effects greyed out

[satwilson]

I am trying to use Audacity for EQ and bass boost when playing the rips in my audio library, wave format. I have tried to import the library to Audacity in the file tab with no success. The library appears as a source/window but Audacity does not recognize any file name I have put in. What am I doing wrong? I assume the effects toolbar is greyed out because there are no files. I have also tried the import raw data option. Using Win7pro, USB soundcard(Audacity recognizes USB output device). Sorry, I'm a noob here, but I have tried for a couple hours and would appreciate any advice as to how to get started here. Thanks!

[kozikowski]

Where is your library? If it's in Windows Media, they may not be WAV files any more. Windows Media compresses down to M4A for internal use. You might be able to install FFMpeg on your Audacity and open the music files that way.

You should use FFMpeg from this web site only. Some of the other versions don't play well.

http://audacityteam.org/download/

Also sometimes it helps to force Windows to show you file extensions. That Music file will turn out to be Music.m4a not Music.wav

Hidden File Extensions
-- Start > My Computer > Tools > Folder Options > View > [ ] Hide Extensions for Known File Types (deselect)
-- Apply (to this folder) or Apply to All Folders
-- OK

This may be slightly different if you have Win7.

Koz