Has Windows 10 nixed the direct audio recording function?

[MaximRecoil]

I just noticed that there is no option on my Windows 10 PC to select the sound card as a recording device:

http://i.imgur.com/Oi7jVIt.png

Also, the volume mixer has no option to select a recording device (previously, selecting e.g., "Stereo Mix" in the "Recording Control" section of the Volume Mixer [which you accessed via its menu] would select the sound card as the recording device):

http://i.imgur.com/oSOJUuG.png

There isn't even a "Recording Control" section in the Windows 10 Volume Mixer; no boxes to check; not even a menu.

In certain audio recording applications such as Goldwave, you can select the recording device through the application itself, but in Windows 10, it is grayed out (because I have nothing plugged into my microphone and line-in jacks, and recording directly from the sound card doesn't seem to be an option in Windows 10):

http://i.imgur.com/7h0N6xB.png

By comparison, here are some screenshots from a spare, low-end Dell PC I have, with onboard sound, running Windows XP:

http://i.imgur.com/HET5RK2.png

http://i.imgur.com/5wwbLUn.png

http://i.imgur.com/71SopGo.png

As you can see, the sound card / chipset ("SoundMAX Digital Audio") is plenty selectable in Windows XP, and in every other version of Windows I've ever used, aside from Windows 10 it seems.

[LoRd_MuldeR]

I just noticed that there is no option on my Windows 10 PC to select the sound card as a recording device:

What is "the sound card"? There are the "Microphone" and the "Line-in" available as recording devices. So, is there a particular input connector of your sound card that you are missing here? :confused:

Also, in Windows 7 (and maybe Windows 10 too), you can right-click in that window and check "Show disabled/disconnected devices", which will bring up the so-called "Stereo Mix" device for me. Maybe that is what you are looking for?

[nevcairiel]

Its up to the audio driver to provide such a device. I havent seen them on 7 or 8.1 from many audio drivers anymore either.

Note that software could directly interface with Windows Audio APIs to intercept and record currently playing audio without such a fake recording device, an API which didn't exist on XP yet - so maybe thats why audio drivers dont bother to provide that anymore.

[MaximRecoil]

What is "the sound card"? There are the "Microphone" and the "Line-in" available as recording devices. So, is there a particular input connector of your sound card that you are missing here? :confused:

The sound card is the chipset responsible for processing digital audio data and sending it to your speakers. As you can see in the XP screenshots above, the sound card (SoundMAX Digital Audio) is selectable as a recording device. When you select this as a recording device, audio recording applications will directly (as opposed to through a microphone) record sounds that are currently "playing on your PC". It would record the sounds even if you didn't have speakers for you to hear them or for a microphone to pick them up.

Also, in Windows 7 (and maybe Windows 10 too), you can right-click in that window and check "Show disabled/disconnected devices", which will bring up the so-called "Stereo Mix" device for me. Maybe that is what you are looking for?

Awesome; that's the solution. Thanks:

http://i.imgur.com/InkpJLC.png

Now I have the option of recording directly from the sound card.

[foxyshadis]

I just noticed that there is no option on my Windows 10 PC to select the sound card as a recording device:

http://i.imgur.com/Oi7jVIt.png

Also, the volume mixer has no option to select a recording device (previously, selecting e.g., "Stereo Mix" in the "Recording Control" section of the Volume Mixer [which you accessed via its menu] would select the sound card as the recording device):

http://i.imgur.com/oSOJUuG.png

There isn't even a "Recording Control" section in the Windows 10 Volume Mixer; no boxes to check; not even a menu.

In certain audio recording applications such as Goldwave, you can select the recording device through the application itself, but in Windows 10, it is grayed out (because I have nothing plugged into my microphone and line-in jacks, and recording directly from the sound card doesn't seem to be an option in Windows 10):


By comparison, here are some screenshots from a spare, low-end Dell PC I have, with onboard sound, running Windows XP:


As you can see, the sound card / chipset ("SoundMAX Digital Audio") is plenty selectable in Windows XP, and in every other version of Windows I've ever used, aside from Windows 10 it seems.

This is pretty much an XP-centric view. Since Vista, sound is connected to output, not input or intermediaries.

[MaximRecoil]

This is pretty much an XP-centric view.

XP is what I'm most familiar with; I consider it to be the best version of Windows, and I would still be using it today as my main OS if it were feasible (this new hardware I recently put together has no XP drivers available; the writing is on the wall for widespread software support, and support from Microsoft ended last year).

Since Vista, sound is connected to output, not input or intermediaries.

I don't know what you're talking about. Connected to only output means connected only to the speaker jack(s) (and line-out or other forms of analog, optical, or digital output meant to be fed directly into an amplifier, if the sound card is so equipped), which isn't the case. The sound in Windows 10, and as far as I know, Vista, 7, and 8 as well, is also connected to inputs by default (i.e., microphone and line-in jacks, assuming the sound card has them, and nearly all, if not all, of them do). The only thing their sound isn't connected to by default it seems, is "Stereo Mix". Once you enable that connection, the functionality is the same as in XP.

[wonkey_monkey]

the functionality is the same as in XP.

One function that is lacking, I believe, after XP is the ability to make direct unprocessed recordings from digital inputs. Under XP one could make bit-perfect recordings of digital sources like Dolby Digital or DTS, but the Vista-onwards Windows sound system makes this, as far as I understand it, impossible.

If anyone knows different, I'd be glad to hear it.

[huhn]

no use WASAPI or ASIO and it will be bit perfect.

[Emulgator]

Also, in Windows 7 (and maybe Windows 10 too), you can right-click in that window and check "Show disabled/disconnected devices", which will bring up the so-called "Stereo Mix" device for me. Maybe that is what you are looking for?
Awesome; that's the solution. Thanks.
Thanks from me too to the Lord ;-) and of course Maxim who asked.
Finally able to record directly in Win7.

BTW, already in WinXP an exposed and readily available direct recording function
was driver dependent, so not available with every PC.
(A Yamaha sound devive in a Toshiba Satellite 5200-801 had it exposed,
a later SigmaTel sound device in a DELL XPS1710 had to be set to Stereo Mix as recording source.)

[StainlessS]

For those sound cards where not possible to record stereo output, is quite handy to have a 3.5mm Stereo Jack Plug to 3.5mm Stereo Jack Plug cable,
I have one that is only about 6 inches length to link Line out to Line in.

[jmac698]

There's a rumour that the RIAA (a copyright group for music in America) pressured manufacturers to disable stereo mix recording. Anyhow, three solutions are detailed in this helpful article:

http://www.howtogeek.com/217348/how-to-record-the-sound-coming-from-your-pc-even-without-stereo-mix/

[Ghitulescu]

XP .... I consider it to be the best version of Windows,....

Strangely enough, despite all critics, after a new version of windows appears, a lot of people claim that one previous version (but not the immediate one before) was the best windows ever.

So was W95 for W3.1 (and 3.1 to 3.0), so was W95OSR2 when W98 appeared, so was W98SE for Millenium and later for W2k (no SPs), so was w2k SP2 for XP, now so is XP SP3 for Vista, 7, 8 and 10.

Please note that most "best" windowses have reached at least two levels of "deep-changing" service-packs before becoming "the best ever". :)

I am waiting for SP1 for 10 (yes, I have w10 for testing purposes on a all-in-one-tablet PC - so far so good).