I had this problem back when I made my first Vista upgrade on my PC. Before I solved it by disabling the audio enhancements under Speaker & Mic. config., but now that doesn't seem to work. And for some reason this problem has mysteriously resurfaced for me again. I also have a Realtek brand soundcard (integrated).

When I play back recordings, just as Polarized said, the first few seconds usually sound normal (in some instances, this wasn't the case), and after a short time has passed, the recording starts making popping/crackling noises & skips over parts of the recording, leaving gaps in the sound, and also goes down about two levels in pitch (this is my biggest beef with this bug), then makes its way back to normal pitch, then the process starts all over.

So far I haven't been able to fix this issue this time around, I'm hoping someone knows at least something about this and I'm wondering how many other people have had this issue and what was done to solve it.

So please, if anyone knows anything about this and knows how it can be permanently fixed, please respond!

I'm also having this problem - but before I used to be able to record just fine - now it's completely screwed up just like previous users have responded.

I have no idea how to make it better.

I found that the effect stopped when i turned off Acoustic Echo Cancellation. I think it believed that what we were trying to record is from an echo! This can be found in the Realtek HD Audio Manager under microphone.

hey guys, iv worked onto what the dude above me said, and what youv got to do is right click the lil speaker icon on the bottom right of the screen, go to recording devices, right click the microphone thing and go to properties. from there, u go to the "Enhancements" tab, and get rid of BOTH acoustic echo cancellation AND noise cancellation.

its the noise cancellor thats the main problem, however the acoustic echo does a bit also

damned realtek