Windows 10: Muffled audio input

I have a new acer nitro 5. I teach guitar online and yesterday on both Skype and zoom I had audio issues. Both myself and my student could hear each others voices just fine, but when we played guitar, that was barely audible, mostly cut out and what sound did come through was very muffled.Of course we each tried adjusting the audio settings in Skype and zoom, lowering and removing the sound gates etc. I had the problem whether I used my built in microphone, or the mic on my USB webcam, or a microphone plugged into my Scarlett focusrite 2i2 audio interface.I tried recording in my Digital Audio

:)

 

audio input

Hi Nico,

Damaged hardware or incompatible driver are some of the possible causes why you are experiencing an issue the audio input on your device. For us to provide an accurate solution, we would need you to answer the following questions:

• Which build, version and edition of Windows is installed on your computer?
• Are you using an external audio input device? If yes, what is the make and model of the audio input device you are using as microphone?
  
• Have you made any changes to your computer settings before this issue happened?

In the meantime, we suggest running the automated troubleshooter for audio issue. Visit this link,
click on Find and fix problems recording sounds and then follow the prompts to successfully run the tool.

We are looking forward to your response.

 

Windows 10 Audio input to programs broken

Recently my audio input, from USB headset and USB guitar cable have stopped working. Going into Windows 'Sounds' and enabling 'Listen to this device' outputs the audio as expected; the problem is not with the devices. However, as soon as I try to use them with any other program, discord, for example, no audio input is detected by discord.

I have tried everything I can think of and some suggestions from Googling around;

• Updating everything - windows, drivers, all related software
  
• Rolling windows back to the last build
  
• Trying different USB ports
  
• Reinstalling drivers and software
  
• Running Windows troubleshooters
  
• Playing with device properties settings
  

But nothing seems to work, any suggestions?

 

Audio playback

unfortunately none of the steps that you suggested worked.the audio from the bluetooth headset still stutters and the audio from the wired headset when connected to the motherboard ports sounds muffled or to say with an electronic disturbance if that makes
sense. theres no audio when the wired headset is connected to the front jacks of the pc. theres three different problems but all of them correspond to the same category

i.e. AUDIO. any further help would be really appreciated.