Audacity Forum

I had it working fine. Then I decided to shut the program down. This after recording a piece from a mic about 10 times. I had Line In selected for the input, which was fed by a mixer. As I said, it was working fine. Then, in shutting down, the program asked me if I wanted to save each version of the recording. I said no each time. When it finally shut down, the Input Device window on the mixer bar was greyed out, with nothing selected. Now I can't get the mixer bar device selector to work at all.

What happened?

Which windows version? If you're on Vista or 7 you should get audacity 1.3.13.

It's Win XP. I have Audacity 1.3. I went back to 1.2.6 because it showed me some alternative input options (like Line In, Microphone, etc., when it works, that is). 1.3 doesn't give me that option on the mixer bar. I can get it to work in audio properties (I think) but even then, it doesn't work. It's the only reason I don't use 1.3. Why they took that off the mixer bar is beyond me.

tboneman wrote:1.3 doesn't give me that option on the mixer bar.

I'm not sure if you mean the "Mixer Toolbar" or the "Device Toolbar", but you'll be pleased to know that they're both back in Audacity 1.3.13.

Yes we know that there's problems with the input devices in Audacity 1.2.6, but we can't help with that because the developers are no longer supporting Audacity 1.2.6, so if it doesn't work, then that's the end of the story. It should work in Audacity 1.3.13.

To enable the devices toolbar in 1.3.13 go to View menu -> Toolbars -> Devices toolbar

Devices toolbar in 1.3.13 is better than it has ever been in any previous version.

You can also set the devices in Preferences -> Devices.

Thanks guys. I got 1.3 working/ Went into Preferences audio i/o, set the device in at Microphone, and it works.

One other question. I realize that Audacity is an audio editor, probably the best one out there. I need it to simply record voice over cuts, using a mic and a mixer. I may do one cut 6 or 7 times before I'm satisfied with it. After I select the cut I want and export it usually to MP3, how or what is the best way to get rid of the other cuts so I can move on to the next project?

tboneman wrote:One other question. I realize that Audacity is an audio editor, probably the best one out there. I need it to simply record voice over cuts, using a mic and a mixer. I may do one cut 6 or 7 times before I'm satisfied with it. After I select the cut I want and export it usually to MP3, how or what is the best way to get rid of the other cuts so I can move on to the next project?

I'm not sure if I understand your question...

How did you record the different cuts? All in the same track or each one in a new track? If all in the same track, just select the unwanted part of the track and delete it. If in different tracks, just delete the unwanted tracks (click on the X in the top left corner of the track). Did that answer your question?

Also be aware that mp3 is a lossy format, that means that to achieve compression and reduction of the file size some damaged is made to the audio. That damage is irreversible. While mp3 is a good format for final delivery specially if you want to share it over the internet, it's always good practice to save an uncompressed copy of the audio as WAV or FLAC (make one copy right after you have captured the audio and make a later copy of the edited audio). You should avoid at all cost importing and editing audio from mp3's. That audio will already be damaged and every time you reexport it more damaged is added...

Appreciate the tip on MP3.

And yes, you also answered my question about deleting cuts I no longer need.

Many thanks.