FAQ:Recording
From Audacity Manual
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Troubleshooting:
Why doesn't the Mixer Toolbar input selector work properly, for example on Windows 7 or Vista?
The Input selector may be grayed-out, lacking the expected choices, or apparently not recording from the indicated source.
The cause varies by operating system and sound card driver. For example, on Windows Vista, you must use the "Recording Device" menu in the Devices panel of Preferences to select input sources. For more help, see the Mixer Toolbar Issues page on the Audacity Wiki.
Why can’t I hear what I’m recording?
Windows and Linux
To monitor your recording, open the computer's volume control panel. In the playback section, turn off the “mute” checkbox or button for your recording source (usually “microphone” or “line in”) then turn its volume up. This is known as hardware playthrough. You will be able to hear the recording with very little playthrough latency.
If this does not work, open the Audacity Preferences. In the Recording section on the left, put a checkmark in the “Software Playthrough” box and click OK. This type of playthrough has latency, so you will hear what you are recording a noticeable time afterwards. You could also experience audio breakup.
Mac OS X
Open the Audacity Preferences. In the Recording section on the left, put a checkmark in the “Software Playthrough” box and click OK.
- If Software Playthrough has too much latency, you could try turning it off and enabling "Hardware Playthrough" instead. Unfortunately, with most modern Mac hardware, no audio is actually produced using this option.
- If Software Playthrough does not produce audio, try the free LineIn application.
- If the computer's built-in sound device lacks hardware playthrough, you can buy an external USB or Firewire device and hardware monitor through its headphones jack with near zero latency.
- Alternatively, lower latency software playthrough may be possible using the computer sound device.
See also:
Why do my recordings fade out or sound as if they were made in a tunnel?
This issue is common on new Windows Vista and Windows 7 machines. It can also occur on other machines if the sound device is applying an effect or a corrective enhancement.
- If the recording is fading out after a few seconds, look for a "Noise Suppression" setting you can turn off in the Recording side of the sound device settings.
- If the recording sounds like it was made in a tunnel, look for an "Echo Cancellation" setting you can turn off.
- If there is no echo cancellation setting or it doesn't help, look for "Environment" sound effects in the Playback side of the sound device settings - these will affect recordings of computer playback and sometimes other recordings too.
To change settings on Windows Vista and Windows 7:
- Right-click over the by the system clock then choose to open the Recording tab of "Sound"
- Right-click over and choose
- There will probably be an Enhancements tab where you can disable all or selected "Sound Effects" - if needs be, also look in the Levels or Custom tabs
- If you need to change environment settings, click the Playback tab in the main window of "Sound", right-click over , choose then click the Enhancements tab.
If there are no settings to change, or on older versions of Windows, go to the "Sound" or similar section of the Windows Control Panel and look for a custom control panel for your sound device.
Unwanted fading or poor quality can sometimes be caused by inappropriate or outdated sound device drivers. For help, see our Wiki page Updating Sound Device Drivers.
See also:
Why isn’t my new track in sync with the previous ones?
When you make a multi-track recording, there is an unpredictable delay between playback and recording. Audacity tries to correct for this automatically, but this doesn't yet work on all computers.
If a new track is not synchronized with the others, you can zoom in and use Time Shift Tool ( shortcut F5 ) to drag the track to the correct location. If you are doing a lot of overdubbing, try our Latency Test to set a custom value for Audacity's latency correction which can then be applied in Recording Preferences.
If a new track is being recorded at a different speed, it will progressively drift apart from the beat of the other tracks even if the latency correction is perfect. This issue can be due to hardware problems, sound driver problems or sample rate inconsistencies. For help, please read our Wiki Recording Troubleshooter.
How To's:
How can I record in stereo?
Audacity by default should already be set to record in stereo. If this is not the case, use Device Toolbar to set the output and input devices and to set the channels to "2 (stereo) Input Channels".
Alternatively you can open the Audacity Preferences, choose the “Devices” section on the left, then in the "Recording" panel, change the number of recording channels to "2 (Stereo)".
What is an optimal recording level to aim for?
