Recording music during playback? (Win32)

halkun

Ok, I'm trying to karaoke on a webcam, but I'm having problems with the audio recoding. Here's the setup.

1) I have a headphone mic that I'm wearing.

2) I'm playing the back track in windows media player and I can hear it in my headphones

3) I sing along, and I can hear that in my headphones

4) I'm recording with a webcam.

Now, the problem is when I play back the video from the webcam, I only hear my voice in the microphone. How do I record the music from media player so they both are recorded at the same time? (Or, why do I hear both in my headphones when I record, but only hear what is coming from the mic on playback?)

slash000

You're playing back audio from media player. The webcam software is only recording from one source, in this case, it is recording from the microphone. Since the microphone cannot 'hear' the music being played from the machine (since, as far as the mic is concerned, the only audio reaching it is your voice), it is only recording your voice. You hear both your voice and the music as you sing along because that is simply the computer playing the regular computer audio output, which is all audio from the computer (incidentally, you might also be hearing your voice as well if you have the mic playback audio turned up). However, the audio output is not the same as the recorded audio input, of which your software is only set up to record from the microphone as the source.

How can you fix this?

Well, it depends on how you're doing it. It seems to me that you're trying to get a webcam video of yourself singing to a song but also with the media player music playing.

So if you must use your webcam software to create this video, then you have to find some option in the webcam software to record from more sources than just the microphone. Possibly there will be an option to record all of the audio being played out as well as being recorded in. But.. that's pretty unlikely there'll be that option.

The other option is actually rather an obvious one, but rather also a poor one. Simply use external speakers. Then position your microphone so that it can pick up the audio from both your mouth as well as the audio being produced from the speakers.




There are a couple of other ways to do this that I can think of.

You could simply record yourself as you have done, and then just create a video in Microsoft Windows Movie Maker, and add the media player audio track in manually. It's very easy to do and the Movie Maker is a free thing with WinXP.




Now... it may also be possible to install another media device onto your computer through software. I used to have something called "What U Hear" installed on my PC, and it allowed me to record all audio played into and out of my PC at once, and it was compatible with most software that supported recording audio. If you can find and install something like "What U Hear," you may be able to run your webcam application and go into the settings and tell it to record Sound device from "What U Hear." If that is the case, then it would immediately fix your problem very easily. I just don't remember how or where I got the "What U Hear" device to install it to my PC...

I also dunno if there is some similar kind of app out there that does the same thing.

Ego

It's hardly ideal but you could use audacity to capture the combined audio and then use that audio track to replace the one in your web-cam captured video

Mblackwell

Erm, wow, such complicated advice.

But really, go into your sound options under recording, and make sure Wave is there, and unmute it. Now anything that plays back on your computer will also get recorded.

Rigor Mortis

For software solutions, you can check out Virtual Audio Cable or Total Recorder. They'll both do what you want, albeit in slightly different ways.

slash000

Mblackwell wrote: »

Erm, wow, such complicated advice.

But really, go into your sound options under recording, and make sure Wave is there, and unmute it. Now anything that plays back on your computer will also get recorded.

That doesn't make sense.

Sound options under Recording are going to let you choose an input device, and most computers are not going to have "Wave" as an input device in the first place. There is no option to 'mute' or unmute a recording device, that's only in playback options - you merely Select which recording device to use.

Secondly, most audio/video software that records, like webcam software, is only going to record from one input device anyway. The default is the mic because it presumes recording a person via the cam and their voice. You would need some way to have the webcam software record from more than one source, and even then, it can't be an output source as you're suggesting.

Mblackwell

slash000 wrote: »

Mblackwell wrote: »

Erm, wow, such complicated advice.

But really, go into your sound options under recording, and make sure Wave is there, and unmute it. Now anything that plays back on your computer will also get recorded.

That doesn't make sense.

Sound options under Recording are going to let you choose an input device, and most computers are not going to have "Wave" as an input device in the first place. There is no option to 'mute' or unmute a recording device, that's only in playback options - you merely Select which recording device to use.

