I copied a lot of cassette tapes of family recitals, etc and then had health issues and am now just trying to access them. Whether as .wav or .mp3, Audacity shows the waveform like the sound is there, but I cannot find an adjustment that will give me sound on playback. Can anyone help me find the sound? I don’t know if I’m trying to open them in the wrong version of Audacity or If I’m missing a plugin or what. Other things I’ve recorded do play. Thanks.
First guess is the playback volume slider of Audacity, which might be set to “no output” (left edge). See the image below..
Or the output volume of your computer is off.
If this does not help, please supply more information on file type, computer, operating system, OS version, Audacity version, etc.
Another factor might be that the right playback/output device has to be picked via Audio Setup toolbar:
If the toolbar is missing:
Thanks for getting back to me. The recording level when I hover over the top bar indicates 58 % and the playback indicates 94 %. The green meter looks like it is playing something when I click play, but there is no sound. There is also no sound when I open in Windows Media on these files. Other files play fine, so I don’t think it is my computer setup. The files were recorded on my last computer running Windows 10, I believe, and Audacity version 2 plus. The files now open in Audacity 3.7. I’m not sure if I have successfully upgraded the FFMPEG plug in. My current computer is an HP running Windows 11, version 25H2.
Thanks for your reply. I’ve tried the 3 audio settings Audacity displays in the audio setup, MME, Direct Sound, and WASABI, but it makes no difference.
My version of Audacity (3.6.4) does not indicate volume in %, but in -dB. So you’re probably talkine about a different indicator than I do.
Then there is something wrong with the file itself… but what?
I copied a lot of cassette tapes
Did you use Audacity for copying (recording) or some other tool? Did you save the projects in Audacity format or export as .wav and .mp3? Or all three?
Audacity shows the waveform
Is it mono (one channel):
or stereo (two channels on one track)?:
Are low quality headphones or laptop speakers being used to listen to the audio?
If a recording is on the left channel and the same recording is inverted on the right channel, and this stereo audio is played back in mono, it will cancel each other out and produce silence.
For example some phone, laptop speakers and some cheap headphones mix stereo signals into mono. This way Audacity indicates stereo audio output, but the output device then mixes the two channels down into silence.
Change panning for a quick test, does this cause audio to be audible during playback?:
If so, one solution is to drag the pan back to center, split the channels into mono using the track menu, and delete one track using its delete button:
When hovering the Recording and Playback Meter Toolbars, a tooltip box with a percentage pops up:
(This information is currently missing from Meter Toolbars - Audacity Manual)
I double checked today and the playback meter I have does indicate percentages, so not decibels. The waveforms only have one track. I seem to have saved the recordings in both .wav and .mp3 and none of them have sound. Other recordings I made play fine. Is there any way to troubleshoot the problem with these no-sound files? Thanks. Any ideas about the missing FFMPEG plug in?
Nobody has mentioned that a muted track will not play or get exported. Could that be the problem?
Since you say the files are .wav /.mp3, the Audacity version which created them is not important. These are “universal” formats which should be playing everyware.
Beside this: Audacity is not a music player (although it can be used as such), but a sound editor. For playing music there are different other softwares. On Windows, you can use iTunes from Apple (yes!), or anything you find in Microsoft’s software store.
ffmpeg is used for exporting your sound from Audacity. I do not think it has to do with playing sound. And it has for sure nothing to do with “Windows Media”. And: is it really missing? You can locate it in the settings pane, see image. When you click on “locate”, your computer asks whether you really want to do this and then displays the path to ffmpeg. If it shows up, it should also work.
OP said “The green meter looks like it is playing something when I click play, but there is no sound.” If you play back a muted track, the Recording Level Meter does not produce a green bar or any movement at all.
I seem to have saved the recordings in both .wav and .mp3 and none of them have sound. Other recordings I made play fine.
Could you walk us through step by step how you
- successfully play back one of these audio files in Audacity
- unsuccessfully try to listen to one of the problem files in Audacity
Close Audacity and open Audacity between each attempt so there is a fresh start.
- You drag the file into Audacity? Or do you use File/Open?
- The file loads without errors and the blue soundwave appears? Or is there an error message?
- You press the green play button
and then you hear audio/hear nothing?
Please fully close Audacity between the attempts.
Do you see a visual difference between the working file and the non-working file? Are the working files much louder and the non-working files much quieter, are the green bars much bigger/longer for the working files and much shorter for the non-working files?
Then perhaps it’s just a matter of loudness/volume.
If the non-working file is just significantly quieter, you might solve this using:
But if there for example is a loud CLICK somewhere at the start/end (from plugging in audio jack or something with the tape player) it might make this harder. You might need to cut out these pieces or select only the quiet part before normalizing etc.
Is there any way to troubleshoot the problem with these no-sound files?
Well, us suggesting things and you trying them out and also you giving more information when we request it can be seen as the process of troubleshooting.
Any ideas about the missing FFMPEG plug in?
Can you go to Edit/Preferences > Libraries and use the Download and Locate … buttons there to solve the issue? Installing FFmpeg | Audacity Support might help.
Not sure this would help but probably wouldn’t be a problem and would stop being a distraction.
Thank you all for your excellent suggestions. The problem did seem to be with the Audacity version I used to export those particular files being not properly connected to the FFMPEG plug in as it was with other files. I imported the files into my current Audacity version, re-exported them, and the sound returned when I re-opened them in Audacity. I still needed to use amplify on them to bring them up loud enough, but they did play softly before I did that. Hope this helps someone else. I am so grateful to have these family recordings back!