What am I doing wrong? I have successfully recorded sound from my old tapes and CDs into Audacity, connecting my Macbook to HiFi with a ‘sound card’ USB / 2 x RCA cable. Selecting AUX for my turntable, I can hear the LP play fine but when I click record on Audacity, nothing comes through. Switching back to CD / tape, all is fine and the recording is good, instant, clear… then back to LP and nothing. What is going wrong? Everything appears set up like it should be and as far as I can see, how I have recorded LPs successfully before.
How is your hi-fi connected to the “sound card”? Do you have “tape-out” or “record-out”?
You can’t directly connect turntable to the soundcard without a phono preamp (probably built-into your receiver).
We may need more details about your hardware.
Different topic, but I hope you’re not “recording” CDs. They should be “ripped” (digitally copied).
HiFi is connected to Macbook via two RCA outs on the back of the HiFi; Turntable goes through a preamp which plugs into HiFi through to RCAs just above the outs. Records play audibly with this set up, but the signal does not behave the same way as tape, ie it does not record to Audacity. CD recording done as an experiment to prove what works and what doesn’t.
Try plugging the preamp-out directly into the soundcard.
I have no idea why your hi-fi is behaving that way. Tape-out, record-out, preamp-out should all behave the same with all inputs. …Except sometimes the tape-input doesn’t get “looped” that way to avoid feedback while recording.
I was hoping that was the case. 
Before what? You updated to Audacity 3.6x?
Is it a phono preamp? Does it say Phono In where the turntable plugs in?
I can conspiracy theory this. At the last computer update, the machine is now running one of the volume managers as part of Windows Enhancements.
The Phono Preamp isn’t really a classic phono preamp, or it’s broken. The CD playback and the Tape playback are both about the same volume, but a record without an actual classic preamp booster is going to be reduced volume. The Windows Enhancements may see that as “Damaged Sound” and remove it to “help you.”
I can’t think of any other way to get what you got.
Koz
There are some tests you can do. If you have wired headphones with a 1/8" plug, you can touch RCA connections and hear sound.
The sound will be in your left ear.
This will not blow your ears off, but it won’t be dead silent, either.
So check the connections when you have the Tape working and then check again when you put a record on.
Koz
Note the two touch each other in two places. This only works if they both hit.
Yet another place where convenient, fashionable wireless headphones are not the best for heavy production use.
Koz
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