Talk:Tutorial - Selecting Your Recording Device

Steve 16Jul11: What's the difference between MME and Direct Sound?
 * Peter 16Jul11: Steve are you suggesting that we explain here to the user the differences between the two? I suspect that that would go right over the head of many readers.  Or should we be creating Glossary entries that we can link to, or even a new page on audio hosting interfaces?  The latter would have the  advantage of keeping this page relatively straightforward and simple.  MME and WDS are windows interfaces - what are the host interfaces for MAC and Linux?
 * 'Steve 16Jul11:' I think there needs to be some mention as in some cases one choice will work and other options won't. On Linux there is often only one option (ALSA), though it depends on what sound system(s) is/are installed. Other options could be OSS and/or Jack Audio Connection Kit (AKA "Jack" or "Jackd").
 * Peter 17Jul11: I have added a brief bit on audio hosting with links to new entries in the Glossary for: MME, WDS & ALSA - is this sufficient?
 * Peter 16Jul11: I'm never sure which is the better of the two MME or WDS. I tend to use WDS on both my PCs as it is a more modern i/f 1995 v. 1991 so both pretty old.  IIRC Gale tends to prefere recommending MME to users - though I can't remember why.  Gale can you elucidate further?

Gale 05 April 2011: I'm not really sure what the answers to all the below are, but I think it might be easier to use a scheme like http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Troubleshooting_Recordings#silence (obviously with 1.2 stuff removed) rather than tie everyone up with listening for the input in the control panel first. XP users will rarely need to do that, and as it is now, we don't tell the users on any platform where the control panel is or what to do there, beyond the Wiki link. Bill: Next, input source from Meter toolbar - though note that this is less and less necessary these days. (Is the input device on the toolbar yet? If so, the Preferences may not be necessary!)The question was asked (above - I've cut it to here): what do you do if you can't make them (the devices chosen in your OS's sound control panel and the choices in Preferences > Devices) match? This should, in theory, be impossible. As I understand it, these menus are populated with choices that Audacity gets by querying the OS. If it's not possible, you've got a serious problem. Second, the choices offered in the Device Toolbar are similar to those offered in the Preferences > Devices panel but leave out the option of the number of channels to use for recording. Also, the 'Host' selection is only available from Preferences > Devices. So the Devices Toolbar is not a substitute for the Devices prefs panel. Third, taking an example from my system: on OSX 10.5, if I select "Line In" in System Preferences > Sound, then in Audacity Preferences > Devices > Recording the corresponding choice is "Built in audio" - so the choices don't, in fact, "match". Thus I've changed "match" to "corresponds to" in the second paragraph of this section. In the Devices Toolbar, my only choice for recording is "Core Audio: Built In Audio". But in the Mixer Toolbar my choices are "Line In" and "Digital In". Finally, if I make changes in Audacity's Devices toolbar these are not reflected in the OSX Sound control panel. But if I change "Line Input" to "Digital Input" in Audacity's Mixer Toolbar, this change is reflected in the OSX Sound control panel! My point is this - if things are this complex with OSX where it's pretty standard across all Macs, how bad can it be with Windows and Linux with their myriad soundcards and drivers? Do we want to step into this quagmire at all? I think we are left with the basic steps of 1) get sound into your computer using your OS sound control panel and 2) get that sound into Audacity. If you're having problems consult the wiki or the forum.- Bill
 * Peter 15Dec11: In the later Betas the Audacity Device Toolbar has been expanded to also include the host and the no. of channels, making the toolbar the preferred method for making the settings and obviating the need to push the reader to the PreferencesDevices dialog.