# Device

From Audacity Development Manual
The device is the actual physical sound device you are recording from (or playing back to). The recording and playback devices are chosen either in the Devices section of Preferences or in Device Toolbar.

The recording and playback volume of the selected devices is normally adjusted in Mixer Toolbar.

- Windows: Recording and playback devices are normally shown as the type of recording or playback it is (for example, "Microphone" or "Speakers") followed by the device that input or output belongs to. Examples could look like:
  - Microphone (High Def Audio)
  - Speakers (Realtek HD)
  - Line In (USB Audio).

In addition, there are "Sound Mapper" or "Primary Driver" input and output devices that are always the same as whatever device is currently set as default in the Windows control panel for sound.

| Many new Windows computers come with only the microphone recording device enabled. Any other playback devices the sound device has, such as "Stereo Mix", "Wave Out" or "Sum" for recording computer playback, must be enabled in "Sound" in the Windows Control Panel. See Why can I not record in Windows for more help.

- Mac: The built-in audio's playback device normally appears as "Built-in Output". Unless the Mac has a second digital input, the recording device normally appears as "Built-in Input". A USB audio device that has different inputs should give the device name followed by the type of input.

- Linux: It is often best to choose the "default" recording and playback device. Recording sources can be chosen if necessary in either alsamixer or pulseaudio volume control (on machines where pulseaudio is the default audio system).

Many USB or FireWire recording devices (for example USB turntables or most USB interfaces) do not present a choice of recording devices to the operating system. Such devices will just appear as the device name, for example "USB Audio CODEC" (or on Windows, sometimes "Microphone (USB Audio CODEC)" even though the device is not a "microphone").

Back to Recording Audio.

Back to Getting Started.