It doesn't record - need help

[davep5]

I have windows XP and I have just downloaded Audacity 1.3.14-beta, I run a line from source (line out) to computer (line in), and from computer (line out) to a speaker. I hit record on audacity and then play from my source. I can hear the music come through my speakers but it does not record onto audacity?

I was using an earlier version of audacity in the past which worked fine for a while and then all of a sudden did not work (like above). That’s when I decided to uninstall earlier version and use 1.3.14-beta, but the new version does not work either, as I have described above.

I’m at my wits end, can you help?

I am not very technically minded, so I’m hoping I just overlooked something simple.

What am I doing wrong?

[kozikowski]

In Audacity 1.3, you should be able to use the recording toolbars to select what you want to record.

http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/Device_Toolbar

If that selection is alreeady Line-In (or whatever it is in Windows) then there may be something else wrong.
Koz

[davep5]

Yes Koz, thank you very much for the help but it just does not seem to want to record. I have it set to ‘Line in/Mic in: line 1 or 2’ but nothing happens (the red vertical line runs across the timetable and the blue horizontal line stays flat – nothing is recorded).

The other choices are:

1. Microsoft Sound Mapper-In (which I believe the manual says not to use) I have not tried it

2. Line in/Mic in: CD Player – I tried it but nothing happened

3. Line in/Mic in: Microphone – I have not tried it (I am not using a microphone, just a tape deck)

4. Line in/Mic in: Stereo Mix – I tried it but nothing happened

I am sure there is nothing wrong with the program, I just can’t figure out why it won’t record, which is very disappointing. I do appreciate your help though. Maybe there’s something wrong with my computer. It’s an old Compaq Presario with a replaced (faster) hard drive. Like I said I’m not very technically minded so I wouldn’t know.

Thanks again for the help. I just wish I could get it to work.

Dave

[steve]

1) Don't panic
This may take a little time because we can't see your computer, but we should be able to get there.

• Look in the lower right corner of your desktop for a "loudspeaker" icon (near the "time / date").
• Right click on the icon and select "Open Volume Control". You should see something similar to this:

• Click on "Options"
• Select "Properties"
• Click on "Recording"
• In the list of "show the following volume controls" ensure that all options are selected (green ticks). It should look something like this:

recording.png (9.63 KiB) Viewed 6020 times

• Click the "OK" button.

Do you know how to make a "screen shot"?
Most graphics programs can do this. There are also some simple instructions here: http://www.groovypost.com/howto/microso ... indows-xp/
Make a screen-capture (screenshot) of the "Recording Mixer" and save it as a "jpg" file.
The file can be attached to your reply using the "upload attachment" tab (below the "compose message" box).

[davep5]

Steve,

It is working!!! …I opened the properties box on volume control like you said and saw that the ‘stereo mix’ box was not checked, so I checked it. I also noticed that the ‘Mute all’ box of the Recording Volume was checked, so I unchecked it, and now it is working! Wow. I don’t know how to thank you. This is great. Now I just have to figure out how to adjust the levels, but I think that’s what the sliders are for. I’m going to read the manual so I can use this properly. This is a very powerful tool.

I’m a musician, so this is something I can really use. Also I have a ton of records and tapes that I can convert if I ever have the time. I don’t mean to sound so exited but I really am grateful for your help and to the others on the forum staff, like Koz, who don’t mind taking the time to help. I can’t believe it was something simple like that. Thanks.

Oh, thanks also for the info on how to make a “screen shot”. I don’t think I need to use it now but it may be useful sometime.

Thanks again for everything …I think I’m going to be pretty busy from now on. If I need any more help or anything, I’ll post.

Talk to ya in the future,
Dave

[steve]

2) Don't get too excited
Yes ‘stereo mix’ will allow you to record, but for recording from "line in", the "stereo mix" option is not the best option.

With "stereo mix" set as the recording input, Audacity will record all sounds that are playing through the sound card.
This is not ideal because if you get "incoming mail - ping!", Audacity will record that. Audacity will also record a certain amount of noise from each input that is active,

The better option is to set Audacity to record specifically from the "line input" that you are using.
You may have more than one "line input", which is why it is important to be able to see all of the sound card's recording inputs.
Find the right recording level slider in the Windows Recording Mixer by experimentation, then with the Device Toolbar in Audacity set to record from that input you will be ready to go with optimal settings.

[davep5]

Steve,

Sorry, I was just so happy to get it working. When I originally downloaded the old version I think it was from some “mirror” site and I didn’t even know about the Forum, or the people who were willing to help.

