Using Vista to record casettes to pc then to CD

[retep]

I have a Dell Dimension E520 desktop pc, running Vista (basic edition). I would like to record from cassette to pc and burn to cd. I've tried free downloads of three types of software to do this but can only hear the music after recording not during.

I am not sure whether this is because Vista itself does not allow this i.e. hearing the music while recording to pc, or whether it depends solely upon the type of sound card - should this be 'full duplex'? Any advice very welcome.

[Slowpoke]

There is nothing in Vista that will prevent this, as I transfer cassettes to the pc and then to cds on a regular basis. Most likely the problem is simply the sound card setup. I'm not on my Vista machine now, but double click on the speaker icon in the system tray, and check the properties for both recording and playback. There are selections for enabling and disabling the various functions. Make sure none are muted. I assume you have a tape player hooked to the "line in" port on the sound card?

[retep]

Thanks Slowpoke - that's confirmed what I thought was the most likely scenario i.e. the sound card. As you say, I have the cassette deck going into the line-in of the pc. I've checked again the playback and record controls and none are muted (and the volume is turned up) - so I think it must be that the soundcard supplied with this Dell pc doesn't provide for hearing the sound when recording - altho', as I say, it records and then plays back fine.

[ssgatbliss]

Not sure what sound card you have but most have a setting in the sound control panel that will allow you to hear near real time recordings. My high end X-FI has it but then again so does my older realtech built into my asus motherboard. The was an add on that Microsoft had that had a recorder for just that purpose. It wasn't the best but it would go through the recordings and separate the tracks by silent spots. Then you could review those spots and change them if necessary. It also let you label the album and it would produce the printouts for you. I got it for my father in law so he could records all his old albums to CD. It would remove hiss and ticks too, that removed some of the fidelity though. Don't remember what it was called, but it had all these extra desktop themes and screensvaers with it. I think it was like $20 or there about.

[retep]

Thanks. I've downloaded several items of software from the web to be able to record cassettes to the pc, and then to cd. These record and playback but I can't hear them while being recorded from cassette to pc. I have a Sigmatel soundcard in the pc. I've checked that the line-in is enabled but I can't see a separate volume control for line-in. There are volume controls headed 'Device - speakers/headphones and ' Applictions - Windows Sounds' - which are enabled: I don't know whether one of these is instead of a separate line-in volume control.