Help I'm not sure I am doing this right!

[Trouble5305]

Hi I'm new to the recording world. I am trying to record a bunch of cassette tapes to mp3s. I am running Windows Vista Home Prem. and I have a dual deck tape hooked up to a stereo receiver. I got the Y cable and connected the cassette out lines on the receiver to the white and red as indicated then the line in on my sound card with the other 3.5 connector. I opened Audacity and the input selector box is all greyed out so I am not sure what to do from there.

Any help will be greatly appreciated. I tried to record but nothing is happening. I know I have to be doing something wrong. Should I be changing anything in the preferences box?

Help!

[kozikowski]

<<<I tried to record but nothing is happening. >>>

I can help a little bit right away. Audacity has a diagnostic mode. Open Audacity as normal and click once inside the red record sound meters. They will become active and measure whatever it is you're doing without sending Audacity into full record. You can do that for weeks.

You probably need to mess around in the Windows Control Panels to select your audio. Audacity is pretty much a slave to whatever the operating system does.

Windows Control Panel
http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php? ... trol_Panel

Koz

[Trouble5305]

Hi Koz,
Thanks for the help. Not to sound like a complete idiot but what red sound meters?
The only red thing on the screen is the record button.

[Trouble5305]

I just checked and my sound card is a Realtek High Def Audio.

[kozikowski]

When recording a show, a normal Audacity should look something like this:

http://kozco.com/tech/audacity/Audacity1_record.jpg

The record meters are on the right and the playback meters are on the left. They're green.

http://kozco.com/tech/audacity/Audacity1_playback.jpg

Do you have something that looks like that? The meters may be one over the other instead of side by side, but you get the idea.

Koz

[Trouble5305]

I don't have any indication going that I am recording or playing back. The only thing I show is a solid blue line just going straight across on the audio track section.

[MDOC]

Go to the sound dialogue box (from Sound app in Vista control panel) and set your line in as the default input. Hit Apply button. Play the tape and make sure the meter at the right is active. Then go into the preferences in Audacity, go to "Audio I/O" tab, and set the "Recording Device" to Line In and "Channels" to stereo. Then hit the record button in Audacity, you'll hear nothing until you hit it.



Another thing: you don't need the stereo receiver to amplify the tape audio before feeding it to the sound card. Use the outputs directly from the tape deck to feed the sound card at the line in.

[Trouble5305]

Ok I connected directly to the cassette tape deck and set the default to line in which it was. I still don't get a read out on audacity. It's almost as if it doesn't hear anything. I just get the straight line going across. The red indicators light up but quickly go down to nothing.

[MDOC]

Go back to the sound dialogue box. Play the tape. Is the level meter in the sound box showing green flunctuations? (You won't hear audio.) If not, you're not connected to the line in jack. If it does, You haven't set up the preferences (in Audio I/O tab) to match your physical setup.

[Trouble5305]

Got it thanks so much. I went back so frustrated and reread the message. I realized when i connected to the cassette deck I didn't connect it up right. It is working great now. Thanks for everyone's help!!!!