audio recordingsound
Does anyone know how to record from a cassette player directly into the computer (headphone output on the cassette player to the microphone socket on the computer) and be able to hear the output at the same time; and therefore know when to stop recording?
I'm using the GNOME sound recorder at the moment but wonder if there's anything better.
First of all: the "Add" option beside the name of the output file must not be checked in order to avoid potential new files being added to the previous one. (I guess this is the default setting in fact!!)
As for the settings in the Timer, it is a matter of trial an error, and changes should be made from case to case.
A good start would be adding in any case 'start if sound', so that a new file should be created when sound starts; but in order to have a new file, first the recorder must be made to stop when there is no sound. 'stop if silence' is not a good option, as it creates a lot of small useless files; a better option is 'stop if silence 1 sec.'. 'stop if silence 0.5 sec' may also be a good option. (This should be enough for the stated purpose. Using audio threshold timer commands seems to me more complicated.)
Changing volume level during recording is a bad idea.
Best Answer
Audacity
Audacity will do wonderfully here. It is in the Ubuntu repos. Adjust the input level before recording; after recording, do a "normalize" and export to mp3 or whatever you need.