Cassette tapes into iTunes via Audacity 1.3.3 Beta

[peter8]

Hi

One of the disadvantages of being 72 years old is that even the most simple technical problem appears unresolvable. If anyone can help me I'd be most grateful.

Using Audacity 1.3.3 Beta(Unicode) I spent 6 happy hours successfully downloading my old cassette tapes into iTunes via my Windows Vista laptop. Then, without apparent reason and in mid-recording, Audacity stopped recording in stereo via the left and right channels and would only record on the left channel. I have no idea why this happened although I have eliminated the donor cassette player and the lead between the cassette player and laptop as being part of the problem. That just leaves the Audacity programme or my laptop as the possible culprit. If anyone has the first idea as to how I can resolve this problem you will make an old man very happy. Thanks in advance,

Peter

[bgravato]

First of all you should upgrade your Audacity. 1.3.3 is a very old version. The latest version is 1.3.13 and you can get it from here: http://audacityteam.org/download/

Second I must ask if you're sure it was working in stereo before...

Most laptops don't have a line input, most will have only a mic input, which is mono, meaning you'll only get a mono recording. If you connect a stereo jack to it, probably, you'll just get sound on the left channel and the right channel will be just a straight blue line.

[kozikowski]

You probably want this...

http://kozco.com/tech/audacity/pix/UCA202.jpg

That's a UCA-202 and it's about $30. It will provide the stereo connection to your computer.

If you're older than dirt, it's possible you have a large deskside computer and not a laptop. In that case you may have an actual stereo Line-In connection and you can do this...

http://kozco.com/tech/audacity/pix/DesktopLine-In.jpg

Make sure you pick the fan symbol with the arrow pointing in that does *not* have a microphone picture. Stereo-In is usually blue, but not always.

Which?

Koz

[peter8]

First of all you should upgrade your Audacity. 1.3.3 is a very old version. The latest version is 1.3.13 and you can get it from here: http://audacityteam.org/download/

Second I must ask if you're sure it was working in stereo before...

Most laptops don't have a line input, most will have only a mic input, which is mono, meaning you'll only get a mono recording. If you connect a stereo jack to it, probably, you'll just get sound on the left channel and the right channel will be just a straight blue line.

Thanks very much for your reply. I have now downloaded 1.3.13 but it has made no difference. Audacity will only record through the left channel although I can just hear something on the right via iPod headphones but effectively there is nothing. This problem occurred suddenly after hours of successful left and right channel recording. Do you have any idea what I can do as I am at a loss? The problem is not with the donor unit or the lead. Could it be my laptop is not recording correctly? How could I check?
Thanks in advance.
Peter

[bgravato]

What laptop do you have? Can you tell us the brand and model?

[peter8]

What laptop do you have? Can you tell us the brand and model?

Hi, It's a Fujitsu Semens Amilo Li 1718.
As I have already eliminated the donor unit and the lead as the problem as well as Audacity (as I have downloaded the new version without resolving the problem), presumably that only leaves my laptop as the culprit. However as I successfully downloaded into iTunes in stereo via Audacity for several hours before recording suddenly changed to left channel only, I assume the setting within my laptop must be correct.
Thanks in advance for your interest and assistance and please remember I am extremely dim when it comes to computers so non-technical info would be appreciated.
Regards Peter

[kozikowski]

The instructions 'seem' to say that this is one of the laptops that shares one connection between two different services, Line-In and Mic-In. Only Line-In is stereo.

Did you change anything that seemingly has nothing to do with music -- like a new Skype account or other 'telephone over computer' or video conferencing service? That will change the connection without asking you.

So now it's messy. I'm not on a Windows machine, but I know settings like this are buried in the Windows Control Panels under sound.

We should probably wait for the Windows elves to help.

Koz

[peter8]

Hi
I have encountered a weird problem whilst transferring cassette tapes into iTunes via Audacity and wonder if anyone can come up with a solution.

Having saved the recording in Audacity onto my Windows 7 laptop, an icon appears on the desktop which identifies the track file I have created. I then enter iTunes and add this file to the library. So far so good. It all works fine.

However the problem is that I have around 200 tracks to transfer and having already transferred around 80, my desktop page is now completely full of track file icons. I cannot delete these icons as to do so sends the files into my recycle bin and when this happens iTunes will no longer play these tracks. It appears I am not actually moving the recordings permanently into iTunes but only holding them on my laptop for iTunes to connect to when asked.

Is there some way of moving these recordings permanently into iTunes which seems to be what happens when I put a cd into my laptop and download it straight into iTunes?

Regards Peter

[waxcylinder]

iTunes will reference the music files externally unless you tell it to make its own copy.

To do this in Itunes go to Edit > Preferences and go to the Advanced tab - the click on Copy Files to iTunes Media Folder when adding to library IIRC the default is for this to be off - a dumb default IMHO

I would also check to on the Keep iTunes Media folder organized too

You may need to re-add the songs you already "added"

BTW when using Windows the desktop is generallyn considered to be not a good place to keep a lot of cfiles or folders, even temporary ones. Much better to work with a temporary folder (or set of folders) in your windows file structure.

WC

[peter8]

Hi

Thanks very much for your advice. It was of great assistance.

Regards Peter