Recording Sound with Vista

Windows Vista oftens ships with limited sound processing functionality. For example, Sony VAIO and Toshiba laptops ship with fully functional sound cards, but if you try to record you will find only a microphone input available. That may be fine for video chat, but what if you want to process sound in a production environment? There is a solution:

Click the Start button, and select Control Panels. Choose the Hardware and Sound control panel. From the Sound section, select "Manage Audio Devices." The Sound manager window will appear, with three tabs: Playback, Recording and Sound. Click on the Recording tab. On many systems, only a microphone input will be listed. To see the full range of your sound card options, right-click in the blank area of the window. Check the line for "Show disabled devices."

You should now have a choice to activate "Stereo Mix" or other sound card functions. Stereo Mix will give you an extra slider in your volume controls (at the lower right of the taskbar), allowing you to control the volume of your mix. Now you can record from software inputs.

Wireless Interference

As wireless networks proliferate, wireless interference is becoming a bigger issue, especially for small business in a metropolitan area. The number one symptom is an intermittent connection. If your signal strength is already low, you may be receiving an interfering signal from a neighboring router. Two solutions are possible.

Some routers allow you to boost the power of the signal, for example the new 2-WIRE boxes from AT&T, which offers power settings from one to ten. Your other option is to scan the surrounding signals to determine if there is a free channel. Channels 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, and 10 simply overlap the main U.S. channels of 1, 6, and 11. Therefore it's really only beneficial to use the non-overlapping channels. Switch to 1, 6 or 11 and retest. Higher frequency channels may provide better resistance to interference.