Sound quality of project

[cstevmor]

I just downloaded Audacity and am new at this. I'm mainly interested (to start) in transferring my cassette tape collection to digital. I'm recording the tapes from a Sony tape deck using RCA output to the mic jack on my computer which is running Window XP. The final recording though is similar to the chipmunk Christmas song. I've checked around and can't seem to find anyone having this problem. How do I correct this or what settings am I needing to change? Thanks in advance for your help!!

[kozikowski]

It happens more than you think and I don't know that we ever figured out a good solution, or even what's causing the problem. As a fuzzy concept, there are two things that can cause fast playback, damaged or foreign music files, or slow capture. If your computer is capturing slowly because of a bad sound card or a choking computer, then you will get a fast sound file.

Does the fast sound play that way on another computer?

You might try changing the Audacity preferences to 44100, 16-bit (not 32-bit) Stereo (not Mono).

Do you have plenty of room on your hard drives and do you defragment regularly?

Try to make a simple, short recording using the Microsoft Sound Recorder and see if that works.

Windows Sound Recorder
Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> Entertainment

Koz

[cstevmor]

Thanks for your help! I just figured out what was going on. Apparantly some kids have been messing around with the knobs on my tape deck and the pitch control was way off center. I put it back and the recording is coming out just fine. Maybe someone else has this problem and has an adjustable pitch control. If you do --check it!

[kozikowski]

So you weren't listening while you were recording?

Koz

[waxcylinder]

...Apparantly some kids have been messing around with the knobs on my tape deck and the pitch control was way off center. I put it back and the recording is coming out just fine. Maybe someone else has this problem and has an adjustable pitch control. If you do --check it!

ROFL - it's always good to check the basics before plunging into the depths of software and settings etc. I had a similar problem once when one of my dear cats reset the settings on my amp/soundcard ...

WC