Windows Sound Control & Skype

Anyone who is experimenting with Skype or podcasting has probably come across this, and that is the pain of working with the Windows Sound Control application.

Invariably when you start with Skype you can't hear your callers and they can't hear you. Thankfully Skype has a test account - echo123 - that you can dial up so that you can test your sound configuration, but that is only successful after you have minced around for ages trying to figure out which microphone is being used - the one in my Thinkpad or my headset - and which speakers are being used.

It really is painful. And when you get that set up you find your other apps don't work - like TotalRecorder - it records from the microphone instead of the incoming audio stream from the internet. Jeez!!!

And don't even get me started on trying to record your Skype calls.

A long time ago in a Galaxy far far away I used to be a recording engineer and was used to patch panels where I could route the sound from one device to another - wherever it needed to go. I wish we had something like that in Windows. Anyone who has seen the beautiful Reason will appreciate being able to patch from one device to another.

Or maybe what we need is to be able to save Sound Profiles, so that once you get a setup that works for Skype you could save that profile. One that works for your TotalRecorder recordings - save that profile. Then be able to switch between them whenever you like. Now there is an app I would pay for.