Distortion when playing

[Java]

In some songs that I play thru a cd player and and convert it to my files there is a fair amount of distortion. Most of the time I do not have any problems when copying from a disc however there is one song that has a lot of distortion.

I have checked all the sound properties and reduced them to a lower sound recording. I also reduce the amount of sound from my cd play to the line in.

My questiion after all this rambling is there something that I should do with my sound works, which is creative soundblaster.

Thanks in advance

[LtData]

Re: Distortion when playing

Are you saying the original CD sounds distorted?

[Java]

Re: Distortion when playing

The best way to say it is: after the song in copied to my hd and then when I play it from the hd it has a lot of loud vibrations or distortions.

Not sure why this occurs, the song plays ok on my cd play.

Thanks for responding and apprecciate your reply on this

[dizwell]

Re: Distortion when playing

What format at you converting the OK-sounding music to? And at what sampling rates?

The best CD in the world will sound pretty awful if you convert it to MP3 64 Kbps. Convert it lossless FLAC or WMA, though, and it should sound as perfect as the original.

So what are you doing to the track to make it sound bad?

[xoas]

Re: Distortion when playing

It looks like you are using Auxiliary Input to record a CD being played on a CD player using a line-input attachment to your computer.

If your computer has a drive that can read/play CDs (be it CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-ROM, DVD-R, or DVD-RW) you will nearly always be better off converting (ripping) the CD from the computer drive to your hard drive.

If you do have to record using Auxiliary Input then do try recording directly to .wave format (you can then convert the wave files to a more agreeable format).

However, it sounds like you are thinking that the problem is that your recording level is too loud. I think that this is likely to be the source of your trouble too.

To reduce the volume of your recorded track, do not worry about the CD players volume control.

Instead, you can either:
open Auxiliary Input, start playing your CD, and click on the bar that says Test Recording Level. There is a volume control there you can use and you can use this window to preview louder sections of your CD (or other input source) to help make sure it does not get too loud), OR
open Auxilary Input, click on Options, click on the button that reads Input Source, and from there you should find a recording level control for your line-input. That volume should usuallly be set around 2/3 to 3/4 of maximum and with a particularly loud CD you may need to set this lower (although you can achieve the same effect by altering the recording volume as I outlined above).

Do use the Test Recording level function to preview your recording levels before you actually record when you are able to do this. If you cannot, you can also adjust the recording level as you record.

If I have misread your situation, or if these tips do not help, please let us know.

Best wishes,
Bill

[Java]

Re: Distortion when playing

Hi Bill and Dizwill thanks for both replies. Bill, you are right on in reading my question.

What I do is copy a song from my cd player thru a line input to my cp and converting it to wave using the dmc converter. On this one song to best explain, there are certain parts in the song that sound like a heavy vibration.

I used the format you mentioned on the auxilary input and set the the bar(?) at two. Yet the sound and vibrations remained the same.

Not sure what you mean when you say:
[SIZE=3]"[COLOR=DarkOrange]you will nearly always be better off converting (ripping) the CD from the computer drive to your hard drive[/COLOR]."[/SIZE]

When I copy a song I save it to my h/d, on most songs I have converted them to wave or if not I will convert them after saving to h/d. Then when I play them some have the vibrations.

Also I have the volume set at about two and a half clicks from the bottom across the board, stero etc.

Thanks

[Java]

Re: Distortion when playing

one more thing Bill, I have completley forgottenow to copy a song from my cd player and save it to my h/d and save it to my hd. YOu have mentioned ripping but I have not done any on that.

[LtData]

Re: Distortion when playing

A good reference is the help files that are installed along with dMC. The basic process and some terminology is described there, so that would be a good place to start.

As for your Auxiliary Input troubles, try reading over this to see if it helps: http://forum.dbpoweramp.com/showthread.php?p=34783

[Java]

Re: Distortion when playing

Thanks, I have read christina's article many times in the past.

[xoas]

Re: Distortion when playing

Java-
The type of distortion you describe may not be due to recording level. If the heavy vibration you describe is low pitched, it might be a type of distortion sometimes referred to as "rumble." Rumble might be introduced through a variety of means.

When this occurs, is it only during sections of low-pitched music? Does it always occur with the same songs in the same spot or will it occur sometimes with one song but if you record the song a second time the distortion either fails to occur or it occurs at a different point?

If it occurs with music of any frequency, I would suspect a mechanical problem either with your CD Player, with your line-input connection, or with your sound card set up.

If you provide a few further details about how often and how consistently this problem is popping up, we could try to problem-solve this problem further.

Or you could try using the dBpowerAMP Music Converter Audio CD Input (or in the latest r12 version of Music Converter this is CD Ripper) to copy the audio from the CD while it is in your computer's CD or DVD drive. As LtData points out, checking the Help files for Music Converter should be able to get you started on the How-To's to manage that.

Best wishes,
Bill

[Java]

Re: Distortion when playing

Hi Bill, thanks for the reply, I got to thinking about something, I do have a thought sometimes and at my age 71 it is a rate occurence.

While I while watching the vu meter it occured to me that may I had it set to low, I remember back sometime ago, that the instructions for converting said to have the wavein set at about 3/4 qtrs the way up so I reset it and played the song I was having problems with and it cut down on the noise big time.

What I have not been doing was using the vu meter on each song, so that it itself was part of the problem. I think I probably had the meter set to low.

Not sure this is the problem but will keep checking, also, I do not have that problem with most of the music I record/convert just times a song will pop up with that noise.

My cp is old and I plan on buying a new one come mid summer, hopefully Dell with have some good buys at that time.

My son who is a software and hardware guru will help me, I do thank you and all the other moderators for your help.

Until we chat again, have a good weekend.