Auxillary input Line In noise

[unknownvariant]

Hi, I was wondering if anyone could help me or point me in the right direction here. I am trying to do a tape to wav conversion and have hooked an RCA cable from the Headphone Input into the Line In of the soundcard(an onboard Realtek AC 97 model). The sound will come through the speakers just fine, but when I try to record all I get is this LOUD hissing static roar. When I test the recording level all Ill get is this very same static, even I have the tape playing at the time. Ive looked all over the place and cant find an answer to this (and truthfully, Im not even sure what the exact problem is...). Any help would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks.

[ChristinaS]

Hi, I was wondering if anyone could help me or point me in the right direction here. I am trying to do a tape to wav conversion and have hooked an RCA cable from the Headphone Input into the Line In of the soundcard(an onboard Realtek AC 97 model). The sound will come through the speakers just fine, but when I try to record all I get is this LOUD hissing static roar. When I test the recording level all Ill get is this very same static, even I have the tape playing at the time. Ive looked all over the place and cant find an answer to this (and truthfully, Im not even sure what the exact problem is...). Any help would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks.
Did you set Volume control > Options >Properties > Recording to take input from Line-in?

[unknownvariant]

As a matter of fact, I did, but that is where one of my problems arises. On the properties screen theres an adjust volume for playback or recording section. I adjusted it for recording and checked the line in box, then a volume control for line in popped up. Ive been sliding it up and down and its not making any sound whatsoever. When I go back into the properities dialog, the adjust audio section is reset to playback.....something with the line in on the soundcard itself maybe?

[ChristinaS]

As a matter of fact, I did, but that is where one of my problems arises. On the properties screen theres an adjust volume for playback or recording section. I adjusted it for recording and checked the line in box, then a volume control for line in popped up. Ive been sliding it up and down and its not making any sound whatsoever. When I go back into the properities dialog, the adjust audio section is reset to playback.....something with the line in on the soundcard itself maybe?
You have different options for playback and recording. You have to select the sources for each of them individually.

When you first open Volume Controls you are rpesented with the settings for playback only. For that you want everything to be unmuted except microphone which shoudl be muted and master volume set at a good level. All other volume sliders should be at the top. if you're missing sources, click on options and select the playback sources from the drop down list. I picked all of them so I'll never wonder again if I'm missing any. AGain under properties you can slect sources for recording. Pick all of them for display on the master panel. Then prior to recording go an select just the one input you need, namely line-in for you.

You can also use Stereo Mix (or What you Hear) instead of line-in for recording input - just make sure your email notification is off and all other sources of sound (chimes, etc) are off like MSN alerts and such, since they willl be recorded alongside your other recording if they happen while your'e recording.

[petriburg]

Hi, I was wondering if anyone could help me or point me in the right direction here. I am trying to do a tape to wav conversion and have hooked an RCA cable from the Headphone Input into the Line In of the soundcard(an onboard Realtek AC 97 model). The sound will come through the speakers just fine, but when I try to record all I get is this LOUD hissing static roar. When I test the recording level all Ill get is this very same static, even I have the tape playing at the time. Ive looked all over the place and cant find an answer to this (and truthfully, Im not even sure what the exact problem is...). Any help would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks.

What is your source tape player? Is it a stand-alone stereo cassette deck, or some other appliance? The thought occurs to me that if you are using the headphone OUTput from the tape player, the signal may be overloading your soundcard. If you have tape output sockets (or "Tape Play" sockets) somewhere on this machine, those are the ones you should be using for a line-level signal to input to the sound card. If this is so, you may need to adapt left and right channels from RCA PLUGS with a stereo Y-connector (from Radio Shack), and thence to your soundcard. If this is not the issue, please post again, and somebody will certainly help you overcome the problem.

