recording mixer.