Adobe Audition line-in Recording Problems

Question

Hello,
I've just started using windows 7, used to and still do use on other computers windows xp.
I installed adobe audition 1.5 on the computer with windows 7.
In xp you had to select line in, in the recording control to allow you to record if something was playing in the background.
see images: .
I can't seem to enable this function in 7, so i can't sample anything playing in the back ground.
Has anyone had this problem, do you know how to sort this out, please help.
kind regards
Dan W

Answer 1

You can probably do what you want. But you probably need to adjust settings within Adobe Audition.
First, since this is a new PC, it's really important to get all your hardware drivers and Windows 7 itself totally up-to-date.  Keep going back to Windows Update until Win 7 says it has installed all the downloads it can find for your new PC. Win 7 is pretty good about updating itself as needed.  Just let it do its thing. And then be sure that when you go to a website like youtube.com and play a video, you can hear sound over the PC speakers.
You probably already know how to tell whether stream recording will work in Audition, but just to be clear, if you're playing a video at youtube.com for example, and you can hear the sounds over the PC speaker and you have Audition in Record mode, you should be seeing the sound level bars at the bottom of the display dancing in time with the sounds you hear.  If they're not dancing, stream recording will not work.
To fix this, in AA1.5, go to Options>Device Properties.  Hit the "Wave In" tab (at the top)--not "Wave Out".  Near the top left of the window that pops when you click "Wave In" will be a window with a small arrow to the right of it.  Click on that small arrow.  It will show you a list of devices Audition thinks might be used to record sounds within Audition.  But if stream recording isn't working, Audition may be picking the wrong device to use.
Here's how to try a different device in Audition which may get stream recording working.  Follow the directions carefully here.  It's easy to skip a step and then it won't work. Unfortunately, setting devices in AA1.5 is unnecessarily unintuitive, IMO. Click the Change button to the right of the device window with the little arrow on "Wave In" tab.   On Recording Devices tab at the top, select a device in the window on the left (Unused Record Devices).  I can't tell you for sure which one will work with your PC, as this depends to an extent on your sound hardware which will be different from mine.  But two good ones to try first are Monitor and Line In. Click the device you want to try so it's highlighted, and then click the Use button.  It will move over to the box on the right (Multitrack Device Preference Order).  Click the Move Up button on the bottom there until the device you're trying next is raised up to "1st". Then click "OK" (not "X" or "Cancel") to close this window.  The display will then show the previous window and the device you elevated to 1st position should now appear in the device window there.  To the right of the Change button is a small check box labeled "Use this device in Edit View."  Be sure this box is checked and then click OK (not "X" or "Cancel") to close this window.  In WinXP, it used to help at this point to close and reopen Audition though I'm not sure it helps with Win 7; but you don't need to reboot the PC.
Now try playing that video in youtube again.  Can Audition stream record it?  If not, go back as before to Recording Devices and try a different device until you've tried each one of them in 1st position, being very careful that you are clicking OK to exit the two windows there and that "Use this device in Edit View" is checked each and every time you try a different device.
If the bars dance during Record mode, but you hear nothing in Audition when you play back the file, stream recording is now working but you may need to go back to Device Properties as above and this time pick a different device in "Wave Out" tab so Audition playback is correctly passed to your PC speakers.
Once you get it working, I strongly recommend making notes somewhere that you'll be able to find again if you have to reinstall everything, because as I say, this stuff is not intutive, and unless you have notes on the correct settings and how to get them on your PC, you'll find yourself out at sea again if you have to reinstall.