I recently switched to a new Dell laptop (from an old version of the same) and when I use the same recording set-up I now have insanely high input levels when recording from vinyl. I have a stereo amp feeding through a USB input (Behringer UCA202). In the past the recording levels would set at about .85 and be good. Now I have to tap the input down to .09 or so. It sounds ok- clean, clear, etc. but it makes adjustments super tough since a change of .01 seems to be as aggressive as changing a full .1 used to be. I have checked that there are no additional mics feeding anything else in and I also tried just feeding the turntable straight into the USB input to see if the new laptop was boosting it in a way that the old one didn’t. The input is too low when I do this. Any thoughts? Thanks!
It’s totally expected. But you could try a different USB port. Sometimes USB 2 and USB 3 (blue) apply different gains.
I am not sure what you mean about feeding the turntable straight to the USB input. It is possible to record directly to a stereo analogue input then amplify and apply the RIAA curve in Equalization. What it sounds like depends on the input.
Gale