Laptop recording

[reynardthefox]

I recently purchased a laptop and decided to transfer some of my old cassette originals onto it using Wavelab.Before I had got very far I realised I was only recording one track of the stereo signal although strangley,through headphones which are plugged straight into the laptop,I can hear the stereo mix.I am trying to record through the microphone input jack.Any ideas why I can hear a stereo signal but can only record mono.

[richiebee]

Are you sure that your mic input is stereo? They often aren't.

Are you seeing stereo meters in Wavelab (sorry, I'm not familiar with the look - I'm a Sound Forge guy).

[reynardthefox]

Yeah I thought the input jack must be mono then I realized that I could hear a stereo signal in my headphones.This must be just a loop through because its stereo even when wavelab is'nt running and becomes mono (1 track only) when recorded in Wavelab and then played back.Wavelab shows the signal as stereo but it's only 1 track (left or right depending upon which way around the outputs from the cassette player are connected) I got similair results in Audacity