Audacity Forum

Reading through the forum I realized that the muffled sound I was getting in Audacity files off of a cassette tape was likely related to volume controls. The tape (kids' story) always sounded good on the computer speakers, but the Audacity-generated file was initially unintelligible. By messing with the Master volume control and the control in RealTek HD Audio Manager (and maybe some other?), I have gotten much better sound quality. But I still don't fully understand how the controls are related and how to optimally set them. Can someone give me some background?

Windows XP, newest version of Audacity 1.3.12, tape deck's red/white line out directly into the line-in on a desktop computer.

I would like to do more copying of cassette to digital and any perspective you can provide me is appreciated.

PS And how can a 48K aup file convert to a 304mb wav file?

Thanks

<<<PS And how can a 48K aup file convert to a 304mb wav file?>>>

I'll take that one first. Audacity doesn't save sound files. The AUP file is a data manager. It's programming code. You can open it in NotePad and read it. Here's a simple one...

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

Its job is to collect all the bits and pieces of your show from wherever they may be into your show when you press Play. To get a self-contained sound file, you have to Export one.

The WAV file is a real sound file.

A lot of the muffling you experience with tape transfers has to do with worn or out of alignment tape heads. This is only awkward in stereo, but if you listen in mono, it can cause the show to go away.

Play this short sound clip and make sure your speakers are working like they should. It's a stereo sound test.

http://www.kozco.com/tech/LRMonoPhaset4.wav

Koz