Greetings,

I am encountering a problem when trying to record audio using Audacity, and I could use some help. My setup:

-Mac Mini, running OS 10.4.11
-Edirol FA-66 Firewire Audio Capture Interface
-Pioneer RT-1011L Reel-to-Reel player
-Audacity, version 1.2.5

The computer and the Edirol are each brand new, and have been in my posession for less than a week, so I don't think I've had enough time to screw either of them up royally. I have followed the Edirol's instructions to a T, and I can successfully hear audio coming from both the tape deck and the computer through headphones attached to it. In addition, I am getting activity in the Mac's system preferences sound menu. (The input level meter is active as the tape plays).

However, when I get into Audacity, there is no sound registering in its display meters. And when I go to hit "record", an error message pops up:

"Error while opening sound device. Please check the input device settings and the project sample rate."

Everything appears to be in good order with Audacity's preference settings, so I don't know what I'm doing wrong. This was with version 1.2.5. I also tried the 1.3.3 Beta version, which will start the action of recording, but only records silence.

Thanks for any assistance you may be able to offer.
-Dan

I think (I do not have a Mac at home) that you have to do something with the preferences, like where it records from and what the sample rate is. It might be that you cannot do it with that program at all.

I have selected the Edirol FA-66 as both the input and output device in Audacity's preferences, and with those selections is when I get the error message I cited before.

On the other hand, I don't know much at all about what sample rates are. What I do know is that CD-quality levels are 16 bit/44.1 kHz, and that Audacity's default presets are 44,100 Hz (the same as 44.1 kHz, no?), and a "32-bit float" sample format. Can someone explain, simply, these numbers mean?

-Dan

Try setting it to 16 bit and 48 kHz.

Try setting it to 16 bit and 48 kHz.

No difference.

Hmmmmm.....I don't know what to say.

Hi Dan, the 44,100 Hertz (yes this is the same as 44.1 kHz) and 32-bit float are how often the audio waveform is sampled (sample rate) to digitize it and how many numbers are used to represent each sample (quantization). Audacity's default sample rate is the same as what's used on an audio CD, but it uses 32 bits instead of 16 for each sample because the extra bits reduce the math errors that result when you make changes like normalize, apply gain, perform noise reduction, and apply equalization.

I'm not a Mac user so I doubt if I can help you with your problem, but it sounds like you just have a setting to tweak as vinyldavid said in his post. I can't see any links to download the manual for your Edirol so all I can suggest is 1) re-read the documentation that came with the FA-66 and 2) close Audacity and disconnect the Edirol, then plug in the Edirol, start up Audacity, and try again. Good luck!

An update, along with a new question:

I've been dialogging with a guy on Audacity's Team Forum (discussion here (http://audacityteam.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=2038)), and his conclusion seems to be to forget using the Edirol Audio Capture Unit, and plug the reel-to-reel outputs directly into my Mac Mini's Line Input jack. Doing it this way appears to function correctly, and I do get a full range of volume in this combination.

BUT: Is the quality of this connection sufficient for CD quality and genuine sound preservation? This is an archiving project of concert band performances, so keeping the subtleties of these recordings is key.

Thanks,
-Dan

Macs have very much better original sound sub systems and connection paths that "most" Windows PCs. The sound quality will usually be very good running the I/O directly into/out of the MAC. The only way to confirm is to do a test and let your ears be the judge?

I have a G5 Powermac and tried to use Audacity with my Presonus Firebox and
ran into the same kind of error. After some research, found that my Firebox
is not capable with Audacity and that was the reason for the errors. I have
switched to Twisted Wave, which is a shareware program, which makes it $49
more than Audacity but at least it works! Hopefully, that isn't your specific
problem but it sounds like it could be. Does Edirol have any info on it's site
about using Audacity? Or perhaps the support at Audacity should be able to
double check that it is compatible. Cheers - Jon

I don't have any further suggestions to resolve your issue, Dan. Sounds like you may be having a compatibility issue between Audacity running on the Mac and your Eiderol Firewire audio interface. Maybe finding another audio recording program for the time being and keeping an eye out for update versions of Audacity are your only real options at this point. Maybe other Mac folks can make more suggestions about alternatives like javajam12's Twisted Wave recommendation.

I do want to clarify one thing I said in my earlier post. The option in Audacity to create an audio file with samples represented by 32-bit floating point numbers doesn't mean that the analog audio going in to your Eiderol is being digitized with that precision. Your Eiderol's analog to digital converter is only capable of 24-bit integer precision. Audacity is then taking those integer values and representing them as 32-bit floating point numbers. As I said earlier, working with 32-bit floating point numbers helps reduce math errors that occur as you do filtering, level adjustments, EQ, and other editing that manipulates the sample values. Just felt my earlier post was a bit confusing when I re-read it later.

Dan, I feel your pain with using audacity, I have meet better success with Sony sound forge audio studio 9.0. It has some pre-set matrix for vinyl and other analog conversions. Good luck.
Rogers