How to set up Audacity

If you are recording from a USB turntable, USB cassette deck or USB interface, please go to the set up instructions at Recording with USB turntables or USB cassette decks.

Setting Up Audacity

The Device toolbar is displayed by default in a new installation of Audacity. If the Device toolbar is not visible, click on View > Toolbars > Device Toolbar.

You may want to expand the width of Device Toolbar by dragging right on the drag handle.

Click on the Input Channels drop-down menu and choose whether to record in stereo or mono
Set the Output Device and Input Device drop-down menus to the built-in computer sound device, or to the specific sound device your cable is plugged into.
- Windows: Choose the line-in option for your connected sound device (for example, "Line-In: Realtek HD Device"). Do NOT select "Microsoft Sound Mapper" or "Primary Sound Capture Driver".
- Linux: Select the connected sound device.
- OS X: Select the "Built-in Audio: Line In" input device, or "USB Audio CODEC" if you are using an external USB audio adapter.
If you cannot choose your input source as described above, or if the line-in input won't record, you can use the operating system mixer device to choose the required input. For instructions, see the further help for Windows, Mac OS X or Linux on our Wiki.

Monitoring

Bill 02Apr11: Hardware playthrough does not work on Mac, ever.

Peter 8Oct13: ToDo-2 Fair point Bill. This section looks seriously misleading to me. I'm not sure I understand what is meant here by "hardware playthrough" (on Windows) - I've never seen an option for that on any of my Windows machines. The section needs reworking too as the "LineIn" software appears to be Mac OS/X only - we should give some windows options for other software alternatives. I haven't really got time right now to fix this so I have set a P2 to retain focus.
Gale 11Oct13: Hardware playthrough means what it says there although it is not called that in the control panel. It means going to the playback side of Sounds and Audio Devices on XP and removing the mute for the input you want to record from. This is much less commonly found on Windows Vista and later. I've tried to improve it for Windows and Mac.
- Peter 11Oct13: But this surely is not monitoring in Audacity, rather it is playing the signal that will be sent to Audacity - or have I got this wrong?
- Gale 11Oct13: The old Audacity FAQ on the main site used to advocate hardware playthrough rather than software playthrough. That's where the text came from. Isn't hardware playthrough preferable if available? Suppose it's a low powered machine and the extra load with software playthrough causes the recording to have skips? Who is this tutorial for - solely recording from record/tape/MiniDisc? If so I suppose you could argue for putting hardware playthrough as an advanced option in a green div. The problem I see is not that hardware playthrough is bad, just that few modern machines have it.
  And why doesn't Tutorial - Audacity Settings for Recording mention hardware playthrough at all, having said to turn software playthrough off if recording from a mic? I set a P2 for that.
  - Peter 11Oct13: afaict this page solely forms part of the tutorial set Copying tapes, LPs or MiniDiscs to CDI don't think it's referenced from anywhere else. We can try a green advanced div - certainly none of the three PCs that I've had while an Audacity user have never has hardware playthrough, so for recording LPs and tapes I must rely on software playthrough, so for my money, the primary advice should be "Software Playthrough".
    And yes possibly a fair point about Tutorial - Audacity Settings for Recording but once again maybe it should be in a green advanced div - but remember that that tutorial is aimed at rank beginners.
    - Gale 11Oct13: Rank beginners are more likely to have OS hardware playthrough than a mixer ( the only other option suggested there).
Gale 11Oct13: This is Steve's comment for Linux

Most (?) modern Linux systems use ALSA and Pulse Audio with no playthrough module installed. There are optional playthrough modules for both ALSA and PulseAudio, though my experience of them has been that there is a lot of delay and can be problems with the sound breaking up. Hardware devices that have built in hardware playthrough (such as the Behringer UCA 202 or Zoom H2 USB audio devices) seem to "just work" for hardware playthrough - no user settings on the computer required. Linux systems that are set up specifically for music / media applications are likely to use Jack Audio System, in which case low latency software playthrough would normally be configured using QjackCtl connection panel.

Decide if you want to "monitor" your recording, that is, hear it played back as you make it.
- Hardware playthrough: This is a method available on some Windows and Linux machines that lets you unmute the input directly in the sound device. To use this, open the operating system sound mixer, then the Playback section, then unmute line-in and turn the volume up. You can find the system mixer in the Control Panel at Sound on Windows Vista/Windows 7/Windows 8 or Sounds and Audio Devices on Windows XP/Windows 2000. On Linux, you can use ALSAmixer. Unfortunately on most Mac OS X machines, Audacity's Hardware Playthrough choice in Recording Preferences is not functional.
- Software playthrough: If hardware playthrough does not work or the playback and recording devices in Recording Preferences are different, you can route the input to the output through the computer. All such methods have latency and cause extra load on the computer.
  - In Audacity: Choose Software Playthrough in Recording Preferences or under the Transport Menu.
  - Windows Vista/Windows 7/Windows 8: On some machines you can instead select your input in Windows "Sound", choose "Properties" then on the "Listen" tab, choose "Listen to this device". This usually has less latency than Audacity's Software Playthrough.
  - Mac OS X: If Audacity's software playthrough is not effective, obtain the free LineIn software playthrough tool from Rogue Amoeba.
Set the volume level of your recording input. Click on the downward pointing arrow in the right hand (red) VU recording level meters:

and click "Start Monitoring". While playing a loud part of your tape or record, adjust the Input Slider on the Mixer Toolbar so the recording meters are almost reaching the right-hand end of the scale. Don't let the meter bars actually reach the right edge, or the red hold lights to right of the meter will come on, indicating you'll have distortion in the recording. If the recording level meters are not visible, click View > Toolbars and check Meter Toolbar. Try to aim for a maximum peak of around –6.0 dB (or 0.5 if you have your meters set to linear rather than dB). Tip: enlarging the Meter Toolbar by clicking and dragging helps with this task, see this page in the manual for details,
If the Mixer Toolbar Input Slider does not control the input level correctly, or is greyed out on maximum, use the input slider in the operating system mixer device to regulate the input level. For instructions, see the further help for Windows, Mac OS X or Linux on our Wiki.