Hi I am new to the recording part of computing. I am trying to record from cassette to pc. I have read to tutorial & it looks straight forward, but when try & record through either Spin it Again or Audacity, nothing seems to happen.
The equipment is a cassette deck, separate, using the line out with the correct lead, but no separate sound card, just using the motherboard, is this right ? I am using Windows Vista (no jokes please). So please help

When you say "no separate sound card, just using the motherboard" do you mean the built-in onboard sound card? You don't need an additional sound card if your PC has one built in.

What you will need to do is make sure that the recording settings are enabled.

Start / Control Panel / Sound / Recording

There is a list of inputs. If it shows "Currently unavailable" then you need to enable it. If you look at mine below for the Creative SB X-Fi sound card you will see that most of the inputs display "Currently unavailable" except for the last one labelled "What U Hear" which displays "Working". Basically this means that whatever you hear through your PC speakers can be recorded.

On your cassette 'seperate' there should be 4 phono plugs.

2 of them are for playing (line-out) and the other 2 for recording (line-in).

What you need to do is to disconnect the 2 for recording, at the amplifier end, and run a cable from these 2 on the amp to the PC. They may be labelled (Rec-Out) on the amp.

The cable required is 2 phono plugs to 1x 3.5mm stereo jack.

Whether you have a soundcard or not you should still have a 3.5mm stereo line-in socket to connect to.

From memory, it's not the light green or pink one as they are sound out and microphone.

All mine are gold.

FYI: Line-In is the light blue one.

Hi MJB
I have done as you suggested, but I have only microphone & line in displayed?

Hi Kremmen
Yes there are 4 plugs on the cassette deck, I have unplugged them all, so just using the cassette deck, no amp & plugged in the lead from line out to the line in using the 1/8 jack on pc, the blue one. right or wrong?

That's fine, it's Line-In that you're looking for. Does it say "Working" or "Currently unavailable" like the picture above?

Yes that should be right. When you play a cassette can you hear it through your PC speakers?

I have changed it to "working" I will try that tomorrow & let you know.

Thanks for the help.

Hi All
I have tried what was discussed & still no sound from the pc, leads have been checked, all ok, tape is running but still nothing.

Just confirm - When your cassette deck is connected to your Hi-Fi you can hear it. When it's connected to your PC you can't. At least this way we can eliminate the cassette deck as the problem.

I would be tempted to try plugging in to different jack sockets on the PC while the tape is playing. Plugging it in to other sockets isn't going to cause any damage. It might just happen that your Line-In is in a different place.

It is quite a while since used my Hi-Fi, but last time all was fine. but I'll check.

I did try with the different sockets, still nothing. I checked with the motherboard manual & line in, is the blue socket.

Is it a new PC that came with Vista or an older PC that you have upgraded from XP to Vista?

The reason I ask is that I recently bought a Dell preloaded with Vista and on-board sound and my Line-In was disabled. I had a quick go at enabling it but didn't have much success. The on-board sound chip was pretty awful anyway for audio playback so decided to buy a separate sound card. Once I'd installed that I had no problems at all, everything works as it should.

Vista is a bit of a donkey to get started with and I had to upgrade the vast majority of my existing software and hardware drivers. If you've done an upgrade I would seriously look at getting the most recent Vista compatible drivers for your motherboard / sound card.

Hi

I did as suggested, putting my tape deck on to the Hi-Fi & all ok. Would it be ok to use the amp through the pc?

It's not a new pc,but recently refurbished. the hard drive,Processor is brand new & I installed Vista home Premium form scratch & seems to be working fine.

I will check for any upgrades on m/board website & get back.

You could connect the amp to the PC from the amp's headphone socket but be very careful as the volume range will be dynamic and could do some damage if turned up too loud. Cassette decks, as a rule, don't need amplification as the sound signal leaves at line level.