Audacity Forum

When I try to record (having enabled listen to recording) the telltale says it is recording but all I can hear is two channel noise. I have checked the audio O/P frome the cassette player is OK.iF this problem can be resolved Audacity will woerk fine as I know it exports to the computer.

andypen39 wrote:When I try to record (having enabled listen to recording) the telltale says it is recording but all I can hear is two channel noise. I have checked the audio O/P frome the cassette player is OK.iF this problem can be resolved Audacity will woerk fine as I know it exports to the computer.

with my cassette i had to adjust both its volume control and the one in audacity to get any recording and then one without clipping

my (realtek) sound card does not seem to record until the signal is over a threshold

andypen39 wrote:When I try to record (having enabled listen to recording) the telltale says it is recording but all I can hear is two channel noise. I have checked the audio O/P frome the cassette player is OK.iF this problem can be resolved Audacity will woerk fine as I know it exports to the computer.

1) Does Audacity record OK? (is there a blue waveform appearing on a track as you record)
2) After you have recorded does Audacity play back the recording OK when you press the PLAY button?
3) How is the cassette player connected to the computer? Do you have an output from the cassette plugged into the "Line In" socket of your sound card, or does it have a USB connection - please give details.

whomper wrote:my (realtek) sound card does not seem to record until the signal is over a threshold

RealTek sound cards (along with many other on-board sound cards) often have effects to cut out background noise when the signal goes below a threshold. This is useful when you are making Skype phone calls or similar activities but can be a hindrance when recording. The effect may be called "Noise Reduction" (or it may be called something else). There is usually an option in the RealTek control panel to switch this effect off. There may also be an effect called "Echo Suppression" (Echo Cancellation, or something similar). For recording, both of these effects should normally be switched off.

If you switch off these effects you will probably notice a big increase in background noise. The noise is caused by the sound card - it is expensive to produce noise free sound cards and so motherboard manufacturers tend to go for the cheaper option of "gating" the noise in software.

These effect settings are in different places from one sound card to another, but they are usually available somewhere in the RealTek control Panel. This picture shows one example but your sound card may differ. If you need to discus this question further, please start a new topic.