To test
this hypothesis, try installing another copy of Vista alongside your current
installation; see Chapter 1 for details on setting up a dual-boot system.
172 | Chapter 4: Working with Media
Get Windows to Listen
Want to transfer those old vinyl LPs to MP3s? Want to use voice dictation
software? Want to record video, and need to send the audio track through
your sound card? Want to use your PC as a makeshift karaoke machine?
Getting Vista to record that sound may not be so easy.
Vista allows more than one audio device, a ???feature??? that usually makes
troubleshooting audio problems needlessly complicated (as evidenced by the
previous section). This is particularly true when recording sound, given that
Windows can only record from one source at a time.
A single audio device may have two or three audio inputs: an analog (mono)
microphone input, an analog stereo ???Line-In??? or auxiliary input, and sometimes
a digital S/PDIF input. And special devices, like voice dictation headsets
and TV tuner cards, have their own inputs. All the inputs for all your
audio devices are listed in Control Panel ??? Sound ??? Recording tab, shown
in Figure 4-11. (Most desktop sound cards also have internal inputs for CD
audio, discussed in the previous section, but these almost never show up in
Control Panel.)
To choose the default audio source, highlight the device you want to use
and click Set Default. Most applications will automatically use the default
device to record sound, but some (particularly voice-dictation software)
require that you choose a source separately in the application itself.
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