OK, I have five volume controls on my windows mixer

1. Recording Control
2. CD Player
3. Line in 1 or 2
4. Microphone
5. Stereo Mix

So you are saying that I should have only one of them checked in the “recording options” of the volume control “properties” section, and that it should be the one that I want to use, in this case “Line in 1 or 2”, for tapes and LP’s, and that I should have Audacity set to the same option i.e. “Line in/Mic in: Line 1 or 2”, and then use the slider from my windows volume control for that setting to set the volume in conjunction with the input and output volume sliders in Audacity to tweak it to the right volume setting by experimentation?

And that the “Stereo Mix” setting would record all sounds and noises coming from my computer, which I do not want.

Then I suppose if I wanted to use a microphone or hook my guitar or piano into the “Mic in” port in back of my computer that I would only use the “microphone” setting in my windows mixer and use the corresponding setting in Audacity i.e. “Line in/Mic in: Microphone” to record instruments, adjusting the volume similar to above, but taking into account that the instruments have their own volume level knobs?

Please correct me if I misunderstand anything or am wrong about anything. I’m not sure if I understand having an input and an output level slider on Audacity, if I would be using one or both at a time.

I’m not sure why a separate CD player input,

Or if or when the Stereo Mix would be an option or used (maybe recording something off of the computer, if that’s possible),

And I’m not sure what Recording Control is, unless it’s a master volume or something?

On Audacity I believe it corresponds to “Microsoft Sound Mapper – In” if I am correct, or are they two different things? I think I read not to use “Microsoft Sound Mapper – In” for anything. Anyways, I’m not sure what it is. When would “Recording Control” be used (is it the same or different), what is it?

I can see where the “recording options” of my windows volume control “properties” are the same as my choices in Audacity toolbar and that I would have them correspondingly set depending on what the source recording is – a music player or mic/instrument.

I don’t think I would hook a mic/instrument to “line in” or a music player to “mic in” in back of my computer. Or am I wrong, that an instrument could be hooked into “line in”?

In Audacity only one setting can be chosen at a time, but in my windows mixer they can be combined, maybe they’re not supposed to be when used with Audacity, or are there certain favorable situations where they could and should be?

I hope I’m not asking too many questions or getting ahead of myself. You’ve been so helpful in helping me understand, I really appreciate it. I was just so happy to get it working before that I got a little exited; now I guess I want to understand it so I can be able to use it properly without damaging my system or making faulty recordings. Like I said, I’m going to read the manual, but sometimes the technical stuff is over my head.

Thanks again,
Dave

[davep5]

Sorry guys, I think I should just give up. I had it working fine with your help but I got careless got ahead of myself to where I messed it up again and am back at square 0. Now it won’t record again and I think I may have damaged my system. I’m not sure.

I wanted to transfer a song I had saved in my piano’s recorder so I plugged into “mic” in back of my computer, and adjusted my windows mixer and Audacity for Microphone but when I tried to record nothing happened. Then I realized just to use “line in 1 or 2” since I was using my piano as I would a music player. When I went to switch, I accidentally plugged into “c/sub” in back of my computer (I don’t even know what” c/sub” is) and tried but nothing happened. I finally realized my mistake and plugged into “line in”. I had the setting properly adjusted and it recorded ok. I wanted to save it so I thought to use “save project as…” It gave me a warning, so, not sure what I was doing, I canceled it and closed out Audacity. When I went to try it again, it would not record even with the proper settings, and now too, I notice that the colors around the corners of my monitor are all faded. I remember also, somewhere along the line, my computer giving me a warning about the possibility of a system crash, which I seem to have avoided. Man, talk about a bad scene.

One good thing though, I found out that moving the slider for “Recording Control” in my mixer also moves the “input volume slider” in Audacity and vice versa which answered a question I had about “Recording Control”, but what good is it now that I can’t even use the program again. I feel like I wasted your time, and I apologize for that.

Another thing I realized was that I’m not even sure what my playback settings should be in my windows mixer either, if I had them set right or not for playback, but that’s the least of my problems.

I don’t really want to give up but I feel that I took one step forward and two steps back and I’m not sure how to get back on track. I hate to bother you guys with this so I’ll just let it go for now and maybe I can figure something out.

Thanks again for all the help. It’s not something I take for granted believe me.

I’ll see ya,
Dave

[steve]

3) Don't give up
This is clearly all very new to you Dave. You wouldn't expect to learn to write a bicycle without falling of a few times

It's unlikely that you've broken anything.

