thanks. When I try to go to the manual I get a message like ‘you need translators in Wiki’. What the heck do I do to get the translators. All I want to do is input some cassettes and output to CDs. Is there a better place to view how to set up Audacity?
thanks
If you look in the Audacity “Help menu > Manual” the Audacity manual should appear in your web browser (in English).
The message at the top of the manual does indeed say "Translators are urgently required… To help translate this Manual to other languages, please write to our feedback address for an account on this Wiki. "
This is merely an appeal to any bilingual/multi-lingual users who have some spare time and who would care to contribute to this open-source project to help us make translations of the documentation into various languages so that it is easier to use for folk for whom English is not their first language. If you do not fall into that category - then please ignore the message and just read the manual.
WC
And for help on digitizing tapes to CDs see this set of tutorials in the manual: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/tutorial_copying_tapes_lps_or_minidiscs_to_cd.html
WC
thank you steve and waxcylinder. I’m impressed with how helpful this group is. With a little help, I hope to be up to speed on this in a short time. The number of settings and buttons on Audacity are a bit scary. Any thoughts on how I should set it up to copy from cassette story books to computer and then burn a CD? For example, how many minutes will a standard CD hold with standard settings, what are standard settings for this operation? I hope the manual and demo will tell me this sort of stuff.
72 minutes, though personally I try to avoid filling them to maximum capacity because the last few minutes are most likely to mess up (they are right near the edge where it is most likely to get knocked and scratched).
Audacity does not burn CDs.
To make a CD, prepare the tracks in Audacity and export as WAV files, then use a CD burning program (such as Nero [commercial] or CDBurnerXP [free]) to create a CD from the WAV files. (Important tip: If you want the CD to play on a normal CD player, make sure you tell the CD burning program to make an “audio” CD and not a “data” CD).
Details are in the link that waxcylinder posted.
thanks again. I wish I could repay the favor but my only expertise is in trading stocks, training dogs, and I still know a bit about the old DOS. IOW, I may be limited in technology knowledge but at least I love to listen to audio books.
You can also use Win Media Player to RIP the wav file to a WMA file and put on as much as 16 hours, I have a CD that i made for road trips that is 16 hours long and i still have another 3 0r 4 hour left.
But as Steve says, do not fill it up all of the way
Once you export to a wav file you then burn to a rewritable CD, then use window media player to RIP to WMA and then burn them files to another write-only CD for yourlistening pleasure.
And you do not have to be an Audacity guru to help out, i deffently am not one but i do get a hit once in a while, but if you keep readding then you learn more, i love computers and forums, you can learn so much and you meet the nicest people on the forum ,
Then you get some one like me that gets diariea of the fingers and don’t know when to shut up
hope this helps
Marty
but most standalone CD players will not be able to play it. “Standard” audio CDs use uncompressed PCM data, 16 bit, 44.1 kHz (see Red Book Standard: Rainbow Books - Wikipedia )
The red book specification states 79.8 minutes, but most CD-Rs (writeable CDs) have smaller capacity (around 72 minutes). The so called “80 minute” CD-Rs will manage roughly 80 minutes, though as I said previously I don’t like to push them on capacity.
The standard that specifically applies to CD-R’s is the Orange Book standard: CD-R - Wikipedia
but most standalone CD players will not be able to play it. “Standard” audio CDs use uncompressed PCM data, 16 bit, 44.1 kHz (see Red Book Standard: > Rainbow Books - Wikipedia > )
On this one i respectivly disagree with you Steve, as i have stated various times i am not a sound expert like you and the other moderators are, but, on this one I have found out that any CD Player that will play MP3 (Standard now) will play the WMA. I have several CD Player in my house and in my car and truck, they all play the WMA CD’s.
Marty
I’ll be happy if I can get side A and half of side B of a cassette on 1 disc. Then the last half of B and all of cassette 2, side A on the next one, etc. This will make storybook listening much better as I can keep up with the tracks visually (I hope). My son-in-law touted RIMM to me last night. Not bad action at all today. I may have to send him a Christmas card this year.
It’s OK to disagree 
I disagree that MP3 support is “standard” in CD players.
I have a cheap portable CD player, a CD player in the car, a high quality CD “separate” hi-fi player and an inexpensive DVD player. None of the CD players support MP3 or WMA disks. The DVD player can play almost anything that I put into it.
I’ve just done a quick, non-scientific survey on this site: http://www.richersounds.com
27 models of CD player
14 support MP3 disks.
13 don’t support MP3 disks.
Steve, You probley are right except it is 14 to 13 MP3 favor but proble just that that is all i looked for. and proble won’t be long when all we will have is flash drives and memory cards or even smaller. But you are right about the fact that not all will support MP3. and to that i do bow to the more knowledgable. Like i said i just looked for MP3 players when i went shopping so did not really see the others. But hay it is a great conversation starter Right??
Marty
so once I get the cassettes into the computer then I will need to chop it down to the right length to burn a CD of say 60 minutes or what ever is the ideal length should be. Then I would like to ‘mic in’ some verbage like “End of Disc 1 - the story gets much better on disc 2”, Disc 2 say “Begining of Disc 2, Enjoy It”, etc. Q) What is a good fairly cheap mic to get that plugs into the computer? thanks Will have to send my son-in-law 2 or 3 Christmas Cards as RIMM is rolling on after earning.
If you’ve not done so thus far, it will be well worth having a read through tutorials 3, 4 and 5 on this page: Audacity Manual particularly tutorials 4 and 5.
It depends on what you mean by “fairly cheap”. The Logitech USB Desktop Microphone has had some good reviews for a rock bottom price (typically around $15 - $20 US on the Internet) http://www.logitech.com/en-us/webcam-communications/microphones/usb-desktop-microphone It’s not going to win any production awards, but sound samples that I’ve heard are very good for the price. With any microphone, positioning of the microphone can make a huge difference - you need to be close, but avoid blowing on it (from mouth or nose).