MY DIGITAL CHAOS

It’s with a heavy heart I announce that Colorado Springs Legend ANADIES has been laid to rest…

For the last six years, this great band has taken to the streets, bringing their unique music to the masses. They released two CDs: “Formamentum” and “Prevail” - their newest addition.

Anadies is:

Christy Lynn - Lead Vocals
Jeff Pyle - Guitar, Keys
Dave Zahara - Guitar, Keys, Vocals
Tom Davis - Bass, Keys
Isaac Lumberg - Drums

Originally Talia Hoit was exclusively on keys and backup vocals as well, but she left the group to pursue her own solo project.

The band members are still friends and many of them will be heading on to new projects.

Their website is at http://anadies.com/
Check out their myspace page at http://myspace.com/anadies
Also check out their store at http://anadies.info/anadiesstore/catalog/index.php

I hear there’s a few copies of the new CD available, but not many and they’re going VERY fast. It is also available for download at $5 / CD so go get your copy of CO Springs history.

Ok, so I’ve been trying to address problems on my Dell Inspiron 1720. It’s a great machine, runs Microsoft Windows VISTA 32bit (I know, some of you will start nagging about formatting and putting on XP, too bad) it’s fully loaded, plenty of stuff to keep me busy… but there ARE some drawbacks. Dell uses (at least for my laptop, and several other models) the “SigmaTel High Definition Audio Codec” which for the most part sounds great, but it has some flaws too!

In this post, I show you how to keep your MP3 files from skipping during playback!
There are also a lot of people reporting game music/sounds skipping with the same setup. This article should remedy that as well.

Tested Platform: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 32bit running on Dell i1720 Laptop
Symptoms: Skipping MP3 / game audio
Diffuclty Rating: 1 (Anyone can do this)

IF YOU BREAK ANYTHING WHILE ATTEMPTING THIS WALK-THROUGH, I WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES! THIS IS DONE AT YOUR OWN RISK!

Ok, so I’ve been trying to address problems on my Dell Inspiron 1720. It’s a great machine, runs Microsoft Windows VISTA 32bit (I know, some of you will start nagging about formatting and putting on XP, too bad) it’s fully loaded, plenty of stuff to keep me busy… but there ARE some drawbacks. Dell uses (at least for my laptop, and several other models) the “SigmaTel High Definition Audio Codec” which for the most part sounds great, but it has some flaws too!

In this post, I show you how to actually USE your Line-in for more than just recording. Now you want to HEAR whats coming in on that port.

Here’s the bad news: Either Microsoft forgot to add in a button to UNMUTE the pass-through feature which would allow this, or it’s the SigmaTel High Defenition Audio Codec (after having other audio related problems due to this, I’m starting to think the problem lies with the audio coded).

Here’s the good news: It’s relatively simple to add the MUTE/UNMUTE button to the volume control to allow the use of the Line-In jack.

Now I’ll be upfront about this: Yes, it IS easy to pull this off - we just have to be careful to not stray off the mission and start messing with things other than what we’re here to mess with.

If you’ve never edited your registry before, or you’re not comfortable editing your registry you should create a system restore point Goto Control Panel -> System and Maintenance -> Restore files from backup -> Create a restore point or change settings. (to be honest you should probably create a restore point even if you are a veteran, but I leave that up to you).

Tested Platform: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 32bit running on Dell i1720 Laptop
Symptoms: Can’t unmute LINE-IN Pass through
Diffuclty Rating: 3 (Not too hard, Some registry editing involved.)

IF YOU BREAK ANYTHING WHILE ATTEMPTING THIS WALK-THROUGH, I WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES! THIS IS DONE AT YOUR OWN RISK!

Ok, here we go…

1. Open Regedit (Start Button -> type regedit) (you may have to tell vista to go ahead if you have UAC turned on - it is by default)
2. (be sure you match the names/numbers EXACTLY as I have them here or it may not work)

Navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\
{4D36E96C-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\0000\Settings\filter\SpeakerHp\

3. Create a new Binary Value (Right-click in the right pane, then New -> Binary Value
4. Give it the name EnableInputMonitor
5. Set it’s value to 01 (it’ll say 0000 01 when you have it right)
6. Restart your machine (if you skip this, the changes wont be loaded, I’m sure theres another way to reload the registry, but I haven’t found it.)
7. Open your Playback Devices (right click on the icon in system tray, select Playback Devices)
8. Double-click the Speakers/Headphones
9. Go to the levels tab
10. Now that you’ve restarted, you’ll see a new field that wasn’t there before: Input Monitor. Click the Unmute button to enable the input monitor
11. To adjust levels, Open your Recording Devices, (right click on volume control icon in system tray, select Recording Devices)
12. Double-click the Microphone / Line in
13. Go to the levels tab
14. Adjust the Microphone / Line In Level to suite your needs/tastes
15. Optionally you can use the Microphone Boost for extra power

Once this is up and working you can plug whatever you want into the Line-In jack. Whether its a tape deck, record player, game console, guitar, it doesnt really matter as long as you match up the cables correctly.

Here’s a tip: If you use an adapter (to plug 1/4″ phono plug into the 1/8″ jack) MAKE SURE you use a cable FIRST or some sort of dongle as the weight of it WILL eventually ruin your jack! (I’ve done this too many times).

Enjoy!

PS If you need pictures of any of this, leave a comment and let me know… It should be pretty self explanatory, but sometimes a picture says it all.