How to record from cassette recorder?

[swami7774]

I will try that but first this: I did an "Audacity" search in "find" and came up with the below screenshot--four separate Audacities. One is labeled "4."
Should I trash it(along with the unnumbered version) and go from there? Because now, neither 2.3.2 nor 2.4.2 shows up in the microphone permissions area.

[billw58]

Right-click on each of the "unknown" Audacity's and select "Get Info". Note the version number of each. I'm curious which version "Audacity 4" is.

Yes, you can probably delete "Audacity" and "Audacity 4".

And please try Audacity 2.4.2 and see if it works.

-- Bill

[swami7774]

Will do in the morning. Thanks again for sticking with me on this. Greatly appreciated.
BTW I’m running Big Sur. The profile thing here stops with “Catalina or later.”

[swami7774]

Here’s the info breakdown on the various Audacities:
“Audacity”(the first one listed) is listed as application 2.3.2 and was created on 5/4/19.
“Audacity 2.3.2” is an alias, created on 10/17/19
“Audacity 2.4.2” is an alias created on 6/26/20
“Audacity 4” is listed as an application and was created on 6/20/20.
I now remember creating desktop aliases for each Audacity. So I’ve got 2 versions, each with an alias.

UPDATE: SUCCESS! After determining which Audacity was which, I went back into the microphone permissions area and re-checked “Audacity 4. I was able to record incoming volume from the cassette. I then tried the Aud 2.4.2 alias, and was again able to record—but the ‘USB Codec” line on the Audacity toolbar was grayed out. Not sure if that matters.
So I think we’ve gotten to the nub of the problem.

[billw58]

Whew! Glad you've got it working.

I should have noticed that two of those icons were aliases.

Remember, the Device toolbar will be greyed out during recording or playback.

-- Bill

[swami7774]

I wonder if Audacity won’t accept the recording if I open it via the alias. That shouldn’t matter.
Also, judging by your earlier note, Aud 2.3.2 won’t accept it at all.

[billw58]

I wonder if Audacity won’t accept the recording if I open it via the alias. That shouldn’t matter.
Also, judging by your earlier note, Aud 2.3.2 won’t accept it at all.

You said in your previous message that when you started Audacity 2.4.2 via the alias, recording worked.

Yes, something weird is apparently going on with versions prior to 2.4.0 on macOS Mohave or later.

-- Bill

[steve]

Yes, something weird is apparently going on with versions prior to 2.4.0 on macOS Mohave or later.

If I recall correctly, for the 2.4.0 release the Audacity developers had to jump through some hoops to make Audacity work with Apple's new restrictions on software that was not purchased through the Apple Store.

[swami7774]

I remember that too, Steve. As far as I know Audacity can’t record audio directly from a computer thanks to Apple. Previously we could use Soundflower as a workaround but no longer.

[billw58]

Previously we could use Soundflower as a workaround but no longer.

Soundflower still works (amazingly!). And there is Blackhole which is under active development.
-- Bill