Beginner Cant Record a audio cassette

Too many options ! I am a Windows 11 user on a PC. I launch Audacity. OK.
I have plugged my USB cassette capture device into the USB. I launch a new project.
I play the cassette. The VU meter shows it receives the sound. **The moving bar is working. But not the sound waves showing the recording. I go to preferences. There it is confusing : MME or Windows direct sound ?
Recording : Which option ? There are three or four ? Microphone ? Driver audio ?

That’s weird unless the signals are “very weak”. The meters (dB scale) go “quieter” and can show audio when the waveform (linear scale) is too small to see.

Try the Amplify effect after recording.

If it turns-out that the sound is weak, it could be the particular tape or the machine. (Those “cheap little” USB cassette players seem to have a bad reputation.)

If the cassette player has a headphone jack you can also check it to see if the signal is weak.

…Weak digital signals aren’t usually a problem but it may the result of an analog problem and if the signal is weaker-than-normal but the noise is not, you’ll get a poor signal-to-noise ratio and the noise will be worse after amplifying.

WASAPI is the newest protocol (“host”) and MME is the oldest. Any/all of those should work.

For the Recording Device, make sure to select the USB device, and do NOT select the “loopback” option.

Great ! thanks a lot DVD Doug … I just didn’t check the USB device as the recording one !
Now it works !

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