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Teach Me Piano Deluxe
48
Troubleshooting Digital Audio Problems
Some of the basic problems that occur with PC sound functions can easily be remedied by checking the Windows
mixer, which lets you control the volume of the different components on your PC’s sound system. To open the mixer,
click on the Mixer button at the top right section of the Sound Check screen.
Some typical “mixer related” problems include:
The sound
is too low or there’s no sound at all.
Some of the sound components work, but others do not. For example, you can hear MIDI sounds but not digital
audio sounds.
Checking Digital Recording and Playback
To use the digital audio features in Recording station and Jammin’ Keys, you must make sure that your computer’s
microphone is set up properly and that your PC is properly playing digital audio. SoundCheck can be used to test this
as follows:
1.
Make sure you have a functioning microphone that is rated to perform properly on your PC, and that it is
plugged into the PC microphone jack.
2.
Launch SoundCheck from the Piano Room menu.
3.
To test your soundcard’s “Wave”, or digital audio output, click on “Wave Output Test” in SoundCheck and
follow the on-screen instructions.
4.
Once the Wave Output Test is completed successfully, click on “Wave Input Test” to check the microphone.
5.
You should be able to speak into your microphone and see a reading on the SoundCheck meter. If not, check
that the Microphone is selected as the recording source in your mixer by clicking on the Mixer button on the top
right of the SoundCheck screen, then choose the Record tab. There you will see check boxes below each fader
with “Select” next to them. Find your Microphone fader and make sure it’s checked. You can then close the
mixer and go back to the SoundCheck screen.
6.
Follow the on-screen instructions for the Wave Input Test. If you have problems, click the Troubleshooting
button and follow the instructions.
Digital Audio and the Windows TEMP file
One large difference between MIDI and digital audio is the size of the files they create. MIDI files that you create with
your MIDI keyboard are small and take up very little space on your hard drive. Conversely, digital audio files that you
create with your microphone can get large very quickly, and require much more hard disk space.
Once you’ve recorded a number of digital audio files, i.e. vocals, in Recording Station or Jammin’ Keys, it’s possible
that you may get a message to the effect that you’ve run out of space to record. This rarely happens, but here’s how to
fix the problem.
While recording digital audio (or “Wave” audio, as it’s referred to in these programs) in Recording Station and Jammin’
Keys, the files are temporarily saved to the Windows TEMP directory. To find this, follow these instructions:
1.
Open up your Windows Explorer window by right-clicking the My Computer icon on your Desktop and
choosing
Explore.
2.
Open up your C:\ drive by clicking on its plus sign. You can now see the folders under C:\.
3.
Navigate to your Windows folder and click its plus sign.
4.
Navigate to the TEMP directory and double-click its folder icon.
Once you’ve saved a recording, they are stored in their proper folders. But while recording, if you’ve gotten the
message in Recording Station or Jammin’ Keys that you’ve run out of space to record, you’ll find that the Wndows
TEMP folder is filled with files. Even though they remain on your computer, these files have outlived their usefulness
and can be deleted to make room for your microphone recordings. Clear the TEMP folder of as many files as you can,
then return to your program. You should now be able to continue recording Wave audio. And again, once saved, these
files are no longer in the TEMP directory.
If you continually get the problem where you’re running out of space, you might want to consider getting a larger hard
drive with more capacity.
