Missing sound recording option "Stereo Mix" / "Record What you hear" / "Waveout mix"

Here is how to find out if your sound card is able to record audio with Sound Recorder (in Windows XP):

1. Locate “Volume” icon on your taskbar and double click to open Volume Control dialog box.
   
   
   If you cannot find the Volume icon, go to Control Panel -> Double click the Sounds and Audio Devices icon. Click the Advanced button in Device Volume section under Volume tab.
2. From the Volume Control dialog box, click Options menu -> Properties.
3. Select Recording in “Adjust Volume for” section, and select all the volume controls appearing in the bottom half of the screen. Click OK to continue.
   
   
   
   Note. You may see a different devices listed depending on your sound card.
4. You will see the Volume control dialog box is now changed to “Recording Control”, leave this window open, and run Sound Recorder: Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Entertainment -> Sound Recorder.
   
5. Now you should have both Sound Recorder and the Recording Control on your screen, let’s play music. You can play any music using any music player like Windows Media Player, Winamp, AIMP or iTunes, for example.
6. Click Record button on the Sound Recorder while you’re playing music to see if you can see wave in the black rectangle box inside the Sound Recorder.
   
   
7. If the green line does not move, select different recording device from the Recording Control window.

Since Microsoft intentionally removes the Stereo Mix / Waveout Mix option from its drivers, you need to try to download the latest version of the sound card driver and install it. If you have an onboard sound card, go to the support section of the manufacturer of your PC (such as Dell/HP/Toshiba/Sony/Fujitsu/Lenovo/Acer) and download an audio driver for your model of the PC that works with your Windows version. Please note that the manufacturer doesn't support Windows 7, you can try to use Windows Vista driver, althouth there is no guarantee that it will work and will not damage your hardware.


If you can't find a driver, you need to know the sound card that your PC has. Then you can go to the web-site of RealTek, Sigmatel, Creative,... and download a driver for your particular model that works on Windows 7/XP/Vista/....

If the driver has an installer, you can easily install it. If the driver doesn't come with an installer, unpack it and:

1. Open "Control Panel".
2. Open "System".
3. On the left side under Tasks click on the "Device Manager".
4. Scroll down to "Sound, video and game controller"
5. Open that and you will see "High definition audio"
6. Right click and select "Update driver software"
7. In the new window choose "Browse my computer" and "Let me pick..."
8. Uncheck the "Show compatible hardware" box
9. Click "Have disk"
10. Browse to the location that you extracted your driver files to and just keep opening the Vista folder until you get to a bunch of .INF files. Don't select any of those just have that open. Your computer should have the one it needs in the file name box. Just click open and then "OK".
11. The window should open with a list of drivers. Choose your one and hit "Next" to install it.

If your device has stopped working after updating your driver you can roll it back.

When updating your driver, you can get a message that you have the highest update available. Click the "Roll back driver" button.

You can also roll back your driver from the Device Manager:

1. Click "Start".
2. Select "Run".
3. Type "devmgmt.msc" (without quotes) and press "Enter".
4. Double click on "Sound, video and game controllers".
5. Right click on the device and select "Properties".
6. Select the "Driver" tab and click the "Roll back" button

Note that if you not only don't have the stereo mix / waveout mix, but also have the No audio output problem, you need to download and install the latest version of the driver or update it. You can also try the following:

• In the Device Manager right click and disable your audio. Then right click and enable it.
• Plug in external stereo speakers to the stereo jack. Windows detects whether anything is plugged into the stereo jack. After recognizing the speakers, it should install the driver.
• Re-install the driver in the Safe mode.

More solutions:
Problem: Missing sound recording option: No Stereo Mix, Wave-out Mix, Record What You Hear option

Originally Posted by any ANONYMOUS forum user

hi

We're using Sony, Dell, HP and Acer laptops with built-in sound cards like (Intel Sound AC'97) in our network. All these laptops use Windows Vista or Windows 7. I have a couple of PCs that do have the Stereo Mix option if Windows XP, but don't have it in Windows 7 or Vista.

I can't find a working solution for recording sound internally via the mixer. There should be an option like "Stereo Mix" / "Record What you hear" / "Waveout mix" etc. listed in the mixer output.

Updated Sigmatel, Realtek, Intel drivers didn't change anything


Do I have to use an audio cable from output to input on the back on these laptops to "record what i hear" ?

Anybody with a hint on that subject ? Is there actually a tool for Windows Vista or Windows 7? Should we downgrade to Windows XP to be able to record sound?

We were not willing to switch to Linux, but safer Internet and safer office work almost without viruses and trojans looks promising. If we switch to Linux, will there be an option like "Stereo Mix" / "Record What you hear" / "Waveout mix" or similar? What Linux distributive is good enough for sound recording, office work, Internet browsing and VoIP?

Salutation

Windows 7 looks like a service pack for Vista, but it doesn't fix the audio recording problem. Microsoft is purposefully preventing us from recording sound.

First of all you need to try to enable the "Wave Out mix" ("Stereo Mix", "Record What you hear")

How to enable the "Wave Out mix" ("Stereo Mix", "Record What you hear") in Windows 7/Vista

1. Go to the Control panel and double click the "Sound".
2. Select the "Recording" tab
3. Right click on the background of the tab and select "Show Disabled Devices"
4. Find the "Wave Out mix" ("Stereo Mix", "Record What you hear") item, right click on it and select Enable.
   Now you can capture audio from any program in Windows 7/Vista.

