no sounds despite all checks [SOLVED]

Audacity Help Forum Windows
1

Apologies because I can see from the tutorials/help manuals/on line forums that a lot has already been said about this, but I’ve now spent 2 whole days trying to get Audacity to work to no avail. I’m using Windows Vista Home Premium/.exe installer/Audacity 2.0.6

Despite checking everything possible I think I must be making a very fundamental mistake because the recording is made but with no sound - either in Audacity or after when I replay the .wav file.

Audacity appears to be working (I can see the waves as I record the LP) and the USB device appears to be correctly set up (it is set as the default for recording and playing and states “working” below the icon) but nothing is being recorded? Is there something obvious that I haven’t done? I have created a pdf file with some screen shots to show the settings I’m using but the forum won’t let me upload a pdf file and so I’m not sure what I can do to show you the things I’ve already checked using the manual/on line tutorial etc. I have a Neostar USB turntable linked to speakers and with a USB jack linked to the PC but nothing is linked to the Line out. I can use a PC but everything I’m reading about Audacity from the tutorials to on-line help to the forums is quite technical and difficult to follow. All I want to do is record my vinyl records onto the PC.

I will be grateful for any help that gets this working.

Kind regards,
Chrissie

2

OK… Let’s see if we can figure-out what’s working and what’s not working…

Can you play WAV or MP3 files on your computer with Windows Media Player (or whatever player software you use)?

Can you open a WAV (or MP3, etc.) in Audacity and see the waveform? If so, can you hear it when you click the green Play button?

When recording, do you see the waveform being created? Do you still see the waveform after you stop? Can you play it before you export to WAV?

3

Hi,

Thanks for getting back so quickly. Good news - after checking your qns I’ve found the problem.

I could open music files and play them in Audacity and see the waveform but still no sound. So I checked in music media and found the same problem - no sound. I checked the PC Sound control and found the Playback device and Recording device were both set to USB so I changed the Playback device to Realtek High Def Audio and the sound then came out of the PC speakers.

Many thanks for what now looks like an obvious solution!!!

Kind regards,
Chrissie

4

We have a FAQ for this: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/faq_playback.html#usb.

Gale