Help needed! Recording playback through computer to convert audio format

General Questions
#1

That title may not be particularly descriptive, so I apologize. Here’s the situation:

I’ve got a soundfile in a .dss format, which is a proprietary format for Olympus digital recorders. Olympus distributes a free program called DSS Player-Lite which allows their digital recorder owners to send recorded files to colleagues, who can then listen to the audio files – very similar to the ability to distribute PDFs so that anyone who can download Acrobat Reader can view the PDF without needing the full Acrobat product.

My problem is that I need to be able to convert the .dss file I received to .mp3 (or .wav – doesn’t matter as I’ll ultimately be using Audacity to finish to the job) and edit the file in order to use only certain portions of the audio I’ve received. Olympus’s Player-Lite doesn’t allow you to do this. The full version of their DSS Player apparently does, but it does not appear that they distribute the full version of the software online. It looks, from my searching, like the only way to get it may be to actually buy an Olympus recorder.

Does anyone know of a way I can possibly play the sound file and record it simultaneously with my computer so that I have it in another, more flexible digital format?

I’m running Windows XP, if that’s helpful. Many thanks!

#2

I believe you can do that with Audacity. Switch the input on Audacity to “what you hear.” Press play on the player and record on Audacity. Get the levels right with a test run.

#3

Thanks! I ended up doing something similar to this. I found a male/male audio cable and ran it from the computer’s headphone jack to the mic jack. I used the Olympus program to play the original audio and used Audacity’s record function to pick it up. Worked like a charm after a few test runs for levels.

I appreciate the help!