Sound Card Mixer Tutorial for Windows

Control Sound Output

Double-click on the speaker icon in your taskbar tray, at the lower right hand corner of the screen. (Several of our programs offer another way to activiate the mixer play control, by clicking menu Options->Mixer Play Control or similar menu item.)

If you do not have a speaker icon in your taskbar tray, check Start button->Settings->Control Panel->Multimedia->Audio->Show volume control on the taskbar.

Double-clicking the taskbar speaker icon causes the Play Control window to appear.

Play Control screenshot

You can control which sound card speaker-input controls appear in the Play Control window. In Play Control menu Options->Properties,

Play Control Options screenshot

check the controls you wish to appear, and click OK. Hint: We keep nearly every control checked.

Play Control with inputs displayed

For each speaker-input shown, you will see a Volume slider and Mute checkbox, and perhaps other controls for balance, etc. The Volume slider controls loudness for that particular speaker input, and Mute can turn it off completely. For instance, suppose you want your microphone input to sound at your speaker, so you can annoy the fellow in the next office. Turn the Microphone Volume slider to some high amount, and unMute the Microphone checkbox. Try it now! (However, for most applications, we prefer the Microphone speaker-output to be muted, so mute it now.)

Suppose you connected a radio-scanner to your sound card Line-In for recording with RecAll-PRO, but you did not want the radio to sound at your speakers. In Play Control, check the Mute checkbox for Line-In.

Control Recording

Always remember that the Play Control window only deals with speaker output, and does not control recording! It is a natural mistake to go into Play Control and uncheck the Microphone Mute control and turn up the Microphone Volume, and then wonder why your nifty Sagebrush program is not recording from the Microphone. It doesn't work that way!

Bring up the Play Control window as above. In menu Options->Properties,

Play Control options

check Recording and check all the controls, and click OK. The Play Control window is replaced by Record Control. (Several of our programs offer another way to activiate the mixer play control, by clicking menu Options->Mixer Record Control or similar menu item.)

Record Control screenshot

For each recording-input, you will notice a Select checkbox and Volume slider. If you want to record from Microphone, check the Microphone Select checkbox. If you want to record from Line-In, check the Line-In Select checkbox. If the recording volume is too low, turn up the appropriate Volume slider.

Sometimes you may wish to record streaming audio. Many modern sound cards present a recording input called Wave that may work. Several sound cards also offer a recording input called "What U Hear" or a similar name, that records anything that can be heard over the computer speakers.


Go to Sagebrush Systems home page for unique Windows software.