laptop mic.

Ah I've just thought - Have you lost the meters?.

If so click on Edit-Preferences-Interface then put a tick in the "enable meter toolbar" box.

This won't alter the Media Player problem though

Regards
Bernard

The advice they give out is to use the 1.3.x beta series generally and specifically if you are on Windows 7. (This is in preparation for a 2.x release sometime soon, with 1.2 long ago discontinued.)

In 1.3 you can drag, stretch and hide (View-->Toolbars) the various icon groups.

It’s a great program.

I've gone to the speaker symbol. Right click--recording devices..Mic/line in and disable.
I have now reversed this but the problem now remains.
I have version 123, just downloaded.
A friend has this. His previous version allowed him to cancel mic under the mic symbol.
Perhaps I now need to find a copy of this version.
I know so little regarding the workings of a computer that I am way out of my depth here. I just cannot understand why pressing the record button on audacity should cancel the music and the notice pops up that media player could not action this.

regards thoramay.

The problem likely is your input device selection in Audacity although it could be your general Windows audio settings.

In Audacity try to click Edit then preferences and then devices. Under Recording there is a drop down box that says device; try various options there starting with the Microsoft sound mapper.

If that fails I suggest you seek help on the Audacity forums.

The key thing is to try to understand exactly what you are trying to achieve.

It sounds like you are trying to record a CD that is being played in Windows media player. Is that right?

If this is so the set up you employed will have recorded not only the mic input but also various windows system sounds, beeps and clunks, etc.

A better way is to use a program such as the free "media monkey" to ‘rip’ the audio directly to you harddisk in a suitable format. You can then edit the pure audio files in Audacity if you wish.

.

I'm not so sure you can use Audacity to record whilst Media Player is playing without getting almighty howl-round. I've just tried that and I can't get mine to do that either.

I tend to use mine as a line input from the radio/cdplayer etc
Have only used the mic input once to record a blackbird but it picked up too much background (PC fan noise/traffic/) & that was with a good mic several feet away from the PC.

Has it been working correctly (in your eyes)

regards
Bernard

The version I have has the preferences under FILE and not EDIT. Have I a different version?
I am trying to condense a music concert to the size that will fit on a cd. The music has been recorded on a Sanyo 128mb stereo digital voice recorder. I now have this 2hour plus recording in my music files and have successfully made a recording through audacity but the mic is open all the time and records all the noises in the room over the concert music. I am searching for a way to switch off the mic but seemingly, this also switches off all the music.
I have been to the preferences. The settings are different to how you describe. I tried all the settings with audacitry open and tried each in turn. No joy there. There is obviously another setting that has been altered. I cannot think what.

regards thoramay.

Bernard. The digital recorder plugs into the usb socket. What are the chances that audacity can access these files direct??
regards thoramay.

If your recorder has a 128mb capacity it will fit comfortably on a CD several times when full. So you don’t need Audacity to record anything, although it might be needed for file conversion.

Step 1 is to get the digital file from your recorder onto your computer. Not sure how to do this off hand but if it is a usb device you can probably access it like a SD card or your camera files.

Then report back the file type extension the recorder uses. (right click on the file in windows explorer and click properties)

It is most likely that the digital recorder produces MP3 files so it should be easy to download the file(s) onto your PC exactly as you would your JPG/RAW files via a cable from your camera. MP3 files cannot usually be played as a music CD without conversion -see last para.

Once these are in a file then Audacity can open the file from the file menu and you can then edit to your hearts content.

Once finished save your edited file (with a new name) either as WAV or MP3 back to your PC.

I'm not sure that Audacity can burn directly to a CD so this is where Media Player/Nero/Roxio or whatever burning software you have comes in.

regards
Bernard

If you select 'stereo mix' as the input device Audacity will record whatever is playing through your speakers.

OK I'll try that later.

I forgot to comment on the File- Preferences as against Edit-Preferences (mine is definitely the latter)

I'm at a loss what else to advise Thoramay. It would help if I could see what she has, but I fear my system is outdated compared with hers and I only use Audacity in a limited capacity. It works for me how I use it.

I would guess that pretty soon her other half - the techno person will be back and hopefully sort it out locally

regards
Bernard

No need to do that for my sake.

However, it might be useful for some if they wish to record for example something on the BBC iPlayer, or Youtube assuming they don’t know how to acquire the mp4 files directly.

As for me my interest in Audacity is almost solely ripping vinyl; I have just done around 30gb of 12” singles in the past few months, and estimate I have roughly the same to go to complete my essentials. Unfortunately I doubt I’ll be able to sustain the recent pace for much longer –Phew!

I need to recap.
The concert lasted over two hours. CD's will only take eighty minutes.
I need to reduce the length. I have done this once, except that the computer mike was open and all room sounds went over the recording.
Result. I want to silence the mic. Given instructions, thank you, but this also cut out all sound. Tried to reverse this but the computer hung on me. I guess that is when things went wrong.
I can play the concert but immediately I press the record button in audacity the music stops and I am informed that the media player cannot carry out the instruction. I now discover that my version is 123 which came out in 2004 for XP. I am using windows.
Next stage to change the version to the latest beta that does support windows 7 regards thoramay.

Have you tried downloading the file from the recorder directly via the usb to the PC

regards
Bernard