no sound

[stardust2003]

Hi
Im trying to record from my big music centre into my desk top comp

Ive got audacity up and a good signal in there... But I cant hear a thing

the cable in earphones on the big mus centre is muting that of course

but I should be getting sound from my comp monitor speakers.

Is there some setting inside audacity that I should change ?

Thanks for any help or advice

[steve]

Which version of Windows?
Which version of Audacity? (look in "Help > About Audacity")
How is your music centre connected to your computer?

[stardust2003]

iM on xp with the big comp ... not sure what the audacity is, just shut down the big comp
am now on laptop

Ive just got a cable plugged into the earphone socket of the mus centre
and into the pink socket ... top right... of the desk top

[steve]

not sure what the audacity is

When you can get to your big computer, open Audacity and look in "Help menu > About Audacity".

Ive just got a cable plugged into the earphone socket of the mus centre
and into the pink socket

The pink socket of a standard sound card is for a mono microphone only. Does you computer also have a light blue socket?
Headphone sockets are not ideal, though it will usually work if there is no other option. Better is an "AUX" output or "REC" output.

[stardust2003]

YES there is a light blue socket .... top left Ive just plugged into that


thanks for that suggestion........
just found an adaptor and managed to plug into the back of my mus centre
though all the sockets were taken... had to unplug one

but could nt this end up in me getting one side of a sterio radio broadcast ?

[steve]

The light blue socket is (should be) a stereo socket.
Connections on the back of sounds systems are usually in red / white pairs of RCA sockets:



in which case the lead that you need is 2 x RCA plugs to 1 stereo mini-jack



Note that the mini-jack plug has 2 black rings which separate the plug into three contacts ("tip, ring and sleeve").

With an internal sound card, listening to what is being recorded will usually have a bit of a delay (about 1/2 second). In most cases there is an option in the Windows Sound Control Panel recording settings to "Listen to this device". That setting should be enabled. However, now that you are not using the headphone socket, you can probably listen to what is playing on your sound system.

[kozikowski]

And it's almost exactly the same process to record from a musical keyboard. My keyboard has no Line-Out, so I use the headphone socket as you were doing. In that case a "Y" cable is needed because as above, a slight delay isn't a big deal if you're recording records or tapes, it's a show-stopper if you're trying to keep the beat to a song.

Koz

[stardust2003]

Having just gone out and bought this cable.... £7
Im in no mood to go out and buy another one !

though you may be right... better quality from those sockets at the back prob

though at least with the headphones socket, at least I get to control the volume !

Finally Im getting to monitor the music centre by a cable out of comp..
top middle socket ( there are 6 sockets 3 on top of 3 )

that line into a speaker is giving me the ability to monitor the sound.... but I feel as though
it should be poss to hear sound on the TV ( I surf on TV )

I can see the signal there in the audacity, surely there must be a way to get sound from the tv too ?

Finishing the recording clip I hit play on audacity and hear it immed on my TV

So prob is basically solved, the playback seems ok, but then it should be from a quality FM signal ,
At least I now have the ability to make a digi recording from radio and also record from
audio cassette ... of which I have 100s from 30 odd years of recording radio !

many thanks for the help and advice

[steve]

I can see the signal there in the audacity, surely there must be a way to get sound from the tv too ?

"Transport menu > Software Playthrough"
The sound coming out will be delayed slightly (probably about 1/2 second).