Missing Audio Levels Controls

tkrueger
tkrueger Member Posts: 3 New User

I'm a first time poster.

I want to plug a guitar into my notebook PC and play along with an mp3 file and be able to hear both through my headphones.

I have an Acer Extensa 5230E with Windows 7 Home Premium 64 installed.

When I right click the Speaker icon at the right of the task bar and select Playback devices > Speakers > Properties > Levels

there are no level controls for my Mic or Line Input.

I also have an HP PC with Vista and a Dell with Windows 7 and both of those machines show the Levels controls for the Mic and Line Input.

Why aren't they available on my Acer Extensa?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Answers

  • Alan-London
    Alan-London ACE Posts: 793 Pioneer

    You won't find mic etc on the playback tab, they are input devices and are on the recording tab.

     

  • tkrueger
    tkrueger Member Posts: 3 New User

    Thanks for your reply.

    Actually they will also appear on the Playback, Speakers, Propertie, Levels tab if everything is working correctly.

    These are used so you can listen to the input audio as it plays without the delay caused by using the Listen to this device checkbox on the Recording device, Listen tab.

    As I mentioned in my original post these are available on my HP Vista PC and Dell Windows 7 PC.

    I've used them on these PCs before so I could hear the audio input as it is played.

    I just need these controls to be there on my Acer Laptop so I can do the same.

     

  • Alan-London
    Alan-London ACE Posts: 793 Pioneer

    I would not expect to see Mic under the playback tab. It simply does not make any sense.
    You could try selecting Mic properties and clicking the 'listen' tab. Check 'Listen to this device'. This may provide rudimentary monitoring capabilities through the input jack.

  • tkrueger
    tkrueger Member Posts: 3 New User

    Sorry Alan but you are incorrect.

    These Playback levels are used for monitoring audio coming into the PC without the latency created by clicking the Listen to this device checkbox in Recording Levels.

    See the link below for an article which shows the controls that I should see and do see on my other PCs.

    The only computer I have that doesn't show them is my Acer laptop.

    I just need to know how to get Windows 7 audio to work correctly on my Acer laptop.

    http://www.abyssmedia.com/isound7/how-to-hear-line-in.shtml

  • Alan-London
    Alan-London ACE Posts: 793 Pioneer

    No need to be sorry! I'm always happy to be proven wrong (that way I learn something!) However...
    As I said, I would not expect to find Mic under the 'playback' tab. You don't find it there, I don't find it there and your link doesn't find it there.
    The page to which you refer is obviously talking about third party software namely i-Sound Recorder Pro for Vista/Win7. From their page, you can see 'Mic' is not shown under the playback tab. It is shown under the levels tab which is incorrectly shown in the speakers window. This error is not repeated in Win7SP1. You will now find it under: Sound > Recording > Microphone > Properties. From this point you have access to both the 'Listen' and 'Levels' tabs. I agree that 'Listen' suffers latency but I don't think its purpose is for live monitoring. 
    Silly question: Are you sure your other machine isn't running third party software having live monitoring functionality. As far as I know, Windows Sound has no routing capabilities beyond 'Listen'.

     

This discussion has been closed.