I wanted to transfer a song I had saved in my piano’s recorder so I plugged into “mic” in back of my computer, and adjusted my windows mixer and Audacity for Microphone but when I tried to record nothing happened.

I assume this is a digital piano and your computer is a full-size machine rather than a laptop or netbook?
Which output from the piano are you using? If the piano has an "AUX" or "Line" out, that would be the best choice.
What input sockets are there on your computer? If there is a "Line in", that would be the best choice for connecting the piano.

I accidentally plugged into “c/sub” in back of my computer

"C/Sub" will be an additional audio output that allows your sound card to be used with a "Centre" or "Sub-Woofer" speaker. Plugging into that will obviously not work, but it won't have done any damage.

I finally realized my mistake and plugged into “line in”..... I had the setting properly adjusted and it recorded ok

Good,(shows that no damage was done), but what are the other sound card socket options?
Do you know what sort of sound card you have? It may tell you on the Windows Mixer.

I wanted to save it so I thought to use “save project as…” It gave me a warning, so, not sure what I was doing,

When you get warning or error messages, if you're not sure what they mean, write them down (word for word - often the details are important) and we should be able to help. Was the message about "Saving a project creates a file that only Audacity can open"? If so, then this article will explain (this is an important concept for working with Audacity) http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/Audacity_Projects

I notice that the colors around the corners of my monitor are all faded.

Could it just be coincidence that you have now noticed that?
Is it a CRT monitor, or a flat screen? Roughly how old? Was it an expensive monitor at the time that you acquired it? I expect this is just normal ageing.

I remember also, somewhere along the line, my computer giving me a warning about the possibility of a system crash,

Oh, not good.
Is this a fairly old or low specification computer? Did you say it was running XP?
You've been giving the computer some fairly intensive work to do, so it may be running short of resources. Old XP machines tend to do this quite often, especially if you try running a lot of different programs in the same session. Probably a good idea to save any work that is open, shut down the machine and reboot.

After rebooting, work carefully through making a simple recording and let us know what happens. There are some tutorials here that may help: http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/Tuto ... _Recording

I found out that moving the slider for “Recording Control” in my mixer also moves the “input volume slider” in Audacity and vice versa

Good. I was hoping that you would notice that. It's really difficult to explain exactly how the Audacity slider is "connected" to the sound card slider as different sound cards tend to handle it slightly differently, so it's good that you have seen it.

I don’t really want to give up but I feel that I took one step forward and two steps back and I’m not sure how to get back on track.

I don't want you to give up either. You have got a long way with this already, it would be a shame to give up now. Getting to grips with setting up the sound card is by far the hardest part of all of this. Once you have the sound card set-up worked out you get onto the fun part. This is also the hardest but for us to explain because there are literally hundreds of different sound cards and most of them have slightly different set-ups. All of the "Audacity specific" is pretty well documented these days and we can point users to the relevant section of the wiki or manual, but sound cards can be a pain.

If you're the type of person that likes instructions and written documentation, there are links at the top of each forum page.See "Tips • Tutorials • Documentation".
If you're not that kind of person, then I'd recommend that you at least have a quick glance at the FAQ -Frequently Asked Questions (see link at the bottom of my post).

Let us know what happens after a reboot. Good luck

[davep5]

Hi everyone, this message is in response to the last post from Steve.

Thank you for your patience and time. I do feel like I’m falling off the bicycle, but that’s all part of learning I guess.

Yes, you are correct that this is all new to me. I mostly have just used my computer to surf the web and make word docs and download PDF’s and such, but I want to expand my horizons and am willing to learn. I was using Audacity to record some of my piano and guitar work onto CD before I had the problems.

I was going to try to use screen shots in this post, like you did, to make the communication process a little smoother, but that doesn’t seem to be working for me either. I think the “Window” is the area where my cursor turns into a stick, but when I press “Print Screen”, or “Alt + Print Screen” nothing happens. I’m not sure if I need to do anything to indicate the area of the window that I want to capture. I know how to copy and paste stuff, and to re-size pictures, but that’s about it. This is something I’ll have to work on.

You are also correct that it is a digital piano (Yamaha Clavinova 154-S with MIDI capabilities (IN, OUT and THRU) and a 2 track digital recorder) and that my computer is a full-size machine rather than a laptop or netbook. A “tower” I believe it’s called. It’s a COMPAQ Presario SR1722X. It’s kind of old. I think I got it around ’06 or so. I recently had a different hard drive put into it to try to speed up performance, but I’m not sure of the memory or hard drive capabilities offhand. I could find out though. I think it has a 517 Intel Pentium 4 Processor, or had one. I’m not sure what that is. I don’t think that was changed though, just the hard drive.

