Windows installation instructions for ANDREA-USB-SA

Before plugging in this device for the first time (and anytime you switch to a different computer), you must install the driver program. Please click here to download and run the driver installation program for this product. When it finishes, please restart your computer.

1 - Plug the USB adapter into the USB port you intend to use and allow Windows to install the driver

2 - Look on your computer taskbar and find the "Audio Commander" and open it

3 - The Audio Commander is separated into segments. In the rectangular window of the playback section, click on the word "Andrea" (do not click the Andrea logo in the top left corner of the Audio Commander). The Windows "Sound" configuration window will open on the "Playback" tab

4 - You should see several items listed on this screen. Look for the item with the word "Andrea" in the description. Double-click on the word "Andrea" and the "Speaker Properties" window will open. Click the "Levels" tab. You should see two level controls (if you only see one level control, the driver did not load correctly. See the troubleshooting section below). Turn both level controls up to maximum and unmute the microphone. Click OK. If the green checkmark is on the "Andrea" device, find your computer's internal soundcard listed on this screen and right click on it and select "Set as default device". The green checkmark will move to your computer's internal soundcard. In the Playback section of the Audio Commander you will see a message that "This device is not from Andrea Electronics". This is normal.

5 - Plug your audio device (microphone, mixer, etc) into the pink microphone input jack on the USB adapter

6 - Plug a pair of standard headphones into the green headphone jack on the USB adapter. You should be able to hear your voice in the headphones. This is the 'live monitoring' feature. You can adjust the loudness by adjusting the speaker level control in step 4 above.

7 - Now click on the "Recording" tab. Double-click on the listing for the "Andrea" device, click the "levels" tab and turn the level control up to 100. Click OK. Click OK again to close this window.

8 - Back in the Audio Commander, in the recording section, look for a small box on the right side of the Audio Commander called "microphone enhancements". Deselect all boxes except "Noise cancellation". Leave this box checked. These settings should be a good place to start for most recording situations. You will ultimately set the recording level control on the Audio Commander by looking at the recording levels in your software. All of the court reporting software programs have recording level meters to help you select the right recording level. A recording level set too high will result in scratchy, distorted sound. A recording level set too low will result in a recording that is too quiet.

9 - In the audio recorder section (at the bottom of the Audio Commander), click the record button and make a short test recording. Click stop. Click play. You should hear your recording coming through your computer speakers. If you do not hear anything, follow troubleshooting steps below. If you want to adjust the playback volume, do this with the volume control in the "playback" section near the top of the Audio Commander. You can now close the Audio Commander.

This completes the standard driver installation and setup

In your software, you will need to set the audio parameters. The terminology may vary somewhat, depending on the software you are using. These are the optimum audio settings for high quality audio:

Audio Input Device (or recording device): Andrea USB Audio Device
File Format: PCM (or WAVE)
Sample Rate: 22,050Hz (or 22.050kHz)
Bit rate: 16
Number of channels: 1 (mono)

Note: The most important part of getting a good recording with any microphone is to get the proper recording level. Most software has a recording level meter visible when you are recording. Make sure that the microphone recording level is adjusted so that you see the recording level bouncing back and forth when people are talking. If the level meter hardly shows at all, you need to raise the recording level. If the levels are so high that you see the red lines (in Case Catalyst) or squared-off waveforms (in Eclipse), then lower the recording level.

Important:

1 - Always plug in your USB adapter before opening your audio recording software. If you unplug the USB device at any time, you will need to restart the software for the USB device to be recognized.

2 - When you setup a USB adapter, the settings are retained for that USB port only. Any port that you want to use must be set up the first time you use it.