Can't hear recording

[gjeffhall]

I have used Audicity for a couple of years on my desktop, and recently loaded it on my laptop. I can see the soundtrack, but it fills the whole level and I do not hear the music being recorded. I am using the ION Tape 2 PC equipment; called them and they said they do not support Audicity any more.

[steve]

called them and they said they do not support Audicity any more.

That's nice of them - they probably gave you an old version of Audacity too.
Lokk in the "Help menu > About Audacity" if the version number is less than 1.3.12 you would do well to upgrade (Audacity 1.3.12 is available here: http://audacityteam.org/download/beta_windows )

The best way to hear your records is to connect the analogue outputs of the turntable to an amplifier or powered speakers. (details of how to do that should be in your ION user manual). The big advantage of this method is that you can listen to your tapes without turning the computer on.

If that method is not a viable option you can listen to your tapes by enabling "software playthrough".
Go to "Edit menu > Preferences > Devices" and check that the Recording device is set to the USB option, and the Playback device is set to your normal sound card (whatever your speakers are connected to).
Then from the "Transport" menu select "Software Playthrough".

As far as Audacity is concerned, USB Tape players are pretty much the same as USB turntables. You will find a lot more information about recording from USB turntables in the Audacity wiki
http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Trans ... uter_or_CD
and
http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/USB_turntables