Audacity Forum

I have been transferring music from vinyl to digital using a Crosley turntable and Audacity software. Everything was fine for a while, but recently I've noticed that a lot of the sound is getting left behind. The digital version might be missing a horn section or a vocal phrase, or the sound might be pushed to the background. Also, the recording can sound flat -- when I play back a CD to which I've burned tracks using Audacity, I turn up the bass and nothing happens.
At first I thought the problem was the turntable, but listening closely I've realized that's not the case.
My computer operating system is Windows Vista Home Premium.
Can someone please tell me what's going on here?

You may be getting "phase reversal" somewhere in the system.
Does the recording sound OK when you play it in Audacity (before exporting the file)?

How are you listening? Headphones? Speakers? how are they connected?

The sounds are missing when I play the recording in Audacity.
I've noticed the same problem whether I listen to speakers or headphones, which are connected to my computer.

So can anyone help me solve this problem, or do I need to try some software other than Audacity?
I really don't want to go to the bother of transferring music to digital if a large portion of the music ends up missing in the end product.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Audacity should be a fine tool for your application - I have used 1.2 and 1.3 to convert hundreds of LPs and tapes to digibits with excellent results.

It is possible that you problem may be with Vista and/or with the Visat drivers for your soundcard - I would (and do) prefer to do this work with XP.

WC

Thank you. I'll look into that.

<<<You may be getting "phase reversal" somewhere in the system.>>>

I'm with him. You're describing the classic problem where one side of the performance (say Left) is damaged compared with the other.

"Some of the instruments appear damaged ... sometimes the vocal is very quiet."

Try this. Download and play the LRMono music file from here...

http://www.kozco.com/tech/soundtests.html

It can't be more than fifteen seconds long.

It's in four segments. Left, Right, Mono, and Intentionally Damaged.

On a correct, full stereo system, you clearly hear all four segments and the last one sounds a little weird. I bet that's not how you hear it.

Koz