[goodgoat]

Me again, under a different name(I forgot my password... :blush: ).
Im still having no luck, so I thought Id try to run down the symptoms in the most exact way I can.
The OS is Win Xp SP2, Realtek AC 97 onboard audio- the tape player is an RCA combo tape/CD/tuner model w braided wire connected speakers-these are connected by 6" RCA cable w 1/8"(?) jacks from Phones on the stereo to Line In on the soundcard(soundcard has only 3 inputs-Line In, Speaker, and Mic-and an extra mic and headphone jack at the front of the PC).
The sound comes through the PC speakers just fine, but cannot be recorded. Instead, when I try to play back what I tried to record Ill just hear a loud blast of white noise. I get this exact same noise if try to record with no input to sound card at all.
Device manager shows all the drivers are loaded, and when I try to adjust the recording volume level from the Windows mixer( I think its called...), I dont get anything. Ive selected Line in, but when I slide the Volume switch(all of them on the Recording window, as a matter of fact), I dont hear anything-no dings, nothing.
In the Control Panel, under Sounds and Audio Device Properties , the default recording device is listed as Realtek AC97 audio, but the Advanced properties button is greyed out.
Anybody have any idea at all what it could be? COULD it be possible the stereo is overloading the sound card? The input signal seems to be getting into the PC just fine, it just cant be recorded.

HELP!! :( ?????

[ChristinaS]

Did you read what I explained before about the Volume Controls?

[petriburg]

Quote: The OS is Win Xp SP2, Realtek AC 97 onboard audio- the tape player is an RCA combo tape/CD/tuner model w braided wire connected speakers-these are connected by 6" RCA cable w 1/8"(?) jacks from Phones on the stereo to Line In on the soundcard.

Not that it matters, but is that 6" or 6' RCA Cables?

The main reason I'm posting again is that this sounds very much like an overload problem, and possibly also an impedance mismatch between an audio output (headphone) to a recording input (line input). You may need to find some means of reducing the level of this signal to get it to work, though frankly, in my opinion, it may not. :sad:

[ChristinaS]

However the sound does go out through the sound card and speakers so I think it's simply a bad setting for recording purposes.

[goodgoat]

Yes. Ive tried it with both line in and stereo mix and it didn't work either way. And Ive also tried 2 other input sources- a portable CD player and a boombox with the same results. I'm stumped. This is the first time Ive tried to do an analog to digital conversion, though, so I'm completely lost.

[ChristinaS]

Take an audio file you already have on your pc - doesn't matter what.

Play it through whatever player you have that plays it. At the same time record it to a new audio file through dMC Auxiliary Input. Does that work? It should if you're doing it properly. The input source for recording would be Stereo Mix for this.

Are your playback settings correct in Volume Controls? For Playback you need all sources unmuted except microphone - with sliders all the way up. You control the overall volume from the master volume one.

[petriburg]

Goodgoat, it appears to me that you are also using headphone outputs from a portable CD player and a boombox, neither of which devices has a LINE level output - the output is amplified, which could well be the source of your problem. Can you borrow a stand-alone stereo cassette recorder/player? If so, connect the 'record/out' (or sometimes labelled 'tape play', or just 'play') RCA sockets to your soundcard. See whether this makes any difference. If it does, then we can get on with sorting out any other settings which might need optimising. But it is essential to have the correct source in order to make a decent recording. This I have learned from bitter experience, as well as from books.

[goodgoat]

Thank you Christina S and petriburg! Its still not working out, but youve given me some ideas. I MUST have some setting wrong, because I wasnt able to record a track playing in mediaplayer with aux input. Its not the volume or select settings though, Im pretty sure of it, because I checked them numerous times and Ive everything adjusted how you said (Playback volume sliders all at top, mic muted, master volume controlling main volume level, Recording Stereo Mix selected, slider 3/4s the way up). Is there aome other setting that I am missing?
Oh, and it makes good sense about the headphone jack overloading the signal. I may just have to rethink this whole operation, but I was just working with what I had at hand. Thanks guys.

[ChristinaS]

Thank you Christina S and petriburg! Its still not working out, but youve given me some ideas. I MUST have some setting wrong, because I wasnt able to record a track playing in mediaplayer with aux input. Its not the volume or select settings though, Im pretty sure of it, because I checked them numerous times and Ive everything adjusted how you said (Playback volume sliders all at top, mic muted, master volume controlling main volume level, Recording Stereo Mix selected, slider 3/4s the way up). Is there aome other setting that I am missing?
Oh, and it makes good sense about the headphone jack overloading the signal. I may just have to rethink this whole operation, but I was just working with what I had at hand. Thanks guys.

Maybe not a setting. Have you actually clicked the Record button in dMC Auxiliary Input? Did you start seeing any activity on the VU meter? You can run a test on that too.

You may have set auto start/auto stop - remove those and do it manually.

