I’m trying to transfer my many Vinyl records to digital. I am playing the records off a USB DJ type turntable. Its recording but the rec. level is way too high. The playback is distorted and very noisy. I turned the Audacity Mic level down to almost zero and disabled the PC Mic., but the rec. meter is still almost off the chart on both tracks and the quality very poor. I’m pretty sure I made some recordings with an older version of Audacity and Windows Vista but using the same turntable and didn’t have this problem. I have upgraded to this version becase the mic. level of the previous version didn’t work at all with Windows 7. What am I doing wrong?? Help!
Couple of things come to mind here. You should be using your line in jack on your sound card not your mic jack.
Under the recording section of your sound card there should be a slider where you can control the line in volumn with a slider.
Hope this helps.
thanks for that. As this is a USB turntable I’m not using the line in directly to the sound card. This might however be an idea if I can find a concerter that can convert the two audio pins hanging out of the Turntable into a stereo mini jack. That way I can avoid using the USB connection and then follow your advice
Best is always line in via a real audio interface.
But usb is okay.
Is there any level adjustment with the TT ?
Can you adjust the sliders in the recording software that came with the TT to lower the gain ? Or ditto audacity if you are using that.
Can you adjust the volume input on your sound card ?
My pc lets me adjust recording as well as playback levels that way.
I’ve seen several users sugegst that USB input level is much higher on Windows 7 then previous Windows versions, though I suspect it could be somewhat machine dependent. Have you already tried turning the input down in “Sound” in the Windows Control Panel (Recording tab, then right-click over the USB Codec > Properties then click the Levels tab)? I don’t think there will be any other special controls there that affect volume but have a look at all the tabs especially “Advanced” or similar. There is little you can do about the USB input otherwise unless it is a faulty USB port (try another one to test that).
If the Windows controls don’t help then yes your first port of call is to look for a gain knob on the turntable - most likely under the chassis.
You can buy an RCA stereo to 1/8 inch stereo TRS adaptor to connect the RCA speaker cables to line-in of the computer.
