Recently, (May 9) I used my Teac LPR660USB to record a LP to my Mac (os 10.14.3) using Audacity 2.3.1 with the USB Audio CODEC input and it worked fine. just like the manual says it should.
After edit and saving the recorded files I turned off the Teac, but left all of the cables connected and the computer running. Today, May 28, I tried to use it to record the second side of the same LP. Turned on the Teac and used what I think its the same procedure, (restarted Audacity after powering the Teac), selected the USB Audio CODEC as input, started the LP playing and found that when I attempt to monitor the input before starting to record, the input level is VERY low, doesn’t get past the -54db.
When I try to record I get NOTHING, the line is perfectly straight. I restart, repower the Teac, restart audacity but no luck. So I update MAC OS 10.14.4, and Audacity to 2.3.2 and get exactly the same results. I can record from the internal microphone, open existing files and play and edit them so the software appears to be working fine. But input from the USB very low and not sufficient to strength to show up when recording. When I start the monitor, the level is below -54 db, but at least I see some input. I’ve set the Teac record level on the USB connection to the highest setting, though in the past it worked fine at a mid setting.
Hope someone can give me a pointer to what may have happened, or how I can fix this and get it back in operation.
Well I don’t understand it, but I got it working. The TEAC LP 660 USB has RCA audio output connectors as well as the USB output. I had connected them to a receiver so I could use the device to play CD’s, Tapes, and LP’s to my receiver which has better speakers than the Teac LP 660. The receiver is Off, but the input selector had been set to Tuner. I had used had used the receiver radio some time in the past week when not doing anything with the Teac. I had left it set to tuner when I turned off the receiver. While playing a CD on the Teac I happened to reach up and turn the still unpowered tuner’s input selector to Aux, and VOILA, the USB output from the TEAC as seen by Audacity running on my MAC immediately starts to work just fine.
I’m at a complete loss to come up with any explanation for this. But it obviously feature of the Teac LP 660. I do not see why the setting of the input device to the unpowered Receiver connected to the Teac’s RCA audio output should have anything to do with the USB output. But it does and now I know one more critical setting to check before attempting to record my LP’s, cassettes, and CDs to my MAC. I suspect my next free evening should be spent carefully reading details of the Teac LP 660 manual! Or maybe sending a query to Teac support.
The receiver is Off, but the input selector had been set to Tuner. I had used had used the receiver radio some time in the past week when not doing anything with the Teac. I had left it set to tuner when I turned off the receiver. While playing a CD on the Teac I happened to reach up and turn the still unpowered tuner’s input selector to Aux, and VOILA, the USB output from the TEAC as seen by Audacity running on my MAC immediately starts to work just fine.
Weird!!! Does switching back to tuner kill the USB again?
check before attempting to record my LP’s, cassettes, and CDs to my MAC.
Don’t “record” your CDs. Use a “cd ripping” application to make a digital copy. (I’m a Window user but iTunes can do it.) It’s faster, you’ll avoid the digital-to-analog-to-digital conversion, and the ripping application will (usually) find the CD in an online database and automatically tag the files with the artist/title/album/etc. information, and sometimes it will add the artwork.
Doug is basically correct here - but there are a few CDs around where Sony thought it was a “smart idea” to put DRM (Digital Rights Management) on their CDs for a while to stop them being ripped (or imported into iTunes) - they stopped doing in response to many user complaints. These ones have to be recorded AFAIK.
I was lucky I only had 2 CDs from that misbegotten period - the rest I ripped.