Audio Cassette - Recording

[AmyPReed]

Hello, everyone.

I have a problem. I have everything hooked up, and I recorded a cassette (just one song to be sure everything was working correctly). Then I played it back with Audacity from the recording I’d made, and I ran into a couple of problems that I’m hoping someone out there can help me solve.

1. On playback, the volume was way too low. I have fixed that to some extent, but the volume is still lower than I’d like.

2. Also on playback, several times during the recording, it would skip a little. The tape had played perfectly when I was making the recording, so that couldn’t be the problem. Also, as a test to be sure, I switch my equipment to FM radio and recorded some from that. On playback, it also skipped. In case someone doesn’t know what I mean by ‘skip’, it would jump over a few words without playing them and into the next phrase or whatever. Very annoying.

Please help me with these problems, if you can. A friend had recorded these cassettes and wants them burned to CD.

My OS is Windows 7 Home Premium SP 1, and I’m using Audacity 2.0.2.

Thanks ahead of time for any help you can give me.

[Gale_Andrews]

@AmyPReed

I have a problem. I have everything hooked up, and I recorded a cassette (just one song to be sure everything was working correctly). Then I played it back with Audacity from the recording I’d made, and I ran into a couple of problems that I’m hoping someone out there can help me solve.

1. On playback, the volume was way too low. I have fixed that to some extent, but the volume is still lower than I’d like.

Turn the input volume up in Mixer Toolbar:

or turn up the output volume of the cassette player.

If the Audacity input volume slider is greyed out, use the volume slider in the Windows “Sound” control panel instead. See http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Mixer_Toolbar_Issues#vistacp .

@AmyPReed

2. Also on playback, several times during the recording, it would skip a little. The tape had played perfectly when I was making the recording, so that couldn’t be the problem. Also, as a test to be sure, I switch my equipment to FM radio and recorded some from that. On playback, it also skipped. In case someone doesn’t know what I mean by ‘skip’, it would jump over a few words without playing them and into the next phrase or whatever. Very annoying.

My OS is Windows 7 Home Premium SP 1, and I’m using Audacity 2.0.2.

Thanks for the testing and good description. You could zoom in to check that there are small gaps in the recorded waveform. This would confirm the root problem is not in playback, but that the computer is not writing the recording quickly or consistently enough.

If it’s a recording problem, there may be no easy answer, just a process of elimination of possible causes. See http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Managing_Computer_Resources_and_Drivers#resources for a comprehensive list of things to check.

If it’s a playback problem, that may narrow it down much further.

I assume you are recording cassettes to the line-in of the computer (probably coloured blue). If you are using a USB cassette player then an additional thing you must check is that you are connecting the player direct into a USB port on the computer, not into a USB hub with multiple USB ports that itself connects to the computer.


Gale