Audacity Forum

It seems I've done everything according to the instructions. Both ends plugged in with RCA minis in the appropriate in and out ports. Set my Mac (OS10.3.9) according to instructions (Line In) and set Audacity according to the notes here. But still it doesn't appear that the signal is getting through. How can I check? What else can I do?

A few definitions. That is an RCA Cable. In stereo pairs, they're usually red and white.

http://www.pachd.com/free-images/techno ... tor-02.jpg

http://www.kozco.com/tech/audioconnecto ... ctors.html

The top one of these is an 1/8" or 3.5mm stereo audio cable.

Let's assume you got the tape machine playback (RCA???) adapted to the 3.5mm connector that goes into your Mac at the connector with the circle and two black arrows (Line-In).

Apple > System Preferences > Hardware > Sound > Input.

Make sure Line-In is selected. Play the tape. The Apple sound meter should bounce.

Did we get it that far?

Close Preferences. Open up Audacity and set the Audacity Preferences to 44100, 16-bit (not 32) and Stereo (not Mono).

Restart Audacity to make sure the new settings stick.

Play the tape and click once inside the red record meters.

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

Did we lose you and where?

Koz

Cables check out.
I forgot about the Sound > Input. That's what I was looking for to see if the signal was getting through.
When I checked it with the radio playing I could see the meter bouncing.
I had already set the Audicity Prefs to the suggested settings.
I played the tape and checked the red record button and for the first time I could see that it was recording.
I swear I didn't change a thing but now it appears to be recording where it wasn't before. Maybe a bad connection before? I plugged, unplugged and twisted the jacks enough times to wear out any invisible corrosion.

OK. So now shouldn't I be able to play the file? When I click on the triangle nothing happens. When I click on the file icon, the window that opens isn't filled with the blue levels curve or even a cursor. Was there something else I was supposed to do?

I understand that to import the file into iTunes, it should be exported as a WAV file, but that option seems to be grayed out.

Please help me through these last steps.

<<<OK. So now shouldn't I be able to play the file?>>>

No. We haven't recorded anything yet. That was the Audacity diagnostic mode that lets us inspect for problems or damage.

Press Stop and then Record. The red meters will bounce and the blue waveforms will start to march across the timeline. Press Stop. Now we have a capture. To make a sound file -- pay attention -- we need to Export As WAV. Audacity will not Save a sound file.

Name the file with upper and lower case letters, numbers, underscore, and dash. No other characters.

Open the file in iTunes and do whatever you want.

iTunes has Import preferences that can affect the quality. See if you get this far.

Koz

You won't be surprised to learn that your instructions worked perfectly. What a relief!

Now I would like to know how to cut out the dead air at the beginning and in between the two tape sides. Is this done before I export? If I have already exported and the file is still open can I do it anyway and then export again? Could I do it if I already closed the file?

Also, I noticed in a few places the waveform peaked so much that it flattened out, which I know isn't a good thing. Was there some way to control for this? (Is it at the Input volume in Sound?) When I played the tape back in iTunes I heard crackling in some of the louder places. Were those the places where the wave flattened out where it peaked?

Thanks for answering all these beginners' questions.

We need to address the philosophy of Capture Masters.

What normally happens is you capture an entire tape, record, live performance, something and export as a Capture Master WAV file. This is the one you back up to a second drive for safety.

You can go back to this file at any time and do further production, cutting, manipulation, and editing, but you never record over or damage this file (and its backup) in any way.

You can make compressed versions, cut it up into songs and do whatever you want secure in the knowledge that you always have a perfect copy of the show to go back to.

That's not what happened to you. You recorded the performance too loud and created overload damage. You have no perfect capture master. Record it again at a lower level. The volume control next to the little microphone symbol should reduce the incoming volume and prevent damage. Run the tape down to the point of damage and make sure it doesn't happen again before you make a new pass.

Remember the diagnostic tools. Click once inside the red meters and they will wake up and tell you levels without the program going in to record.

As a practical matter, you can't fix what you have.

Final volume is a post production tool, you don't have to hit it exactly right now. The current task is to capture the tape with no damage.

Koz

OK. Let me see if I get it. I record in Audacity to make a capture master. I export this as a WAV file. At that point I am done with the original capture master. I make a copy of the WAV file and put it elsewhere for safekeeping. (Does it matter if I make that backup copy from the WAV master or from the original capture master?) Next I open the original WAV file (which opens up in Audacity) and edit on it (and when done do I export again?) Am I on the right track so far?
I now understand that I can't fix the recording I made with the distortions and have to redo it. (I did and it's much better.)

If I am correct so far, here's where I am now confused. It's when you say "Run the tape down to the point of damage and make sure it doesn't happen again before you make a new pass.
Remember the diagnostic tools. Click once inside the red meters and they will wake up and tell you levels without the program going in to record."

I understood you meant I should note, for instance, that the point of damage was at 2 minutes. Then I should play the tape to that point using diagnostic tools to see what level I should set the volume control next to the little mic symbol. That was when I had problems. First of all it didn't seem I could run the tape and see its waveform without recording it. And second I couldn't find any diagnostic tools or red meters.

Sorry to make this so long. But I am getting closer to success.

Play or shuttle or scan the tape forward to the point that got you into trouble last time. Open Audacity and click once inside the record meters. They only turn red when they're working, but if you have a big enough screen, you can see a thin red stripe just to the right of the L and the R. Don't go into record.

Play the tape. The meters should work telling you if you're going to get into trouble this time with the lower volume settings.

By now it's too late because you already made a second recording, but that's the idea. This is something you can do ahead of the real recording to make sure your show has loudness that won't damage anything. We didn't talk about this, but you also need to make sure the show isn't so low that it runs into the other big problem, quiet noise.


You can make two WAV files from the original Project, calling one Main and one Backup or whatever appeals to you. They will be the same work, so they can be the same filename, but most computers won't let you do that. GlendaleOrganMusic20090526_Backup.wav

Alternately, you can make one master WAV file and copy that to the backup drive or storage device. That will give you two files with the same show and the same filename.

Also note that we haven't Saved anything so far. Audacity only saves Audacity Projects which are fine for advanced editing and complex shows, but something of a confusing waste of time for simple projects. I haven't used a Project for anything yet, except to explain it to someone else.

Also, we haven't started editing yet.

Koz

I'm guessing those meters are the ones mentioned in 5) of the tutorial Setting up Audacity. Strangely, I don't see them in my copy. The instructions go on to say, "If the recording level meters are not visible, go to the Interface tab of Preferences and check Enable Meter Toolbar" This option is not present. I'm using version 1.2.0pre3. Is this a too-old version, perhaps?

Now it gets messy. My earliest experiences are with 1.2.4, and we know even that one had problems, although it worked enough to get me through several live recording sessions.

I can't recommend 1.2.6 the current "stable" version because the instant you upgrade to a more modern Mac, that's going to start creating problems.

You can install one 1.2 and one 1.3 on your machine as long as you only use one at a time. You should probably pull down and install Audacity Universal 1.3.7.

See if that helps. If you still don't get two sets of meters...

http://kozco.com/tech/audacity/Audacity ... andard.jpg

...then we need to do some serious repair work.

Koz