Hey guys, I am trying to digitize an old cassette so I have the Deck running a USB audio adapter. In Audacity, the recording is peaking all the way to the right as can be seen in this screenshot.
I am trying to have the audio peak at around -12 but when clicking anywhere in the LED, it is showing the % and I can hear the audio increasing and decreasing accordingly. But, even if I move the slider all the way to the left at -57, the LED is still peaking all the way to the right.
Any way for me to have it peak at around -12 please?
Usually you can’t adjust recording volume with USB, and even if you can it’s the analog-to-digital converter built-into the USB device that clips (distorts) so lowering the volume after it’s digitized doesn’t remove the distortion.
That does have line-inputs, right? Regular “USB soundcards” have only mic-in and headphone out and the microphone input is too sensitive… Your waveform doesn’t look THAT bad so I think you just have a slight signal level mismatch.
If it has headphone output you can use that into line-in (with the appropriate adapter cables). Headphone outputs ALWAYS have a volume control.
P.S.
-12dB (peak) is OK but nothing bad happens when you get close to 0dB. ADCs are hard-limited to 0dB and you’ll get clipping if you “try” to go over so it’s good practice to leave SOME headroom for unknown/unexpected peaks.
Usually we shoot-for -3 to -6dB when digitizing vinyl or cassettes but digital levels are not critical as long as you avoid clipping, and you can amplify losslessly after recording.
With “live” recording the levels are less predictable so you usually need more headroom. Pros typically end to record around -12 to -18dB (at 24-bits).
Thank you, tell me this please. If I were to simply move the slider to a point where the audio sounds without distortion regardless of the red peaks showing. After the recording is done as wav, I can normalize the volume to standard mp3 level when converting to mp3, would this work?
No. If the waveform is clipped lowering the volume later doesn’t change the distorted wave shape.
If you have Audacity set to Show Clipping, using Amplify with a negative dB setting will bring the volume down and “hide” the clipping and it will no longer “show red”. But it’s just looking at the peak levels, not the wave shape. It shows potential clipping and you can get false positives and false negatives.
Your waveform doesn’t LOOK terrible. If it doesn’t sound terrible, or if it’s voice or it’s not critical you may be able to live with it… That’s for you to decide.