Try to aim for a maximum peak of around –6 dB on Meter Toolbar (or 0.5 if the meter is set to linear scale). This should ensure that clipping will be avoided. The recording will only show a maximum peak of around 0.5 on the default waveform display, but given how the ear hears sound, this is actually much louder than apparent "half volume".
You can boost the level if necessary after editing by using
or .
How do I record from vinyl records, cassette tapes or MiniDiscs?
- Set Audacity to record in stereo.
- Plug one end of a stereo cable into the “Line Out” or “Headphone” connector on your tape deck, MiniDisc player, or stereo system. Plug the other end into your computer’s “Line In” port. If you do not have a suitable cable, you can find one at an electronics store.
- Choose “Line In” as the input source on the Audacity Mixer Toolbar, or in Audacity Preferences (Windows Vista/7) or Apple Audio-MIDI Setup (OS X).
- Press the red Record button. While Audacity is recording, start playing your tape or disc. When you have captured the audio you want to record, press the yellow Stop button. You can also press the blue Pause button to pause recording, and Pause again to resume recording on the same track.
For a detailed tutorial, see Copying tapes, LPs or MiniDiscs to CD. This covers all the steps from recording your records, cassettes or MiniDiscs to exporting as an audio file and burning to an audio CD.
Vinyl or shellac records can also be recorded into Audacity with a special type of turntable that connects to the USB port of your computer. These turntables need to be set up differently from those that connect to line-in. See Recording with USB turntables for setup instructions, then Basic Recording, Editing and Exporting in the main tutorial.
Connection hints:
- Do not connect a turntable directly to your computer. The signal from a turntable must be passed through a phono pre-amplifier or a receiver with a “phono” input that provides phono amplification. Otherwise, it will be too quiet, and sound "tinny" due to incorrect equalization.
- Do not plug stereo equipment into your computer’s “Microphone” port. This port is usually designed only for low level, mono microphone input. It will produce distortion if you connect phono amplified output. Use the “Line In” port if you have one (on some laptops or other portable computers, the "Mic" port can be switched to a line-level input). See further help.
See also:
Can I play a track while recording a new one on top of it?
This is known as recording an overdub to create a multi-track recording. It makes it possible to record harmonies with yourself, or add new instruments or vocals to an existing recording. To do this in Audacity, follow these instructions:
- Select the recording input you are plugged into (probably microphone or line-in) in the Input Device menu in Device Toolbar
- If you do not see your required input, enable it and make it default in the operating system's mixer, then in Audacity, choose
- Import or record the first track
- Choose
- Press the Record button
.
See also:
Can Audacity record YouTube, internet radio or other streaming audio?
- With most Windows and Linux audio devices, it is possible to record whatever sound the computer is currently playing, including internet radio streams.
- Mac OS X users can capture streaming audio using a program like Soundflower (free, open source) or Audio Hijack.
See the Recording audio playing on the computer tutorial for details.
How long can I record for?
Audacity does not restrict recording length or how many times you can record, beyond some specific technical and practical limitations. Recording takes space on your drive so you can only record while the drive still has space available. When you start to record, Audacity shows a "Disk space remains for recording" message in the Status Bar at bottom left of the window giving the current recording time available.
To get more recording time:
- Delete your old files and folders (especially your old Audacity Project files and _data folders when you have finished with them)
- Select an alternative disk that has more space in the Directories Preferences
- Record in mono instead of stereo (settable at "Input Channels" in Device Toolbar or in Devices Preferences)
- Set the "Default Sample Format" in Quality Preferences to 16-bit instead of 32-bit (this is a good choice for a "quick recording" which you export at once without editing).
Can I set Audacity to record at a certain time?
Yes! See Timer Record in the Transport menu.
You can also make Audacity stop recording after a certain time limit without using the Timer Record feature, by following these steps:
- Turn on “Overdub: Play other tracks while recording a new one” in the “Recording” section of the preferences.
- Choose “Add new > Audio Track” from the Tracks menu.
- Zoom out if necessary, then click and drag to select the amount of time you want to record.
- Start recording. Audacity will stop recording automatically when it reaches the end of the selected area.