I have a cassette tape that I am trying to convert to mp3. I have connected the headphone jack of the cassette player to the microphone jack of my computer and the tape sounds fine. But when I record it in Audacity, I lose all of the low level sounds. The tape is of my grandfather calling a baseball game in 1959. His voice comes out perfectly. But all of the background sounds–the crowd noises, the crack of the bat–are completely lost in the recording which makes it pretty dull to listen to. It appears anything below -18db is not recorded (or does not play). I am not very good with Audacity, but adjusting the Gain or Amplify does not bring out these background sounds. Nor can I find any noise suppression or squelch filter that might cause this. I have verified that audio enhancements have been turned off on all microphones and speakers. What am I doing wrong?
I have connected the headphone jack of the cassette player to the microphone jack of my computer and the tape sounds fine
What software are you using to play it when it sounds fine…??
Can you play it in Audacity to hear it…??? …and does it sound fine.
What is the size of the blue audio on the tracks…???..did you adjust the sliders
Did you check the Audio devices that Audacity is using…??.. try different settings.
Have you disabled all computer audio enhancements…??..disable them
Thanks for your help. When I connect the cassette deck to my PC’s microphone jack, I can play the recording thru my PC speakers and it sounds fine. If I enable AUdacity Software Playthru, I only hear the voice and no background noise at all. THis is true no matter which way I move the slider for recording levels or gain. I’ve tried a lot of different settings and made sure all audio enhancements have been disabled. But you may have answered one question I had which was if Audacity has some type of background sound suppression options–but you are not aware of anything like that?
That is the bit you are not answering…?? What software or what player is running on the PC when you hear it fine…??
“If I enable AUdacity Software Playthru,” … why do you do that.??.. you could be getting feedback around the audio speakers/input loop. Is your PC “listen” tick box tick box set to listen to the input recording device…untick this.
You must be on an older version of Audacity…You should try "Tools…“Reset Configuration” to get Audacity back to as installed settings.
What are your Audio settings in Audacity… try windows “Direct sound” host.
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