I am using this ThinkCentre mini-pc. The microphone and headphone/speaker jacks are the analog sound input and output. They connect inside the computer to an electronic circuit from Realtek. It is what used to be called a sound card.
The computer has Windows10 installed. We will see how the software works with these circuits and what happens when Windows adds more sound cards. Most of the screen captures will be with this machine.
Windows Device ManagerType Device Manager into the little box on the bottom left of your Windows computer screen.
A panel opens showing the components of your computer. Some of these are electronic circuits, some are programs functioning as virtual devices. Click to show Audio inputs and outputs and Sound, video and game controllers.
If you see Other devices with red or yellow symbols on them that means you are missing drivers. Your computer isn't certain how to use the devices and you may have to either disable them or search on the interweb. The computer maker probably has a webpage with drivers specific to that machine to download and install.
Virtual DevicesA program generating sound, video or printouts is just as real a device as something built out of electronics. The Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth is a real synthesizer from the 1990s. It can make the same sound as the organ at the hockey game.
Go to the little speaker icon in the bottom right corner of your Windows computer screen. Left-Click and you see the active sound circuit for your speakers. If there is a little triangle click on it and you can select another sound output.
Right-click on the same speaker icon and you see different options. It's all complicated for good reasons. Select Sounds.
New panel showing sound output Playback devices. Right-click on a device for menu. Try Test. Do you hear a dingle on left and right speakers?
Do you have problems where your screen times out and you have to restart the computer hear sound, again? When the screen turned off the computer stopped using it for sound. Tell Windows Set as Default Device and it will prefer using it for sound on restart and wakeup.
Recording TabNow we see our audio sound inputs. You will see if microphones are plugged. You may not have any on your computer.
Click on the properties button. Click Listen tab, check Listen to the this device tick box and your working Playback device.
There is a good reason your computer does not want you to play your microphone out your speakers. You may be about to learn about audio feedback. Be ready to turn your sound off in a hurry.
Audio FeedbackOn a laptop you may experience the microphone amplifying the sounds coming out the speakers. A squealing noise that you need to mute or cancel. Headphones are safe.
LatencyYou may notice a significant lag between the microphone detecting sound and it exiting the speakers. This is called latency and is because sound isn't natural to the calculating device that is a computer.
All of the data reading/writing and buffering adds computing steps to handling sound. Your ears and eyes can detect delays of 50milliSeconds = 1/20th of a second.
Codec=Coder/DecoderCodecs used to be electronic circuits that code and decode sound or pictures. Today they are mostly software programs. Learning about PCM pulse code modulation will explain so much about digital audio.
This computer has installed a demonstration version of Guitar Rig 7 which added a WASAPI sound driver. Like a virtual device it transports sound across the computer with reduced latency.
Docking Port MultiplierI am adding this USB device called a port replicator. The ThinkCentre PC has VGA and DisplayPort classic video connectors. To add HDMI I can use this box.
Properly setup we can connect monitor displays and sound systems as if they were part of our computer. The pink microphone and green headset jacks can replace the ones on the computer body.
Device Manager will bounce and you will see swirly patterns as Windows Updates does its job and finds drivers for as many of the parts of this as possible. We may end up with unidentified devices and either find drivers or disable them.
As Windows installs drivers we will see new audio ports show up where we saw the Realtek and HDMI display. A blue USB3.0 compliant cable is needed to ensure the box has enough bandwidth to support all the functions.
HDMI and DisplayPort use a lot of bits. It's possible that the DisplayLink circuit in the Docking device will help the PC make pictures on the screen.
The Problem Is..When you start your computer, it may think you want sound to come out the docking station. It might have multiple sound outputs. Yours might even have 7.1 channel surround sound or S-PDIF optical sound output ports.
You may want to disable it.
HD Audio ManagerYou may have a window like this appear on your computer. We call it a GUI graphical user interface for managing your computer sound system. Turn on surround sound system, mute microphones.
Not a driver but a sound utility. Your PC manufacturer bundles it with your computer and have it as a download on their support page.
Let's get technicalYour PC is hiding some details from you. Things like data speed should be sorted out in your computer with default sound quality. A professional audio studio may need something different.
Earlier digital sound systems encountered popping noise as different sound streams were blended together.
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