I’m using Audacity 2.0.0 and a PC equipped with Windows XP. I am recording from cassette tapes to convert to CD. Everything is great except the pitch on every Audacity recording is higher than on the original. I have to use the effect/pitch control to get back to the original sound. This becomes a pain when like yesterday I converted 92 songs. Is there an adjustment to lower the recorded pitch? When I used Audacity 1.2 I did not have this problem.
Try changing the “Audio Host” setting in the Device Toolbar. http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/Device_Toolbar
Audacity does not process the incoming audio, but you may find that one host setting works better than the other.
Thanks for the quick response. I changed the “Audio Host” setting as suggested but it had no effect. I guess I’ll have to add pitch change as a step in my process.
What sample rate and bit format are you using? (look in "Edit > Preferences > Quality)
Sample rate is 44100 Hz, format is 32-bit float.
I don’t see any obvious reason why the recordings should be at the wrong pitch. How exactly are you recording the tapes?
I’m using a Technics cassette deck hooked to a Technics receiver amplifier. I use the various receiver inputs as source.
When I saw your question I realized that all the tapes I had tried were downloaded off the internet so I tried a tape recorded from the radio years ago. This also changes pitch. As I said before I’ve been using Audacity 1.2 for years with no problem. The pitch problem started after downloading version 2.0
Neither Audacity 1.2.x, 1.3.x or 2.x have any capability for changing the audio that is being recorded. They all record whatever data they receive, so the problem is not that Audacity 2.0 is changing the data, but that the data that it is receiving is (for some unkonwn reason) wrong.
Has anything else on your system changed since you were using Audacity 1.2?
What is the sound quality of the recording like? Could you post a short sample (see here for how to do that: https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/how-to-attach-files-to-forum-posts/24026/1 )
The recording sound quality is excellent. However I’m confused about the upload. Should I convert a short section to a WAV file to upload ? I don’t understand how this would help since it would not be in AUP format. Or should I use a storage website to upload part of the AUP file. Do you need both pre and post pitch conversion?
One possible explanation for the higher pitch is if some samples are being dropped during the recording process. This is likely to have a noticeable (bad) effect on the sound quality, but if it is not too drastic then the problem may not be immediately obvious without looking really closely at the waveform. If you could export a short section of the original (unprocessed) recording in WAV format and upload it to the forum then I can have a look to see if there are any signs of this being the problem.
Are you able to record something with a microphone on that computer? If so, does the same problem occur?
I have attached the requested WAV file but I may have been wasting your time. I used a Windows record accessory to check mic input and with both voice and music the pitch increases. To me this eliminates Audacity as the problem. What I don’t understand is what caused this. The only change that I recall to my computer was back in January when my power supply failed and I replaced it with a new one. But I wouldn’t think that change would cause this problem. Sorry to be a bother.
The waveform looks ok as far as I can tell. My best guess is that the sound card is on it’s way out.
When recording, the sound card uses an internal “clock” so that it can time the right number of samples per second. If that clock is out, then the number of samples per second will be out, which is like recording on a tape recorder that is running at the wrong speed.
You could try setting the sample rate to 48 kHz. Sometimes a sound card will be happier at one sample rate than another, but if that does not work then I suspect that you are looking at a new sound capture device.
Thanks for all the help Steve, I’ve learned a lot.
Clint