buzzing noise....

[galaxyfaraway]

I am new to this, but have read the wiki data, forum data, etc. I have my tape deck with a book on tape. I have the plug going from the only plug in available, the headphone jack. This is plugged into the back jack (blue). I am running Vista Home Premium on a 64 bit, quad-core HP. I can hear what I am recording while it is recording. The line showing on the computer is narrow, you can barely see the squiglies. When I play back, I have to unplug from the blue jack. Then I have to turn up my speaker volume to hear anything. The buzzing is much louder than the reader of the book. I have played with volume levels, I have played with recording devices, I have tried everything I can think of and read about in Wiki and the forums. What can I do to record properly? Thanks in advance. (Sorry for not remembering the correct term for the squiggly line. By the way, it has been big too, but still the buzzing occurs and is louder than the reader's voice. But when I am recording, it sounds fine. Just the playback is no good.) Cheers, Galaxy

[kozikowski]

You may just not have the headphone volume up far enough.

Open up Audacity and click once inside the red recording meters. They will wake up and monitor the incoming sound without you having to go into full record.

Play the tape and adjust the headphone volume until the meters bounce just short of 0 (all the way to the right).

Then make a recording.

If you still have noise, you may have cable problems. Will the tape player run from batteries?

Pull the plug out of the computer and scrub it with a paper towel and a little rubbing alcohol or vodka. dry it and plug it back in. Try running the tape player on batteries. If the connection to the tape machine is another plug, clean that with the vodka.

Koz

[galaxyfaraway]

Thanks for getting back to me. I do not have any "red" recording meters. I do see output and input meters, but they are outlined in black and grey inside. Nothing happens when I click on those. Am I looking at the wrong thing? If so, what is the correct item I should be viewing and where can I find it? If I am looking at the correct thing, what am I doing wrong and how can I do it correctly? Thanks again for your help, and I look forward to hearing from you again. Cheers, Galaxy

[steve]

I do see output and input meters, but they are outlined in black and grey inside.

You mean they re "greyed out"?
Can you Right Click on them and enable them?

[galaxyfaraway]

Thanks for getting back to me. No. Right clicking doesn't let me do anything except change the view from horizontal to vertical, or disable. (Which they already seem disabled...) Perhaps I am looking at the wrong item? Please let me know. Thanks!

[kozikowski]

This is what it looks like when you're recording a show. That's where I got the red recording meters from.

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

In Audacity, this process is a little wacky because there is no indication whether you are in monitor mode or not. You take it on blind faith that if you launch the program and click once inside those meters, that they will come alive. Audacity 1.3 is much more defined in how it works and much easier to troubleshoot.

Particularly in Windows, 1.3 is enormously easier to repair when it breaks, too.

You can safely install both 1.2 and 1.3 on your machine as long as you only use one at a time. Write back when you have 1.3 installed and we'll use that to troubleshoot instead of beating 1.2 to death..

Koz