Digital Bits Technology Column QnA

Question:

[When recording from cassette to MP3 using Audacity] I have hooked up the cassette’s line out (L[white] and R [red]) to computer’s line-in.  I am not getting any sound when I click play to see if it is working.  What am I doing wrong?

Answer:

Depending on the way your PC and Audacity is set up, you might not hear anything when playing on your cassette player and recording with Audacity. To make sure you hear something, go into Audacity’s Edit menu and choose “Preferences“. Click the “Audio I/O” tab. Make sure the “Software Playthrough” option is checked - this will allow you to hear your playback while it’s being recorded.

To test, hit Play on your cassette player and record in Audacity. You should hear your cassette player’s audio. If you don’t, you may have another problem with your cabling, cassette player, or PC.

Other articles related to this topic:

• Echo when recording cassette in Audacity
• Echo during Audacity recording
• Audacity doesn’t record when it worked correctly before
• Audacity recording records background noise, but does not record line input from cassette
• High-speed dubbing with Audacity