Recording input Audacity 3.2.1

Hi – running Audacity 3.2.1 on Windows 11, 64 bit.

In advance, I think this is more a problem with my setup than Audacity itself… When I had Audacity on my old PC I used to record on Audacity from a source (such as a portable cassette player) using a male-male audio cable. This worked because my old desktop computers had a dedicated line-in jack. I upgraded (or so I thought) to a laptop…it only has one audio-out jack which I believe doubles as a microphone input. Also it apparently only has “Microphone Array” and “Headset Microphone” listed as recording devices. The recording level on these is way too low to be of any practical value… is there still a way to make this work using Audacity or am I just out of luck?

If not are there any decent audio-recording apps for Android that that I could use?

There are lots of USB audio interfaces with line inputs. The Behringer UCA202 is popular and inexpensive but it’s lacking a recording volume control, which is occasionally a problem.

[u]Audio Interfaces[/u] with switchable mic/line inputs are common. Most have XLR/1/4-inch combo jacks, and they work with XLR stage/studio mics but are not compatible with “computer mics”.

With an Android phone, you’d also need a Android compatible audio interface.

Curiously, Apple now seems to require iPhone users to transfer recordings via the cloud so those transfer cables are no longer required.