I use Audacity to record vinyl to digital through a USB cord. The program works great, but all my recordings pick up some kind of radio signal - usually in Spanish. I can’t figure this out. I live in an apartment, and am surrounded by others with digital devices, but this is in the background of all my recordings!
Any ideas what this sound is, or how to filter it out?
It could be a radio station. There is an apartment complex not far from here that features, beside the north parking lot, radio station KWKW. 5000 watt. Two towers. I bet those people get Spanish Language Entertainment on their toasters.
If you’re in the US, they have to identify themselves in English once an hour or so, so if it is a radio station, stick with it and see if they identify.
Radio Interference suppression is a little beyond a simple forum post. Can you move the system to another room and does it change when you do that? Can you make it worse?
Koz
In Europe it’s radio Moscow, which can be heard on any device with an audio amplifier which isn’t screened.
If the turntable tone arm is plastic you could try bandaging it in kitchen foil.
use Audacity to record vinyl to digital through a USB cord.
It’s most-likely a problem on the analog side, especially if no other USB devices give you this problem.
If you are using a USB turntable, the problem is likely in the built-in phono-preamp. In that case, there may not be anything you can do with that turntable, other than move your recording to another location. If the USB turntable also has line-level analog outputs, you can try connecting it to your soundcard’s line-in if you have a desktop computer with line-in. That may or may-not solve the problem. (Most laptops only have mic-in and headphone-out, so that’s usually not option with a laptop.)
If you are using a separate USB audio interface, a different interface may solve the problem.