I have recorded using the panasonic usb audio driver to the supplied audio recorder, to sound forge, to cool edit pro, to goldwave and to cakewalk sonar audio, and also tried the wave editors that come supplied with Nero and Easy CD Creator, all with perfect results. I deliberately chose my least specified laptop for the tests rather than the more powerful machines. Haven't used windows recorder for years because never needed to, and don't like it. There must be something in your configuration, driver install, or hardware to explain your problem. Have you no wave editor with your cd writer application, or other wave program you can try for recording? This blank file business seems such a bind.