Audacity Forum

Can Audacity record if I use USB sound and not a soundcard? Someone indicated it could, but I don't see how if the signal is USB and the soundcard is bypassed.

If you plug a USB sound device into your Windows® machine and Windows Supports it and the drivers are happy, then yes, Audacity will work fine. By USB Device, I mean like a simple analog sound to USB adapter, or a small USB mixer with multiple analog inputs or maybe outputs.

What did you mean?

These should work, by the way, in addition to the other audio services on your machine. In the case of a full-on Windows machine, I believe it creates new Sound Control Panel faders to accommodate the device.

Koz

I am using an external soundcard, really a external digital to analog convertor, which XP recognizes as "USB codec". But, when I run audacity nothing appears in the drop down box at the upper left corner, so there is no way to record. BTW, I can playback .aup files.

<<<I can playback .aup files.>>>

Well, no. You can't. You can play Audacity Projects. The AUP file is a programming language management file you can open up in NotePad or WordPad and read. It's not a sound file.

http://kozco.com/tech/audacity/aup1.jpg

Magnify that if you need to and scroll around in it. The top part is "Left" and the bottom part is "Right." It's written in XML.

The actual music can be on many files anywhere. That's why emailing sound to somebody is so hard. Export to get a real sound file. Those email perfectly.

<<<external digital to analog convertor>>>

If it is a digital to analog converter, that's what's wrong. It needs to go the other direction--or more normally, both directions.

You can eliminate one layer of complexity right away by leaving Audacity closed and run the Windows Sound Recorder.

Windows Sound Recorder
Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> Entertainment

If you can't find your show and record a little of it in the Windows Recorder, Audacity is hopeless.

Koz