[adaywayne]

Thank you Christina S and petriburg! Its still not working out, but youve given me some ideas. I MUST have some setting wrong, because I wasnt able to record a track playing in mediaplayer with aux input. Its not the volume or select settings though, Im pretty sure of it, because I checked them numerous times and Ive everything adjusted how you said (Playback volume sliders all at top, mic muted, master volume controlling main volume level, Recording Stereo Mix selected, slider 3/4s the way up). Is there aome other setting that I am missing?
Oh, and it makes good sense about the headphone jack overloading the signal. I may just have to rethink this whole operation, but I was just working with what I had at hand. Thanks guys.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Under Auxilliary Input options, what settings do you have? They should be something like this:

http://img232.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img232&image=clipboard014pf.jpg (copy and paste into browser)

Also, whilst recording, do you see the volume bars moving in the VU meter?

[Tomb]

There are some new (or newish drivers - I noticed that windows update had installed them for me) drivers for the Realtek AC 97 out at the moment. Maybe installing them may help.

http://www.e4allinc.info/dir3/phfilesz/drivers/audio/wdm_a369.exe

[neilthecellist]

Speaking of audio drivers, is it possible to install a sound driver for a sound card it wasn't designed for? For example: I have Dell motherboard integrated SoundMax Digital Audio . My computer came with the drivers for the card on CD, but it's so old....(like 2001 -ish old) . Could I install like the AC 97 driver for my sound card?

[iTunesIsEvil]

My computer came with the drivers for the card on CD, but it's so old....(like 2001 -ish old) . Could I install like the AC 97 driver for my sound card?
Neil, I'd check the Dell website in the support area to see what the newest driver there is for your machine. That'd be your best bet. I personally wouldn't go trying to install drivers for something they weren't built for.

Try here first... ("http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/index.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs) :)

[goodgoat]

The VU meter is in the red, almost at the far right end of the bar. Hadnt tried the drivers yet.

[goodgoat]

On the volume mixer for playback when I turn the wave volume up the noise comes. You can still hear the audio in the background with the wave turned low, turning it up drowns out the input. Turned all the way down it just records silence. The VU meter is still redlining hard. The audio is not in the recorded file with the wave turned low.

[neilthecellist]

Neil, I'd check the Dell website in the support area to see what the newest driver there is for your machine. That'd be your best bet. I personally wouldn't go trying to install drivers for something they weren't built for.

Try here first... ("http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/index.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs) :)


ew!!!! It redirected me to my least favorite website!!! Microsoft? I'm so emotionally hurt now, iTunesIsEvil!!

[ChristinaS]

On the volume mixer for playback when I turn the wave volume up the noise comes. You can still hear the audio in the background with the wave turned low, turning it up drowns out the input. Turned all the way down it just records silence. The VU meter is still redlining hard. The audio is not in the recorded file with the wave turned low.
OK, you can do this by using the Stereo mix rather than the line-in setting for recording. In that case it record what you hear. You said before that when you play your tape player through your soundcards' line-in you hear it on the computer's speakers OK. SO using the Stereo Mix as inoput fro recording should work. Keep the volume slider 2/3 or 3/4 of the way up. As long as the VU meter is showing activity it's going through. Make sure you hit the record button though to start and at the end to stop it.

At this point we are not so much concerned with the quality of what is being recorded, just with the recording process. For quality, you have the other considerations mentioned by Petriburg. Headphone out to line-in isn't the happiest combo generally, unless the headphone out doubles as a line-out of its own accord.

[iTunesIsEvil]

ew!!!! It redirected me to my least favorite website!!! Microsoft? I'm so emotionally hurt now, iTunesIsEvil!!
Ack! Hehheh... Sorry about that! I wouldn't have wished a redirect like that upon my worst enemy! :)

I'm still angered that you can't access the Windows Update site with FireFox :(

[neilthecellist]

yeah i hate it too. Firefox......

I need to update my Firefox version too....version 1.0.2 came out or something like that.

[adaywayne]

The VU meter is in the red, almost at the far right end of the bar. Hadnt tried the drivers yet.

Then you are recording at far too high a level and severly overloading your soundcard to the point of possibly damaging it. The horrible noise you hear when you playback what was recorded is probably the sound of severe digital clipping. Turn down the recording volume until the meter is in the green area most of the time with occasional spikes into the yellow.