Can't hear recordings

tegwengriffiths · Post by **tegwengriffiths** » Mon Aug 30, 2010 1:55 pm

Ihave Windows Vista. I have succesfully installed everything and tried to record both a cassette and LP. However, when playing back the recording, I can't hear it. I have been onto "sounds" in my control panel, but cannot find the thing that was mentioned in FAQs to change. I have also enabled the other bit in Audacity that was recommended. Can anyone help please? Please don't use any complicated computer speak in any replies! Also, is there anyone in Audacity that I can actually speak to to rectify the situation?

Many thanks

Post by **steve** » Mon Aug 30, 2010 2:13 pm

tegwengriffiths wrote:I have succesfully installed everything and tried to record both a cassette and LP

How are you recording them? Are you using a USB recording device?

tegwengriffiths · Post by **tegwengriffiths** » Mon Sep 13, 2010 6:33 pm

Hi Steve

Thank you for this. Sorry about the delay. I thought any replies would be in my Inbox in Audacity and have only just seen yours. I am inserting the jack into the microphone socket in my stereo which is connected to a deck. So I've been recording vinyl using the Audacity software onto my computer. It seems to record OK and I very faintly hear it when it's recording, but when I try to play it back in Audacity there is no sound. Have also been recording casette tapes from my stereo with the same result.

Tegwen

Post by **steve** » Mon Sep 13, 2010 6:39 pm

When you record you should see a blue wiggly waveform appear in the track - ideally about half of the height of the track - do you see something like this?

: tracks000.png (12.75 KiB) Viewed 1955 times

tegwengriffiths · Post by **tegwengriffiths** » Mon Sep 13, 2010 7:11 pm

no, all I see is a thin blue horizontal continuous line

Post by **steve** » Mon Sep 13, 2010 9:53 pm

tegwengriffiths wrote:I am inserting the jack into the microphone socket in my stereo which is connected to a deck

Has this ever worked? Microphone sockets are usually designed for microphones, which produce a very different signal to turntable. Sometimes the microphone socket is designed to work only with a microphone. Sometimes this type of set-up can wok, but usually the results are less than optimal.

What sort of turntable do you have? Do you know if it has a pre-amp built in?
Did the lead that you are using to connect the turntable to the computer come with the turntable, or did you get it separately?
What do the turntable instructions say about connecting to a computer?

tegwengriffiths · Post by **tegwengriffiths** » Tue Sep 14, 2010 7:34 pm

Steve

sorry, let's start again. I put the wrong word down.

I bought the audacity set from an offer in the Daily Mail. It says you can "easily transfer tapes and vinyl to your computer and then burn to CD"!! It came with a disk for installing the software and a wire with a jack on one end and a USB connection on the other end. I have been inserting this jack into a headphone socket (not a microphone as I previously stated). I have tried to record tapes, vinyl, CDs and radio to no avail and as I mentioned, don't get the blue lines you copied in, just a thin blue line. Are you from the company "Audacity" or are you just a friendly person trying to help me?

I don't have much time in the evenings so please excuse any immediate non-response from me.

Tegwen

Post by **steve** » Tue Sep 14, 2010 10:25 pm

tegwengriffiths wrote:I bought the audacity set from an offer in the Daily Mail.

As far as I'm aware the only things that Audacity sells are Audacity T-shirts and Audacity Mugs (available through the on-line store http://audacityteam.org/community/donate ). The main "business" of Audacity is to produce free open-source software.

Audacity is bundled with quite a few audio products, but that is not usually an arrangement that Audacity benefits from financially - in fact it can be quite a nuisance when manufacturers bundle obsolete versions of Audacity with their products.

Some unscrupulous people also attempt to sell Audacity over the Internet (usually through E-bay) without making it clear that Audacity is free open source software and is available to anyone as a download without any financial charge. (of course donations are welcome as they help to pay for essentials such as web hosting). Audacity is developed and supported by volunteers working in their spare time - I'm one of the support volunteers.

To ensure that you have the latest version of Audacity, download Audacity 1.3.12 from here: http://audacityteam.org/download/

tegwengriffiths wrote:It came with a disk for installing the software and a wire with a jack on one end and a USB connection on the other end.

"IT" came with ... ? What exactly is "IT" that you bought?

tegwengriffiths wrote:I don't have much time in the evenings so please excuse any immediate non-response from me.

No problem Tegwen, I'll keep an eye out for your reply whenever you get chance.

Steve

tegwengriffiths · Post by **tegwengriffiths** » Thu Sep 16, 2010 12:33 pm

Hi Steve

I brought (£29.95 plus P & P) something marketed as a music grabber from the Daily Mail Offers which you can see at the following site:

http://www.maillife.co.uk/i-AA-E796/usb ... arch=music grabber (or just http://www.maillife.co.uk and then search for music grabber).

When it arrived it comprised a disk to download the software and the USB/headphones cable to connect the stero to the computer. You can see a picture of the cable on the website. After installing the software the programme installed is called Audacity and all the links take you through to Audacity sites including this forum one which they say is the Help site.

You haven't said anything further about the thin blue line which I get when recording. Presumably this is quite sigificant. Could it be that the cable is faulty?

Thanks for all your help.

Tegwen

Post by **waxcylinder** » Thu Sep 16, 2010 2:26 pm

tegwengriffiths wrote:You haven't said anything further about the thin blue line which I get when recording. Presumably this is quite sigificant. Could it be that the cable is faulty?

The thin blue line means that you have no signal (or possibly, but unlikely, a very low signal)

I note from the Daily Wail website that you reference that other users seem to have got the device working - so yes it is entirely possible that either the cables or the device itself are faulty.

Is there a gain control (volume control) on the device? I'm guessing not. And you will probably find that the Aydacity input slider will not work to adjust the level of the input signal - quite typical for USB soundcards like this as Audacity hands over control of the sound services to the USB device.

You may want to have a look at this page in the Audacity manual: http://manual.audacityteam.org/index.ph ... turntables

It comes from this set of tutorials which will probably be useful to you: http://manual.audacityteam.org/index.ph ... iscs_to_CD

BTW you will almost certainly be better off using the latest Audacity version 1.3.12 - don't worry about the Beta labelling it's actually now a very mature and stable Beta release. You can get it from here: http://audacityteam.org/download/

WC

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