Windows 8, Audacity 2.0.3
I have just bought a “Super USB Cassette Capture”, in order to change cassette recordings to digital MP3.
On the instructions, it tells me to access ‘Edit’, then ‘Preferences’, and under ‘Devices’, to set recording device to ‘USB PhP Audio Device’.
However, the only options in the drop-down menu here are ‘Microsoft Sound Mapper – Input’, ‘Microphone Array (2- USB Audio’ & ‘Modem #0 Line Record’.
Presumably, because I cannot access ‘USB PhP Audio Device’, when I open the ‘File’ Menu, the ‘Export…’ facility remains greyed out.
In short, I cannot record to the computer.
What am I doing wrong, and how can I fix it?
The names of devices can be difficult to interpret. Audacity gets the names of devices from Windows, and Windows guesses the names of devices from the device drivers.
Also, instructions that come with USB cassette players are often out of date, as is the Audacity software that they include.
You should first cgo to the Audacity website and download the current version of Audacity (2.1.3) http://www.audacityteam.org/download/
Get the “EXE” installer version - this includes the full user manual.
Uninstall your current version and install the new version.
The key thing with using USB devices with Audacity is to connect the device to the computer first, and then launch Audacity.
For more information, there’s a bunch of tutorials here: http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/tutorial_copying_tapes_lps_or_minidiscs_to_cd.html
Presumably, because I cannot access ‘USB PhP Audio Device’, when I open the ‘File’ Menu, the ‘Export…’ facility remains greyed out.
In short, I cannot record to the computer.
First, you gotta’ record something so you have something to save/export. 
When you get that figured-out… When you’ve recorded something, when you can see the blue waveform, and when you can play it back* from Audacity, then you’ll have some audio and you can either export it as an audio file (WAV or MP3, etc.) or save your Audacity project.
…Alternatively, you can open an existing WAV or MP3 file and create an Audacity project from that, or export as a different audio format. But, that’s not what you’re trying to do right now.
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- Sometimes when you plug-in a USB audio device Windows will set the “new” device as the default recording and playback device. So, make sure Audacity is NOT trying to use the cassette player for playback (because you won’t hear anything). Audacity should be set-up to play-back through your regular soundcard/speakers/headphones.