Hello,
I have been unable to record from my mixer for quite some time now as i have no idea how to. I have watched countless videos and tutorials showing me how to record on various programs (mostly Audacity) and none of them seem to work for me. I am running a red and white cable from the master out on my CDJ 400 mixer straight into the headphone port on my computer.
Problems i have encountered:
- Audacity is recording through my headphones connected to external mixer
- Audacity is recording through the microphone on my computer
- Audacity is now displaying the following message: Error while opening sound device. Please check the input device settings and the project sample rate.
Most tutorials i have read also relate to older version of Audacity so that also does not help.
Can someone please tell me what i change and do or what settings i need to use in order to record a set from my mixer using Audacity?
Thankyou in advance.
Audacity is not responsible for third-party tutorials on YouTube and elsewhere.
Tell us what operating system you are on (look at the pink panel at the top of this page).
Tell us what version of Audacity you have. All three numbers. You should have 2.0.5 from here: http://audacityteam.org/download/ .
Give us the make and model number of the computer.
The headphones port is an output, for sound coming out.
You need to plug in to a computer port for sound going in.
The RCA outs of the CDJ 400 need a line-level input on the computer. If it’s a Windows laptop you may only have a microphone input. In that case you need to buy a USB interface with a line-in input. If it’s a Mac computer, you may have a line-in (triangles either side of a circle).
Then when you have found or bought a suitable input, you choose it as input device in Device Toolbar in Audacity.
Gale
Getting performance stereo signals into a Windows laptop can be very entertaining and not in a good way. So tell us what you have and we’ll make a stab at fixing it.
The circle with two black arrows on a Mac is a real stereo line-In. It works famously and I’ve used it for some serious recordings.
http://www.kozco.com/tech/audacity/pix/JMASoundShoot.jpg
If you have a Windows laptop, chances are you only have two connections: Mic-In and Headphone-Out like this.
http://www.kozco.com/tech/audacity/pix/PCLaptopSound.jpg
Neither of those is going to work with a stereo sound mixer.
Let us know.
Koz
Ok, so i am using a Windows system on a HP Pavilion DV5 and the version of Audacity I am using is the newest one 2.0.5. Thankyou for your replies, what do I need?
There are several DV5 variants but as far as I can tell they only have a microphone input. You can confirm that by looking at the edges of the computer and or at the computer manual.
As explained on https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/recording-help-please-cdj-400-mixer-solved/33311/2 a microphone port is not suitable for connecting a mixer.
If the mixer is necessary you will need to buy a USB audio device that provides a line-in that you can connect the mixer to, then set Audacity to record from the USB audio device.
Exactly what are you trying to record? A keyboard? Your singing? If you have a microphone you want to record from, what is the make and model number of the microphone?
Gale
I am looking to record a mix from my decks. So your saying i need a red and white running from a usb port?
Went to Dick Smith and asked for a USB cable into a red and white and he said that i would need an adapter/converter. Is this true?
That would be yes.
http://www.kozco.com/tech/audacity/pix/peaveyUCA202Lenovo.jpg
That’s a Behringer UCA202, others are available.
http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Recommended_sound_devices
If you can wait that long, you should probably run a device past us before you buy anything. They don’t all do what you want and some of the ads are misleading.
Koz
The guy at Dick Smith also said they cost around $100 dollars, is this true? If so i may as well buy a sound card right? Will i sound card work as a converter as well?
Ok, I now have the device but can someone please tell me what I need to change the settings to on the version 2.0.5 and how? Thank you
Can i please get a reply on my previous post??? Thank you
What is it you want to know?
If you got the UCA 202, first read its Manual ( http://www.behringer.com/assets/UCA202_M_EN.pdf ).
Then connect the mixer output to the red and white inputs of the UCA.
Toggle the monitor switch on the UCA to monitoring of the input with computer playback (even though there is no computer playback). Plug headphones into the UCA and check you are sending the audio you intend to the UCA.
Quit Audacity if it is running.
Connect the USB cable of UCA to an empty USB port on the computer.
Launch Audacity. Look in Device Toolbar ( http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/device_toolbar.html ) . Set the input device (third box) in Device Toolbar to the USB audio CODEC for the UCA. Set the output device (second box) in Device Toolbar to the playback device you want to use. If you want to listen to Audacity in your computer playback device, choose that playback device. If you want to listen to Audacity playback in the UCA, plug headphones into UCA, turn the monitor switch on the UCA to computer playback and set the Audacity playback device to the USB audio CODEC for the UCA.
Set the project rate bottom left of Audacity to 44100 Hz.
Gale