Problems recording with Audacity

distortion occuring

[HelenDev]

I don't know a lot about sound recording but I have some friends who want to get their own music into digital format.

I've explained that we can use Audacity to do this and put a line in from the recording source. We tried this though and got distortion in the form of irregular 'clicking' noises on the track. We tried lowering the input volume, tinkering with all the settings, searching the web for help, but to no avail.

The machine we're using for this is an old(ish) not very high spec laptop, and one of my friends says perhaps it is 'not good enough'. Could this be correct, or has anyone got any other suggestions?

[tbear]

The distirtion you describe sounds like it may be caused by a conflict of sample rates someplace.
I do a lot of recording and use the forum of another free programme, Krystal Audio Engine.
I'm not hawking the site, but it is a very friendly forum with a lot of knowledgable members. I'm sure they can sort your problem.

Hope the plug is OK, since it's a free programme, if not I guess the mods'll remove it.

[bcolflesh]

"Clicking noises" on the laptop are probably from a subpar onboard audio processor - best bet is kill as many processes as you can before recording, turn off unnecessary windows services with the control panel tool, no system tray stuff etc ... and see if that helps.

Another option is booting a pre-compiled *nix audio distro, like puredyne, if it will recognize your laptops hardware.