Help/Advice?

[Gnomehunter]

I am new to Audacity and am definitely not a techie. I want to use Audacity to copy 500 cassettes to CDs. So far, I have downloaded the software, have recorded a 40 second test, and have saved this as a .wav file. I want to replay the test through the software so I can hear how it sounds. When I replay it, I have to turn my speakers all the way up and I can still barely hear the recording. What am I doing wrong? Or, is there a way to adjust the output volume?
I looked at the Help menu and found the page titled "Meter Toolbar" but it does not let me adjust anything.
HELP........Please!!

Once it get this resolved and start taping, I will then have other questions about file size, pausing between taping, saving files etc. But, for now, can you get me past my first obstacle?

[kozikowski]

There are technologies that tell you where the failure is. Audacity has two volume indicators; the blue waves on the timeline and the bouncing green (or red) sound meters.

This is my favorite six second sound test on a timeline.

http://kozco.com/tech/audacity/Audacity1_playback.jpg

That's normal in all respects. If your blue waves are almost a straight line or your bouncing lights meter never bounces much above about -40, then you made a quiet or damaged recording. You can rescue that with fancy tools, but far better to make a good, robust recording in the first place.

If you have a reasonable recording (according to the meters) and it's still quiet, then you computer may be set for low playback.

The way computers work, it's perfectly possible to not hear what you're doing, produce a perfect, correct, clear recording and WAV file, and then not be able to hear it play back. They're all independent modules. Sorry.

Koz

[Carey]

This may be a case of the blind leading the blind (or, in the case of audio, I guess we'd both be deaf), but if I read your post correctly, maybe all you need to do is increase the volume of the already recorded file.

To do that:
* Open the file with Audacity
* From the EDIT menu, choose "Select All" -- which should highlight the entire file (you can also do this by dragging the selection tool -- click the "I bar" looking thing -- across the entire file)
* From the EFFECTS menu, select "Amplify"

That will raise the volume of the entire file to the maximum it can be raised before distortion occurs.

Hope this is what you were looking for.

To avoid having to do this for the other 499 cassettes you plan to copy, increase the Input Volume (using the slider at the Microphone).

[Gnomehunter]

Ok - thanks to both of you I have the volume issue resolved. Now that I have my first cassette recorded successfully, I need to burn this to a CD. I saved it to a file with the name "Passport" and I see that I now have a folder called Passport, a Passport.aup file, a Passport, aup.bak, and a Passport.wav file. Which do I burn to the CD? And, do you know for sure that is will be playable once burned? Thanks again!

[steve]

I saved it to a file with the name "Passport" and I see that I now have a folder called Passport, a Passport.aup file, a Passport, aup.bak, and a Passport.wav file. Which do I burn to the CD?

Audacity "Saves" Audacity Projects. There are 2 parts to an Audacity project, the .AUP file, and the data. These are NOT audio files.

You must "Export" audio files from Audacity (File menu).
Set the Project Rate to 44100 in the Project Rate box in the lower left corner of the main Audacity window, then Export as a 16 bit WAV file. The Exported audio will then be in a format compatible with audio CDs.

To set the Export format to 16 bit WAV, go to "Edit menu > Preferences > File Formats" and set the "Uncompressed Export Format".