Realtek HD audio problem when recording

Question

Hello guys;
Been trying to do some recording for the first time since the OC was rebuilt. New specs as below.
(By the way, I couldn't get any sound at all until I reinstalled the UAA bus driver..., so it's thanks to this forum that I got sound in the first place!)
Anyway, the problem I now have is that basically the record level is way too high. I use Steinberg Clean 5.0 and was finding that although I could change the levels in the software, whatever level I recorded at I was suffering extreme amounts of clipping/distortion. (I should mention that the input is from a good quality hifi, I used it for many years for recording with my previous PC incarnation using my KT6 delta rig).
After much trial and error, I found that the only way to stop this is to have the recording sound level in volume set to - well it isn't numbered - it would be about 10%. I also discovered that although master recording level is adjustable the others  - CD, mic, line, mix are greyed out.
The master level is really difficult to set  (as I write I just discovered it's still distorting and I'll have to edged it down another couple of % towards zero), so I really want to change the "line" record level, but as I said it's greyed out.
In Realtek sound manager it's similar, in the record section there's an overall level control but no individual adjustments for record, only playback.
Incidentally playback works just fine!
Realtek drivers are latest 5.10.0.5928 downloaded yesterday from Realtek.
Anyone got any ideas please?
Andrew
Antec Sonata 2 case with 450w Smartpower PSU
+5V, 30A; +3.3V, 32A; +12V, 15A + 17A; -12V, 0.3A; -5V, 2A
MSI P43NEO-F
IntelE7400
4GB OCZ RAM
MSI ATI HD4650 1GB
120, 160, 500GB HDDs
2 optical drives
Etc
Windows XP Home SP3

Answer 1

Quote from: hu479as on 15-September-09, 04:10:19
I think the audio out must be fine as it works just fine for general listening to CDs, LPs (!!), whatever played from the hifi. No distortion even with volume level (in "volume control") set at 100%  It's only the record level that's weird :-)
I'll try the headfone thing later, just trying to record something now!
Sorry, I'm not sure if this will help, as I haven't used Realtek HD audio for some time (always used add-in cards).  But in my experience, most sound controllers have an option in mixer to select the recording source (e.g. Mic In, Line In, S/PDIF-In, Wave, CD, etc).  In particular, many offer a recording source option for "What you hear" or "Stereo Mix".  Essentially, this would combine and capture the audio from every available source, rather than from just a single source.  I'm guessing it's a long shot but maybe you could change your recording source to this "mix" type (hopefully, something similar is available).  To reduce noise you'll probably want to MUTE other sources (Wave, MIDI, CD, etc.), though you could leave them enabled as well (try to avoid things that would inject noise).
I'm only suggesting this approach because you mention that the playback from your hifi is completely fine.  Only recording from line-in is distorted.  So perhaps, you can work around the problem by recording the mixed playback.  It shouldn't make any sense for this to be happening but maybe you'll be lucky??  My (worst-case) thought is that maybe your realtek HD's ADC is damaged and therefore playback is flawless but recording is flawed...
Another thought I had is mixer settings are often stored within an ini file.  If you or someone else could identify the file(s), then you should be able to view, and in turn, modify the numeric playback and recording levels.  That should aide you in adjusting the levels more precisely, rather than guessing levels via the obscure gui sliders.
It may turn out that none of my ideas are helpful, but I wish you good luck all the same.