High pitched noise - distortion

I just downloaded Audacity 2.x on my new iMac with OS10.7. I hooked up an ION turntable and it recognized it promptly. I used to use an older version of audacity on a G4 Mac running 10.4.11 and had no problems recording old albums from the turntable. Today, when I tried to record, I got a very loud, high pitched squeal that reminds me of the sound you get when speakers are not hooked up properly. I have rechecked all the settings and preferences. What am I doing wrong & how do I fix it?

First layer we need to find out if you do anything weird and wacky. Do you have and use SoundFlower? Do you have other provision to record internet audio? Do you have and use Skype?

Check the Audacity Device Toolbar (microphone and speaker symbols) and make sure the Built-In Output or Built-In Speakers are selected for output and USB Sound Device or possibly the name of the turntable as the input.

Apple > System Preferences > Hardware > Sound > input and output. Make sure whatever is selected there matches what you think should be happening. If you play a record, does the System Preferences sound meter flash? Does it still have a sound meter?

Koz
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I do not have sound flower. However, I went over all the preference settings & used the old instructions from my old version of audacity (they are easier for me to understand) to make sure I had everything set up correctly. It worked! I am not sure what I did - I think maybe one of my settings for input and output was wrong. Anyhow, it is working great now. I also restarted my system for good measure. Thanks for your support.