working with cassette tapes

[johngr]

I posted this already but I think in the wrong place. I've just started using Audacity to convert my casette tape collection to CD or DVD and I think I've made my first recorded .WAV file. I cannot play it on Real Player and I wonder if there are settings I should be using or if I need a better sound card than the one which came with my XP computer. Can anyone help?

John

[steve]

Yes your last post was tucked away where no-one would see it - Never mind, I've deleted it.

If your media player can play anything, then it should be able to play a WAV file. Does RealPlayer come up with any error message ("codec not found" or anything similar)? I suspect that you have exported as a 32bit WAV file. Many media players, by default, do not support 32 bit WAV files. 16 bit WAV files are almost universally supported.

I've not used Audacity 1.2 or quite a while now, so I'm struggling to remember the exact location, but if you look in Edit menu > Preferences > (possibly) Export format(?) tab , look for the settings for default format for uncompressed file export. Set it to "44100Hz 16 bit (Microsoft PCM) WAV" format.

[johngr]

Thanks for that - I've got all set up to 16bit and 44KHz. The track appears to record (mono) and I've tried both Microsoft Sound Mapper and C-Media Wave Device, it exports as 3.32 MB WAV file and has been set to play both on Media Player and tried also on Real Player. The indications are that the track is playing but no sound comes. Windows Media Player plays other music so I am kind of stuck. Am I using some setting on Record which gives a non playable track in Windows Media Player? Any more ideas?

John

[steve]

If you could upload somewhere on the internet, a small WAV file that illustrates the problem, then post a link so that we can have a look at it. (You can't post wav files directly onto the forum).

[johngr]

I seem to have got it working - not quite sure but rechecking everything and using the settings you advised has cleared whatever it was. Many thanks for staying with me on this.

John Grant