How to make oscilloscope software work with High Definition Audio Codec?

Christopher Burke

Christopher Burke

New member
Jun 21, 2018
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Brighton Sussex UK
Dear Anyone.

What I want to do is to play the tracks I write and see what frequencies are being used on an oscilloscope, as my teacher keeps telling me I'm not using enough low end. I don't have a soundcard per se, I use the built-in High Definition Audio Codec by Realtek for everything. I downloaded several programs but they all say the equivalent of 'No wave-in device found. On Line (or Audio, or Scanner!) button disabled.'

How do I make them believe in High Definition Audio Codec? I just want to play my MP3s, created in Audacity, on Groove Music (or similar) and see a waveform telling me what frequencies are/aren't being used. How are these oscilloscopes supposed to work if they can't find the codec?

Yours puzzledly

Chris. [email protected].
 
I'll add that the "waveform" display within Audacity is essentially what you'll see on an oscilloscope, so you don't really gain anything by using an external tool. But in this case, as has already been mentioned, what you really want is a spectrum analyzer, and Audacity has one built in
 
Rob Timmerman said:
I'll add that the "waveform" display within Audacity is essentially what you'll see on an oscilloscope, so you don't really gain anything by using an external tool. But in this case, as has already been mentioned, what you really want is a spectrum analyzer, and Audacity has one built in
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Dear All.

Shall we play 'spot the dumbass noob!?' Been using Audacity for ages and totally missed that one!

Thanks for pointing it out to me - have now uninstalled the uselessnesses I downloaded and am using the built in one.

Yours thankfully,

Spot-da-Branecell (a.k.a. Chris!)
 
Don’t forget standard oscilloscopes do not natively do spectrum analysis. The tool for this is a spectrum analyser. Oscilloscopes are a very different thing, so you end up with both if you need this kind of thing.
 
You also need to consider that interpreting the results is not Instant. To show this, put a free sound dB app on your phone. They usually have a spectrum display. Play one of your tracks and play a commercial track in the same genre. You will see a crazy mess on the screen. Can you interpret that? Some will have a facility where you can retain the peaks, and gradually you will build a better picture of where the energy is. Almost certainly you will see lots of bass, even in yours your teacher has identified as bass light. When you listen, not look, at your material vs commercial tracks, can you hear what your teacher hears? They would have heard first, looked second. Being bass light is often a by product of bass heavy monitors, so you have dropped the level of the bass to compensate, but on other people’s systems it’s then bass light.
 
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