Line in recording with Audacity
 

I'm trying to do my grandfather a favor. He's got about 3,000 tape casettes he wants to digitize. I got a tape player hooked up to the line in port and I'm trying to record it into audacity. Now I got the recording part all done. Installed Audacity and such. But the problem I'm facing is I'm getting a really strange clicking noise in all of the recordings. I don't get the clicking noise when I play the tapes in real time. I'm going from a line in stereo input from AC adapters. It shouldn't be the tape player it's about a $200 SONY tape player. And it's fairly new, just a couple of years. The sound card I'm using is a built-into-the-mother-board soundcard so it's a piece of junk. But I don't think that's the problem either. If that was so then it would have the clicking noise when I play the tape in real time. NOT just when I playback the recording. I've tried to see if the clicking noise is not just the recording by enabling the playback function in real time while I was recording, meaning I can listen to the line in input and the recording playback all at the same time. Same effect, still the clicking. Once I stop recording and only the line in real time audio is playing, the clicking stops.

WHAT'S GOING ON?!?! haha

Just an idea, why don't you try something besides Audacity to see if it is Audacity. I have had that problem a little bit too, I forget when and how I fixed it though. You might also want to test to see if it is the tape player boy connecting the line out to a microphone jack in some other type of hardware. If you can bring it down to only the sound card, then you know you need a new sound card.

Luke

True...but here's the thing. I tried the Mic jack in the soundcard and got the same problem. I don't know what other program other than Audacity that would fulfill my purpose. All I'm trying to do is convert tapes to CD's or digitally record them and start a Archive for my grandfather.