Audacity Forum

Okay so want to record a cassette tape to my computer. I got the right cable and put it in the line in jack and pressed play on my cassette player and can hear the tape playing though my speakers. Great. I opened audacity, changed it to stereo recording. tried to record and nothing registered in the file. no sound recorded though I could hear it in my speakers. I went to my windows audio devices. and to the audio i/o in the preferences of audacity. and the devices are all realtek ac97 audio ( my sound card). I looked up many different guides and they say that I should have my devices set at line in - however I can't choose line in in either windows or audacity b/c it isn't a choice. Line in isn't on my drop down menu. is that my problem is there a way to add line in rather than just my sound card appearing?

The assumption running through your whole post is that you have a Line-In. If you're on a Windows laptop, there's a huge chance you don't.

Most laptops have a Mic-In which is mono and is expecting a tiny, delicate, wispy microphone signal, not the massive, powerful stereo sound signal coming out of your Tape Machine.

Did I hit it? Most people either use tape machines or record players that already have USB, or buy a simple USB Line-In adapter which we reviewed a bit ago.

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

Koz

I'm on a desktop. that has a line in plug ( separate from my mic plug) where my 1/8th inch dubbing cable is plugged in. so I have a line in plug. and the audio from my tape is playing in my speaker. so the input is there. I just don't seem to be able to choose line in on my windows recording default or the audacity one.

If you're on Windows Vista, Line In must be enabled in the Windows Control Panel http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php? ... ng_devices