The problem is that you won't be able to enable the "Wave Out mix" ("Stereo Mix", "Record What you hear") on many computers with built-in sound cards. But you can use software that doesn't need the "Wave Out mix" ("Stereo Mix", "Record What you hear") recording option to record audio from your sound card:

Direct sound recording software allowing to record audio without Stereo Mix/Wave-Out Mix/What U Hear

• Freecorder (Freeware) - sound recording program (Windows 7, Vista or XP),
• Jaksta Free Media Recorder (Freeware)
• Replay Music - shareware sound recording program that can split and tag songs automatically (Windows 7, Vista, XP or 2000),
• Replay AV - shareware stream recorder that is good for scheduling online audio recordings (Windows 7, Vista, XP, XP, Server 2003; x32 or x64),
• Replay Media Catcher - shareware stream recorder that can record audio from your sound card as well (Windows 7, Vista, XP, 2000, Server 2003),
• Ask & Record Toolbar (Freeware) - sound recording program (Windows 7, Vista or XP)
• All Sound Recorder - shareware sound recording program with a scheduler (Windows Vista or 7)

Screencastign software allowing to record video with sound even if you don't have Stereo Mix/Wave-Out Mix/What U Hear

• WM Capture - shareware screen recorder that allows to record both audio and video (Windows 7, Vista or XP),
• Replay Video Capture - shareware screen recorder that allows to record both audio and video (Windows 7, Vista or XP),

Virtual Sound Card software

• Virtual Audio Cable - shareware software that creates a virtual audio device (Windows 7, Vista, XP, 2003; x32 or x64)
• Virtual Audio Streaming - shareware software that creates a virtual sound card (Windows 7, Vista; x32 or x64)

As you can see, the programs work not only in Windows XP, but also in Windows Vista and Windows 7. In fact these programs can be the only way to record audio from your sound card.

Freecorder4, Replay Music, Replay AV, Replay Video Capture, Replay Media Catcher, Ask&Recorder Toolbar, WM Capture use a universal audio driver allowing you to record sound even on those computers that do NOT have a sound card!

The same sound card may have different drivers, and some of them can have the Stereo Mix / Wave-Out mix, while it won't be available in other drivers. You may need to try different drivers to find out which one will work for you:

• From the manufacturer of your computer (Dell, HP, Sony, Acer, Asus, Toshiba, Lenovo, LG, Samsung,...)
• From the manufacturer of your sound card (Intel, Creative...)
• From the designer of your sound card (RealTek, Sigmatel,...)

You can also try to use a sound card driver from another manufacturer (for example, an LG driver for an Acer laptop), but make sure the driver is made for exactly the same sound card and the same Windows version that you have!

You can try different drivers, but make sure that a sound card driver is compatible with your hardware. Otherwise you can damage it!

[any ANONYMOUS forum user]

Do you have "Wave Out" ??? If you do basically those who don't have "Stereo Mix", use the "Wave Out" option, a replacement for VISTA users.

To enable Wave Out in Windows Vista:

1. Click the "Start" and open the "Control panel"
2. Click "Classic view"
3. Double click the "Sound"
4. Select the "Recording" tab
5. Right click on the "Wave Out" and make it default.
6. Click "OK"

Or you also try to "Show Disabled Devices" and "Show Disconnected Devices".
To enable disabled Stereo Mix in Windows Vista:

1. Click the "Start" and open the "Control panel"
2. Click "Classic view"
3. Double click the "Sound"
4. Select the "Recording" tab and right click any of the devices listed
5. Check "Show Disabled Devices" and "Show Disconnected Devices"
6. "Stereo-mix" , "Wave Out", "Mono-mix" or "What-you-hear" should show up. Set it as a default.
7. Click "OK"

If the "Stereo Mix" doesn't come up after you do the above, it may be disabled at hardware or driver level.

To record from your sound card without the Stereo Mix/ Waveout mix, you can connect line-out of your cound card with line-in (or speakers out with mic in) using an audio cable (that has a 3.5mm mini-stereo male on both sides). Although this is not the best method. In many cases the quality deteriorates significantly when using it.

Another option is to buy a sound card that has a "Wave Out Mix" / "Stereo Mix" / "Record What you hear" or a similar option.
For example, some USB sound cards from Creative support Stereo Mix/Wave-Out Mix/What U Hear. Although if you use a laptop, you'll probably won't like to have an external sound card (at least this is the last option I would use).


See also Vendor specific solutions:
How to modify the installation package of SoundMax driver to enable the Stereo Mix option

Originally Posted by any ANONYMOUS forum user

We were not willing to switch to Linux, but safer Internet and safer office work almost without viruses and trojans looks promising. If we switch to Linux, will there be an option like "Stereo Mix" / "Record What you hear" / "Waveout mix" or similar? What Linux distributive is good enough for sound recording, office work, Internet browsing and VoIP?

You can install Linux as your second OS and try it for yourself. There are many Linux distributives and I don't really know whether the Stereo Mix is available for all of them, but I know for sure how to solve the recording problem in Ubuntu Karmic Koala that I use:
How to record from your sound card in Ubuntu 9.10 with Audacity even if you don't have the Stereo Mix option

Installing Linux might not be an easy solution, but still it might be worth to try an OS, that is safer and faster than Windows Vista and Windows 7. There are many free distributives to choose from including Ubuntu, Fedora, OpenSuse, Slackware, Mint, Gentoo ...