No sound from microphone?

[Kenny]

Gigabyte GA-MA779-UD3 m/b with onboard Realtek sound. Would like to use
it for karaoke but I can't get the voice from the mic to come through
the speakers and mix with the music. My older XP comp had a separate
Creative soundcard and I could do this easily, even putting effects on
the voice.
The Realtek software sees the mic as a recording device and I can see
the levels change when I speak into it but it won't come through the
speakers.
Using the latest drivers etc., only thing I don't understand is why
Device Manager shows sound device as both NVidia High Definition and
Realtek High Definition.
Is this a limitation of the onboard sound or am I missing something?
Do I need a separate soundcard similar to the old Creative SB Live?
Replies appreciated.

Kenny

 

[KCB]

Gigabyte GA-MA779-UD3 m/b with onboard Realtek sound. Would like to use
it for karaoke but I can't get the voice from the mic to come through the
speakers and mix with the music. My older XP comp had a separate Creative
soundcard and I could do this easily, even putting effects on the voice.
The Realtek software sees the mic as a recording device and I can see the
levels change when I speak into it but it won't come through the speakers.
Using the latest drivers etc., only thing I don't understand is why Device
Manager shows sound device as both NVidia High Definition and Realtek High
Definition.
Is this a limitation of the onboard sound or am I missing something?
Do I need a separate soundcard similar to the old Creative SB Live?
Replies appreciated.

Kenny

Check the Speakers Properties in the Control Panel/Sound. Look at the 2nd
tab called Levels. Make sure your mic isn't muted there.

 

[Kenny]

Check the Speakers Properties in the Control Panel/Sound. Look at the
2nd tab called Levels. Make sure your mic isn't muted there.

Sound mixer doesn't show the mic as separate and adjustable relative to
the music like the Creative card did. It, together with a webcam mic,
show in Recording Devices with the choice of selecting either as
Default. Mic not muted, level is fully up and even mic boost turned up,

Kenny

 

[Kenny]

Check the Speakers Properties in the Control Panel/Sound. Look at the
2nd tab called Levels. Make sure your mic isn't muted there.

It's OK, I found it!
It was in Recording/MIcrophone Properties/Listen/tick box "Listen to
this device" through Default Playback Device.
Not as good as the old Creative SB but will do for now.
Thanks.

Kenny

 

[Paul]

Gigabyte GA-MA779-UD3 m/b with onboard Realtek sound. Would like to use
it for karaoke but I can't get the voice from the mic to come through
the speakers and mix with the music. My older XP comp had a separate
Creative soundcard and I could do this easily, even putting effects on
the voice.
The Realtek software sees the mic as a recording device and I can see
the levels change when I speak into it but it won't come through the
speakers.
Using the latest drivers etc., only thing I don't understand is why
Device Manager shows sound device as both NVidia High Definition and
Realtek High Definition.
Is this a limitation of the onboard sound or am I missing something?
Do I need a separate soundcard similar to the old Creative SB Live?
Replies appreciated.

Kenny

The RealTek driver actually has a Karaoke icon in the interface,
together with some kind of level adjustment. The RealTek interface
has changed over the years, so may not look like this.

http://www.sensible-computer-help.com/images/realtekmgr.jpg

You have to be careful, when your computer has several sound
sources and sinks, to enable the ones you want as the default
choice. For example, the HDMI link on a video card, is considered
a sound output. The microphone on a webcam is considered a sound
input (and won't interface to the RealTek Karaoke thing). If you
attempt to use the RealTek feature, you'd want to make sure both
the input and output defaults are set to your RealTek chip, and
not some other source/sink devices. And then, the microphone
would have to be plugged into the RealTek microphone port.

You've already seen evidence (from some VU meter you're looking at),
that a signal is present, so it probably isn't a level problem. Just
a mixer selection problem.

Applications in Windows, can use the default choices for their purposes.
This makes the programming easy for the developer. Programs like
WinAmp on the other hand, have additional code to handle doing output
to more than one device at the same time. Originally, I'd thought
that Windows was brain dead enough, to limit I/O to the default
selections, but apparently that is not the case. If you write
enough code, you can use all the devices at the same time. You might
even end up writing some of your own mixer code. It's the complexity
that is a road block to doing cool things.

Paul

 

[Kenny]

thats the new interface with alot of the features removed the old version
had mine looks like this was better before windows 7 now realtek has removed
some of the good features but thats now a days pc makers for you anything to
save a buck off production costs.

Tried audio drivers from both Gigabyte and Realtek but don't have the
Realtek HD Audio Manager, not in Program Files or anywhere else.

Kenny

 

[Paul]

Tried audio drivers from both Gigabyte and Realtek but don't have the
Realtek HD Audio Manager, not in Program Files or anywhere else.

Kenny

If you look in Control Panels, it should be in there.

When I run the RealTek control panel on my Win7 x64 laptop,
the program I find running with Task Manager is "ravcpl64.exe",
about a 9MB file.

Using explorer and searching for it, I found it in:

C:\Program Files\Realtek\Audio

and perhaps you'll find it there. I seem to have about
three copies on the machine here, but they may be old
install folders and the like.

If I use Sysinternals "Autoruns" program, the Realtek installer
also has loaded "ravcpl64.exe" into one of the Run keys. Implying
the code runs at startup when you boot (but the control panel will
not appear on your screen). Maybe the intention is for there to be
an icon in the tray, but I can't see one here. If I want to see
the RealTek stuff, I have to head over to control panels to get it.

(Autoruns, for turning startup items on and off)
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902

So go to your Start text box and enter "ravcpl64.exe" without the
double quotes, and see if the system can find the executable. If
it can't be found, try navigating to the Program Files thing.

I turned on indexing on the laptop here, to speed up searching,
but even without that, the system may laboriously be able to find it.

As far as I can tell (without testing it), the Karaoke icon and
adjustment, are for stopping feedback, from when the microphone
picks up signal from the speakers. Some info on the subject
can be found here.

http://www.rane.com/note158.html

Paul

 

[Kenny]

If you look in Control Panels, it should be in there.

When I run the RealTek control panel on my Win7 x64 laptop,
the program I find running with Task Manager is "ravcpl64.exe",
about a 9MB file.

Using explorer and searching for it, I found it in:

C:\Program Files\Realtek\Audio

and perhaps you'll find it there. I seem to have about
three copies on the machine here, but they may be old
install folders and the like.

If I use Sysinternals "Autoruns" program, the Realtek installer
also has loaded "ravcpl64.exe" into one of the Run keys. Implying
the code runs at startup when you boot (but the control panel will
not appear on your screen). Maybe the intention is for there to be
an icon in the tray, but I can't see one here. If I want to see
the RealTek stuff, I have to head over to control panels to get it.

(Autoruns, for turning startup items on and off)
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902

So go to your Start text box and enter "ravcpl64.exe" without the
double quotes, and see if the system can find the executable. If
it can't be found, try navigating to the Program Files thing.

I turned on indexing on the laptop here, to speed up searching,
but even without that, the system may laboriously be able to find it.

As far as I can tell (without testing it), the Karaoke icon and
adjustment, are for stopping feedback, from when the microphone
picks up signal from the speakers. Some info on the subject
can be found here.

http://www.rane.com/note158.html

Paul

Found it in that location but it's named RtkNGUI.exe in mine, pinned it
to Taskbar. If I do a search for the file you mentioned I can only find
it in an earlier downloaded Realtek driver package, not the most recent.
Thanks for the reply.

Kenny