As for my piano, normally I would use the AUX OUT L/L + R and R Jacks in back, but being late at night I ran it through one of the PHONES Jacks instead (it has two).

To connect to my computer in the future, I will use “Line in” as you have suggested.

I have six sockets in back of my computer

1. side
2. rear
3. c/sub
4. mic
5. out
6. in

I gather from what you told me that the first three are all additional audio outputs that allow my sound card to be used with different speakers. I see that they have speaker images on them so I know then not to plug into them. I’m glad my error did not cause any damage.

My sound card I believe is “Realtek HD Audio”, that’s what it says on my Windows Mixer.

In the future when I get a warning or error message, I’ll write it down word for word. I can understand how important it is to do that. The one I got last night was the one you figured, which was "Saving a project creates a file that only Audacity can open". (I will have to read the article that you provided the link for) I clicked OK in the box, and then it asked me where I want to save it. I usually save things on my desktop and make a folder to keep it in, (with the old program I remember I was given a choice but it was recommended that I save as a WAV. File, which I kept in a folder on desktop) but like I said, not being sure what I was doing I decided to cancel and re-record. That’s when I found out that it wasn’t working again. I checked the settings again and they seemed to be correct but I couldn’t get it to do anything so I closed it out.

That’s when I noticed the colors and thought, “Oh no …”

Today though, when I powered up, the screen was back to normal. It is a fairly old model, DELL 18 “ CRT. I’m not sure how old. It was an extra one my brother had in storage for a while, and when my flat screen started to give me some problems he said I could use this one. It weighs a ton but I don’t mind. The screen is a little bigger than my flat screen was and it has a nicer picture I think. Something strange I noticed about the color problem though, the colors are OK when facing the direction I have it set it up in, but when I “swivel” it around to face another direction, like when I’m sitting at my piano, the colors go, and when I turn it back, they seem to return to normal, except for last night they didn’t return. Could it be that I’m possible putting some stress on the wires, which causes the problem?

As for the system crash warning, I think I know what you mean about over taxing my system. I am running XP and sometimes when I’m on the web and I have more than one window open I get a cryptic message which pops up for about three seconds to tell me “virtual memory is low, please close all applications and re-open”. So, maybe I am pushing the limits of its capabilities and resources sometimes, like you said.

Now for the good news, I rebooted and tested the program and it seems to be working fine. It recorded the song from my piano with no apparent problem, except one. It recorded a pop from my computer. Could this be because I had the “Recording Control” on along with “Line in 1 or 2”? I was thinking that should only happen if I have the “Stereo Mix” on.

I’m thinking now that I should probably take it slow and read the “Tips * Tutorials * Documentation” that you recommend (I actually do like instructions and written documentation if it’s not too technical i.e. over my head) and also I will check out the FAQ’s as I can usually pick up on those fairly easy.

Also, I decided that I’m not going to give up on this like I said I might. I was discouraged but you have given me a lot of help and encouragement for which I am very grateful. I don’t know how to thank you. You said I’ve come a long way with this already, and I know there are probably a lot more hurdles to overcome, but I want stick with it until I can get onto the fun part as you say. Right now though, I think I should be signing off here, as I think this post is getting rather long.

Before I leave, I’m going to give you my sound card info.

As stated above, it is “Realtek HD Audio”

The mixer device for “Line in/Mic in” or “Recording” has five settings. They are:

1. Recording Control
2. CD Player
3. Line 1 or 2
4. Microphone
5. Stereo Mix

The Mixer device for “Realtek HD Audio rear output” or “Playback” has 14 settings. They are:

1. Master Volume
2. Wave
3. SW Synth
4. Front
5. Rear
6. Subwoofer
7. Center
8. Side
9. DigitalOut
10. Front Green In
11. Line 1 or 2
12. Front Pink In
13. Microphone
14. CD Player

Phew, that seems like a lot, which led me to the question, which one or ones should I be using for playback? I’m sure different situations call for different combinations and so forth. Right now I have “Master Volume”, “Wave”, “SW Synth”, and “Line 1 or 2” checked. I’m not sure why, that’s just what I’ve always had.

Well, I’d better be going. I think I have a lot of homework to do. Thanks again Steve, and to all the Forum staff.

Catch ya later,
Dave