Secondly, most audio/video software that records, like webcam software, is only going to record from one input device anyway. The default is the mic because it presumes recording a person via the cam and their voice. You would need some way to have the webcam software record from more than one source, and even then, it can't be an output source as you're suggesting.

If it's there, you can add it to the list. Go to:

Control Panel> Sounds and Audio Devices>Audio> then under recording click Volume. It will bring up the volume control for recording. Then click Options>Properties. If you have Recording clicked on the radio box (should be by default) there should be a series of check boxes below. These will have the various devices you can record from selected.

Depending on the device you may or may not have the option to select Wave, Wave Mix, What I Hear, etc. If you do you should be able to turn both this on and the Microphone. The sound card will send both channels to the same recording input. This may not be available on all sound devices. Even if not there are sometimes tricks you can do.

I used to do this a lot. Onboard audio setups may or may not allow this. My SBLive does, and so did my old external sound card.

If it's there use it, if it's not try another suggestion. Loading the video into an editor (even a simple freeware one) and splicing the audio is generally a good option too.

slash000

Mblackwell wrote: »

Control Panel> Sounds and Audio Devices>Audio> then under recording click Volume. It will bring up the volume control for recording. Then click Options>Properties. If you have Recording clicked on the radio box (should be by default) there should be a series of check boxes below. These will have the various devices you can record from selected.

Depending on the device you may or may not have the option to select Wave, Wave Mix, What I Hear, etc. If you do you should be able to turn both this on and the Microphone. The sound card will send both channels to the same recording input. This may not be available on all sound devices. Even if not there are sometimes tricks you can do.

This is what I was suggesting, except also alternatives. For example, my PC, and presumably the OPs, do not have the option for Wave or What I Hear. There's Stereo Mix, Mono Mix, Aux, CD Audio, Line In, Mic, SPDIF, and that's all I've got, personally.

Without that option (Wave or What I hear or What U hear), there are alternatives to the solution, hence the long post (above).

I used to do this a lot. Onboard audio setups may or may not allow this. My SBLive does, and so did my old external sound card.

I think in most cases it's for Sound Blaster / Creative devices that do this. I was able to this long ago when I had an SBLive. But I don't have an SBLive anymore. Now the option is lacking. It's a really useful option for recording things on the PC though.

If it's there use it, if it's not try another suggestion. Loading the video into an editor (even a simple freeware one) and splicing the audio is generally a good option too.

It's probably not in the cards for the OP. I suggest Microsoft Movie Maker which comes with Windows Xp. Simply drag and drop the video, then drag and drop the additional audio track, export the video and you're done.



edit: as a side note, you can access audio Properties without going thru control panel. Just right click the audio icon on the task bar and click Open Volume Control, or Adjust Audio Properties. This would not be an option if Place volume icon in the taskbar is unchecked from the properties, however.

Mblackwell

On the last part of your post: I purposefully made the process more clicks because it seems more "obvious" in case the op doesn't realize you can adjust all of your audio properties within the Volume Control/Volume Icon. More menus/buttons.

On a side note (though this is a Windows thread): Does anyone know any good webcam recording software for Linux? I tried Cheese and it seemed to skip a lot, at least the audio. Granted it was updated semi-recently, maybe this is fixed.

ecco the dolphin

slash000 wrote: »

This is what I was suggesting, except also alternatives. For example, my PC, and presumably the OPs, do not have the option for Wave or What I Hear. There's Stereo Mix, Mono Mix, Aux, CD Audio, Line In, Mic, SPDIF, and that's all I've got, personally.

Without that option (Wave or What I hear or What U hear), there are alternatives to the solution, hence the long post (above).

You sure it's not Stereo Mix or Mono Mix on your machine?

slash000

eecc wrote: »

slash000 wrote: »

This is what I was suggesting, except also alternatives. For example, my PC, and presumably the OPs, do not have the option for Wave or What I Hear. There's Stereo Mix, Mono Mix, Aux, CD Audio, Line In, Mic, SPDIF, and that's all I've got, personally.

Without that option (Wave or What I hear or What U hear), there are alternatives to the solution, hence the long post (above).

You sure it's not Stereo Mix or Mono Mix on your machine?

Yea, I've tried that :P.