I have an (old) ION record deck which I have not used for quite a while. I have now moved it to a Win 7 PC (fairly basic one).
I have downloaded and installed the latest Audacity file, 2.1.3, from the .exe, and have got it up and running.
It is recording from a vinyl (my husband’s treasured 1960’s LPs) and I can playback the recording OK.
But it does the recording in silence (some might say a good thing! ) - is this right? Or is there a way I can set it to hear the input to Audacity as I record?
Settings are : MME, Microphone USB - the ION, speakers - windows default.
Well, that was easy - can now hear as I record. However the quality is bad, and I don’t think that is the speakers. I attach a screenshot of the recording phase - should it look like this? I also attach a small cut of the recorded sound.
Magic!! First I adjusted the input level for the input channel in Control Panel, from nearly full to about 5%. Much improvement. Then I did as you said and looked for a gain knob under the turntable, found it and turned that down and the sound is lovely now.
A final question (hopefully) - how do I know when the adjustment is right? Do I use the Monitoring (top right) or do I balance it on the recording screen, presumably making sure the tracks down hit the top/bottom? This is what I now have…
That waveform looks pretty good, just a little high. As it says in the Tutorial Recording with USB turntables or USB cassette decks - Audacity Manual, play a loud part of the record and aim for about -6 dB on the meter. It is easier to check there because the meter band changes to yellow shade when you approach -6 dB. and there is a vertical bar in the meter that shows the highest level reached so far.
The -6 dB is the same as +/- 0.5 dB in the blue waves.
) - is this right? Or is there a way I can set it to hear the input to Audacity as I record?
