Windows 10: Sound card recording distortion

I have been trying to record my piano and voice using my laptop using Audacity recording software and an external desktop microphone. After about 1 min or less, the recording volume shown on the waveform decreases dramatically on it's own. It also sounds very distorted on playback and seems to be clipping/dropping out difficult to describe. The same distortion occurs when I use the native Windows Voice Recorder program.Here are the specs on my HP laptop computerrocessor IntelR CoreTM i7-8550U CPU @ 1.80GHz 1.99 GHz 8th genInstalled RAM 16.0 GB 15.9 GB usableSystem type 64-bit operati

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recording sound with usb webcam - audio is distorted

Also - I don't know if this is relevant but the sound of the first couple of notes seems ok, and then the distortion comes in and stays, which suggests the laptop is doing something which affects the sound recorded.

 

Distorted Sound

Hi Zaki,

Distorted sound can be be produces if there is an issue with the hardware or software. Please answer the following questions for us to narrow down this concern:

• Is it affecting all music, videos, and online videos?
• Which sound card is set to default? Realtek High Definition Audio or High Definition Audio Device? You will know it by typing
  "sound" on the search box and select Sound, under Playback, the default speaker should have a check.

Please run Playing Audio Troubleshooter by following these steps:

• Type "troubleshooting" on the search box.
• Select Troubleshooting on the result.
• Click View all.
• Choose Playing Audio and follow the steps.

Looking forward to your reply.

 

sound distorted after windows 10 anniversary upgrade

This is where I'm at on my HP laptop with Windows 10 and the Anniversary update.

I completed step #3 "hardware and sound" but that took me to an option for "sound, speakers." There was no "properties" as step #4 suggests. I selected "sound, speakers" and then found "properties." After selecting "properties" there was no "enhancements
tab" as step #5 suggests.

Regardless, I then uninstalled the realtek audio driver. I noticed that when I did this without restarting my laptop that the sound was now tinny, but not distorted as it was previously. After restarting, the sound was again full, yet distorted.

Realtek still shows in my programs list, though it shows no memory is used.

Thanks for your continued help.