Disable audio recording gain control?

[bizzybody]

A Widows 10 system being used with an external USB audio digitizer is having problems with recording levels. Adjusting the gain control on the external box results in either undistorted sound that is almost too quiet to hear, or overdriven distortion.

 

There is no happy medium. The same problem happened on Windows 8.1 - but NOT on XP - with the same hardware. The owner took the free upgrade from 8.1 to 10, hoping that the audio problem would be corrected.

 

The PC's audio is onboard Realtek HD Audio with the latest driver downloaded from Realtek. The external box uses the default USB audio input drivers that come with Windows. (Which annoyingly will only play through while recording is happening, no monitoring capability.)

 

How do I shut down all of Windows' fiddling about with recording processing so it will function correctly, like it did with Ye Olde XP? A Registry file that does the job would be very nice.

 

I got fed up with Automatic Gain Control (AGC) that could not be shut off on tape recording hardware in the 80's. Had to spend a lot of money to NOT GET a useless feature. Now Microsoft appears to have decided that Windows "benefits" from ruining audio recording with badly done AGC.