Soundbooth not playing (silence)

Hanspuppa-

Thanks for the reply.  That's interesting, and disppointing.  What confuses me is that there *is* a waveform display in the file I recorded (which matches the sound I recorded).  And when I click the play button the sound level meters at the top of the screen indicate that the sound is playing.  So it seems like it has recorded the sound.  However, no sound comes out of the speakers.  It seems like more of an output problem.

Thanks again.

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@lexluther wrote:

Hanspuppa-

Thanks for the reply.  That's interesting, and disppointing.  What confuses me is that there *is* a waveform display in the file I recorded (which matches the sound I recorded).  And when I click the play button the sound level meters at the top of the screen indicate that the sound is playing.  So it seems like it has recorded the sound.  However, no sound comes out of the speakers.  It seems like more of an output problem.

Thanks again.

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Hello lexluther, What you describe does seem interesting.

 

I was able to record with my microphone placed between my two desktop speakers using the builtin Vista record program and it worked surprisingly well.

 

The quality was not as good as I would have preferred, but was acceptable.

 

I think I saw somewhre that you could listen to audio via the output jack on the front panel using earphones, just not from the speakers. They mentioned DRM (digital rights management) implemented by Dell on this system.

 

I am not sure about this since I have not tried it however.

 

Hope this helps.

Hello lexluther, I don't think the other software will work either.

The only way around this Dell fiasco would be to purchase another sound card.

I don't do very much music at all so I don't really need this capability.

The Soundbooth program does work well if it had the proper sound card to work with.

I have several sound programs and Soundbooth works better than all the others.

I am considering the Soundblaster series sound card as an addin and just disable the onboard sound.

There are several version of this sound card, and it just depends on how much you want to, or can afford to spend on one.

It is a shame that a Dell customer pays the price for a system of this class and has to spend even more to get it to work as it should have when purchased.

Dell has the Soundblaster options on their web site but I would search elsewhere if I were to purchase one.

I wish you well in your quest to get your sound system as it should have been when shipped.

Hope this helps.

Hanspuppa-

Thanks again for the "input".  If I can't get Soundbooth to work, and I can't get Dell to get it to work, I guess I'll try the software called Audacity.  I had it on my Dell Dimension 3000, and it worked very well for what I want, and it's free!  I am disappointed that the Adobe software (Soundbooth) doesn't even seem as good as the free software.  I was trying to avoid putting any more extra software on my new XPS than I had to.

Oh, well, Dell.

Thanks again.

Hanspuppa-

Thanks again for your help.  I have good news...It's WORKING!

I called Customer Service, and got tech support (I think that free software support is available for maybe 21 days after you receive your PC; I received mine from Dell 13 days ago).  I thought that I had tried all the possible settings in Soundbooth, but apparently not.  We went to Edit>Preferences>Audio Hardware>Settings.  Under DirectSound Output Ports, there are 4 choices.   The first 2 are both "SigmaTel High Definition Audio CODEC".  Only the second one was selected.  We selected the first one, and it worked!  So, now I can hear the file.

It would be nice if there was a manual or handbook for this software, so mere mortals like myself wouldn't have to muddle through all of this.

Thanks again, and I hope this helps you and /or anyone else.

-Lex 

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@lexluther wrote:

Hanspuppa-

 

Thanks again for your help.  I have good news...It's WORKING!

 

I called Customer Service, and got tech support (I think that free software support is available for maybe 21 days after you receive your PC; I received mine from Dell 13 days ago).  I thought that I had tried all the possible settings in Soundbooth, but apparently not.  We went to Edit>Preferences>Audio Hardware>Settings.  Under DirectSound Output Ports, there are 4 choices.   The first 2 are both "SigmaTel High Definition Audio CODEC".  Only the second one was selected.  We selected the first one, and it worked!  So, now I can hear the file.

 

It would be nice if there was a manual or handbook for this software, so mere mortals like myself wouldn't have to muddle through all of this.

 

Thanks again, and I hope this helps you and /or anyone else.

 

-Lex 

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Thanks lexluther, for the update. Very glad to hear your problem has been resolved.

 

I checked the settings you refered to, and both my channels were checked.

 

I am able to open a sound file and see the wave form and play the file and hear it through the speakers.

 

I just cannot record any audio through the Sigmatel onboard device from any input except through the microphone connected into the front input port.

 

This is not an issue with me since I don't use that feature anyway.

 

Again, glad you got yours to work as you wanted.