i am recording old cassette tapes to my desk top with the line in jack.
i have been reading, asking questions and watching tutorials so i have a basic understanding.
what are the most basic/fundamental things i should be focusing on in order to get the most reasonable quality.
most of my recordings are “voice audio” from movies/tv shows and not necessarily music.
also, when i use/select the “line in port” on the rear of my desktop i hear a subtle “hissing” from the speakers which i do not
hear when i use the windows “stereo mix” selection.
is this likely to effect the recording or is it only something speaker specific?
The sound card itself has some basic noise that will always appear in your line-in through recordings.
To increase the signal to noice ratio you need to amplify the value of the input signal.
Without any special electronic device (but with some adapter cables) it is possible to amplify the signal through a home sound system:
I did it a few times to record from old videogame consoles.
currently using an old stand alone cassette deck
rca out to 3.5mm in/line in on desktop
adjusting record levels with the slider in audacity, rec level knob on deck has no effect.
also, when i use/select the “line in port” on the rear of my desktop i hear a subtle “hissing” from the speakers which i do not
hear when i use the windows “stereo mix” selection.
Are you using stereo mix to record from the cassette? I’d be surprised if that gives you better sound quality but of course, use whatever sounds better!
If you are going to compare, make a sample recording both ways. Then Normalize or Amplify them both so they are volume-matched before comparing the results.
what are the most basic/fundamental things i should be focusing on in order to get the most reasonable quality.
The main thing is, leave yourself some headroom - Shoot for peaks around -3 to -6dB and then you can Amplify after recording. Nothing bad happens if you get “close” to 0dB, so this is just safety margin, but nothing bad happens with low digital levels either until you get very low.
With analog tape you wanted a “hot” signal to overcome the tape noise and it was common to go occasionally “into the red”. But with digital… No tape noise!* And, tape is more forgiving on the loud-side. Your analog-to-digital converter hard-clips at exactly 0dB and it cannot go over.
You can try some [u]Noise Reduction[/u] (for the tape hiss) but listen carefully to the results (maybe with headphones) because you can sometimes artifacts (side effects), especially if then noise is bad, and “the cure can be worse than the disease”.
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Some sound cards are noisy (on the analog-side) but usually the existing tape-noise will dominate.
currently on windows 7 my record selection is set to “line in”
when i record audio direct from the computer (you tube lectures for example) i use sound recorder with “stereo mix”
works no problem, however i did not know stereo mix would be an option being that i am using “line in” with the tape deck?
most all my recordings are voice audio, i try to set the levels proper but certain sounds brush the “red”
