Fast recording or slow playback?

[Bourdead]

Hi all. I looked through as much of the posts and FAQs as possible before posting. When recording audio from a cassette deck connected to the sound card's line in, during the recording it sounds fine (monitor.) During playback the audio is slow. I tried saving the project as an MP3 to test if the playback function was at fault. The MP3 file created sounds slow in other players.

So here's the strange part. It used to be fine. Can't attribute any change in the environment to the time the slow playback began. No new software or hardware. Just as a sanity check I downloaded a basic, freeware MP3 recorder and it does not suffer the slow playback. I've tried versions 1.2.6 and 1.3.10 beta. Both behave the same way though I thought 3.10 wasn't as slow as 2.6. Very strange.

I checked the usual suspects as far as performance: Physical storage, memory, CPU. Nothing leaps out at me as being a problem. So I humbly ask you all for suggestions. Thanks for taking the time to address this.

Best Regards

[Bourdead]

Update: Tried playing a CD. Recorded and played back fine. I would imagine the only difference between the line-in for the cassette deck and the CD is the external jack versus internal through the connection between CD drive and sound card. Just trying to elimnate anything obvious.

[kozikowski]

Some CD players use the data stream from the disk, not the analog cable between the disk drive and the sound card. If yours does that, it's the difference between a pure digital transfer and an analog one.

Nobody will fall over in amazement that the sound card A to D converter is having troubles. Try resetting Audacity Preferences to 44100, 16-bit, Stereo instead of wherever it is now. Restart Audacity. Does that change anything on the next capture?

We had a cluster of speed problems a while back and I don't remember what the resolution was. A generic fix almost always involves getting rid of the $1.29 sound card and/or updating the sound drivers. People like the idea of capturing with an external USB Sound Card and we reviewed several of them.

http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=9477

Koz

[Bourdead]

Koz,

Thanks for the input. After looking closely at the source drop-down list I saw it set to some microsoft mixer something-or-other. I flipped over to line in and it work perfectly. Apparently whatever intermediate software is involved with that setting caused my speed issues. Not sure of the mechanics between the line-in versus a software mixer but I know better now.

Cheers!