Audacity - how's it work?

Poststructural Pub
1

I used to use Cool Edit to record music, speech, etc. Recently I bought a new computer and “upgraded” to Windows Vista and then to Windows 7 with the effect that Cool Edit no longer works on my computer. So I downloaded Audacity because I heard lots of good things about it here. Either Audacity is more difficult to use than Cool Edit or I have grown more stupid in the last few years (or both) but I can’t get Audacity to record at a satisfactory loudness. I am trying to record an old cassette recording into digital form so I can listen to it on my Ipod. I am using line-out from my stereo through line-in on the computer sound card as I did when I used Cool Edit. I have the line-in volume set at 100%. But I cannot figure out how to get Audacity to record at a loud enough level so I can hear the recording without turning the playback volume up to 3/4 full volume.

Does anybody know if there is a document anywhere that provides dumbed-down instructions on how to do a very basic recoding using Audacity? Thanks in advance!
Mike

2

Once you bring into Audacity you can select the entire tune and then bump the level of it before you save it.

I don’t have Audacity on this PC so I can’t check the menu options for ya until tomorrow.

3

I’ve had more success running my source through the microphone jack rather than line in. On the mic jack, I have only once had to raise the record volume above 1. This might be a sound card/chip architecture issue rather than audacity.

I use a Y adapter that turns RF cable to a male stereo 1/8" cannon plug to plug in to the mic port.

4

The problem sounds like lack of gain, it just needs to be boosted. The gain slider is on the left side, above the L/R locator when doing stereo mixing.

5

Right click on the Cool Edit executable and select the “run in compatibility mode” option and see if it works.

6

Who’d have thunk it?! It worked! I’ve been mourning the loss of my beloved Cool Edit for months now and all the time I had it in my power to resurect it with a compatibility mode! It makes me wonder what else I can fix with The Compatibility Mode. Is there a Compatibility Mode for gray hair? Maybe a Compatibility Mode could fix the nerve I damaged when I broke my wrist 15 years ago…or is there a statute of limitations beyond which The Compatibility Mode no longer works? (I think I’ll call it TCM because my fingers are getting tired typing The Compatibility Mode over and over again.) Maybe there is a CM for global warming or the ozone layer. Wow, such posibilities.

Thanks, highland-piper. You have brought a smile to my face. Ding-dong, the Cool Edit is back! Long live TCM!