# Recording w/o a microphone



## VÃ¶lf (Nov 24, 2010)

Recently Audacity came up here in The Blue Note, and mine happens to be acting up right now.

When I first downloaded it, I couldn't record anything w/o a mic. Long time later, there was a lot of interference with the mic, and after I unplugged it, I found I could record from my computer monitor's speakers... the only speakers I have. A day or so ago I used to mic to record again and suddenly this micless recording doesn't work anymore. I've seen people show tutorials on Youtube, but I can't get it to work. I was just wondering if someone could help me out with it? I promise I'm not stealing music; I just have a low budget and was trying to record some drumbeats I made online


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## Aaros (Nov 24, 2010)

VÃ¶lf said:


> Recently Audacity came up here in The Blue Note, and mine happens to be acting up right now.
> 
> When I first downloaded it, I couldn't record anything w/o a mic. Long time later, there was a lot of interference with the mic, and after I unplugged it, I found I could record from my computer monitor's speakers... the only speakers I have. A day or so ago I used to mic to record again and suddenly this micless recording doesn't work anymore. I've seen people show tutorials on Youtube, but I can't get it to work. I was just wondering if someone could help me out with it? I promise I'm not stealing music; I just have a low budget and was trying to record some drumbeats I made online



Recording without a microphone, through speakers, sounds like a really bad idea to me.
Especially if they're built-in monitor speakers. Are you sure you wouldn't rather stick to your mic? I'm pretty sure any mic would sound better than built-in monitor speakers, but I guess that's my opinion.

Is your mic plugged in? If it is, then I'm guessing Audacity would automatically use it.
Try going to preferences > devices and seeing if messing with that will change anything.
But I'm guessing you'll have a hard time making it work since it's really not supposed to be used that way. The software won't like it. Maybe if you explained a little more I could be a little help, though.


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## VÃ¶lf (Nov 27, 2010)

Hmm... okay, how to explain...

Well, surprisingly, putting the mic (I have bad mics, definitely) to the speakers was my only other way to do it, and the sound often came out garbled, with a lot of ambient static. With the speakers, it recorded _perfectly_, and played back exactly what I had just heard out of the speakers. I had trouble w/ audacity the first time this happened, which led to my discovering it; the mic was getting so much static/feedback that I couldn't record the vocal that I was trying to, so I unplugged it and gave up. I went into iTunes and played a song... having accidentally left audacity recording while it played... and then I switched to audacity to close it and saw it recording exactly what was playing. I stopped and played it back and it was the same.

I think it was just some wild fluke. The mic was acting up, and then unplugging it may have completely bypassed the program, making it think the thing was still plugged in, and so it recorded the only thing that was making noise: the speakers. I tried shouting while it recorded, but it was only recording the output, not any ambient noise. I hadn't used it with a mic since then, and then chances are the next time I plugged the mic in, it reset itself... That's my best guess anyway. Computers are very nasty to me on a regular basis :/


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## Eleziek (Dec 2, 2010)

I understand what you're doing, and trying to record what your speakers are playing by using an external microphone is a mistake. Not gonna work, especially with a standard computer mic. Saying you're wanting to record without a mic is a bit misleading, since your goal is more to record what is being put through your speakers, not record _with_ your speakers. 

Open Audacity and do the following

Edit -> Preferences -> Audio I/O -> Recording -> Device

In the Device dropdown menu look for anything along the lines of, "What U Hear" (Common with Sound Blaster). This will allow you to record whatever it is being sent to your speakers.

Hope this helps.


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## VÃ¶lf (Dec 5, 2010)

DERP 

whoops, my bad. That's what I meant...

EDIT: Yeah, I tried every device... I have 2 MME choices, Microsoft Sound Mapper and a Line In. Then I have 2 Windows Directsound: Primary sound and a line in. The WD line in is my mic, but I tried all the others to no avail, which contiunes to make me think it was a glitch...

But too, I have been losing a few random pieces of data here and there, such as the profile to to my IM doc that got removed randomly. Which is the equivalent of flashing VIRUS right in my face. I have Norton, which I guess a lot of ppl say sucks ass, but I've used it for a while and as far as I can tell its pretty soild. I'm guessing that may possibly be why this isn't working


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