My Windows 10 Alienware laptop is filtering out any sound that isn't "voice-like" when recording on any microphone. I'm confident that this is some sort of noise-blocking enhancement feature that helps on video conferencing calls but I need to figure out how to turn it off for recording guitar.
The filter seems to affect any type of non-voice sounds, whether its guitar (direct via amp or just ambient room noise) or even just whistling. I have tried using the built-in microphone, an external USB microphone, and even my guitar amp's USB connection (which appears to Windows as a 'microphone'), and all are equally affected.
I've tried recording using the windows sound recorder, Audacity, and also CakeWalk with similar effects.
I can't seem to find the relevant setting anywhere, and I'm not sure if its a special application that's installed that's doing the filtering or if there's a hidden Windows 10 setting somewhere.
On another Dell laptop (different hardware), also running Windows 10, I can record any music just fine.
Here are the microphone properties:
Here are the sound devices in the Device Manager:
Note: Bluetooth headset name containing personal information has been obscured.
I have tried disabling all the "Intel smart sound" devices and they seemed to have no effect.
I tried installing the "Realtek audio console" program, but there are no settings for recording, except for audio volume (screenshot shown below).
Update: I can confirm that by running a Windows 10 virtual machine (via VMWare Workstation Pro) and passing through my USB mic, that the filtering issue is not present in the VM. This seems to confirm the issue is with software or drivers and not a mic or other hardware problem.