Expert: Wayne Tapia - 10/5/2009

Question
I am running windows xp with the onboard soundcard from my motherboard, and recently when i have been trying to record keyboard and guitar through my computers microphone input I have been facing a problem. When i press record and begin to play, the sound registers on screen and records as normal, but after about 5 seconds, the sound begins to fade out gradually until it is no longer audible. At first I thought I had entered a wrong setting into my recording program, but I tried several different programs and am getting the same result. I am recording instruments straight into the microphone input on the computer using instrument leads direct from the guitar/keyboard. I have tried using Acid Pro 6 and Audacity to no avail. I cannot find any information on recordings fading and petering out to nothing online. Please help!

Answer
Wow - that's a really odd scenario. I've never heard of anything like this, especially across different programs. I would try to contact the soundcard manufacturer first, or look into purchasing an external audio interface for recording.

I'm sorry I can't be of much more help, but this definitley sounds like a hardware failure of some sort.