I just registered and I have not yet downloaded Audacity. I am asking for help about the eventual need to buy an USB audio capture device.
After a computer breakdown, I have just acquired a Windows 8.1 laptop with USB 2 & 3.
In my old Windows XP/USB 1 laptop, I had an ADS Technologies audio capture device connected to my amplifier and ADS software running on Windows XP. It worked fine for my limited needs of salvaging old LPs and audio tapes.
Now for the new computer, I tried to get information from ADS Technologies about upgrades for their software and if the old ADS audio capture box would still run on Windows 8.1. But I got nowhere because the firm does not exist anymore.
Do you think that it would work if I use the old ADS box with the new Audacity software? Or do I need to buy a new USB capture device? If I have to buy a new box, what are the alternatives (I am in Portugal/Europe and would have to order from abroad)? Would the Audio2USB Cable of ClearClick Software (England/Ireland) be all right?
Do you think that it would work if I use the old ADS box with the new Audacity software?
Does “The Old ADS Box” has a model number or any other information? Are you obsessive enough to have kept the instructions or receipt?
If it’s a plain USB stereo sound adapter, I don’t see any reason why not, but we’ll see when you give us more information. Windows has some provision now to tell you when USB audio equipment is working. It didn’t used to. This is where it gets messy because I’m not a Windows elf. They’ll be along.
I have made very good use of the Behringer UCA-202 as a plain stereo sound adapter.
Oh, if it’s a cassette player, you can do much better and probably cheaper with the Behringer — assuming you like your cassette player.
Stand-alone cassette players and turntables tend to be awful. You’re not going to leave it to your grandkids, right? When the last cassette gets transferred you’re going to put the whole thing in the bin. So they’re all throw-away devices.
You are right, this is just a provisional situation, until I finish transfering some LPs and cassette tapes. Afterwards,the equipemnt is destined to the bin, as you said. This is one of the reasons I am reluctant to buy new hardware or software.
You are right again, I did not keep information on the ADS box. I had a look at the device itself and it does not have any useful information, not even the model.
The Behringer box you suggest and use (U CA 202/222) is not what I need. It does not have an USB output line, just S/PDIF, and my new laptop does not have a S/PDIF input line. Furthermore, it converts to MP3 and I need wav files. My ADS box is more like the Behringer U-PHONO UFO 202.
I made the experiment of plugging the ADS box into my Windows 8.1 laptop and it installed 1 new loudspeaker and 1 new microphone, both called USB Audio Codec. They disappeared from the Device Manager after I unplugged the device.
Given this information, do you think that I should risk and install the new Audacity software to see if it works with my old ADS box?
Of course they have a USB cable to connect to the computer. If you need a phono input that provides RIAA equalisation for the LP’s then you want the UFO 202. Those and some others are mentioned here: Missing features - Audacity Support .
It does nothing of the sort. You send it an analogue input and it digitises the input and sends it over the USB cable to the computer.
Yes, try it. I expect your ADS device only users standard Windows USB Audio Class drivers. You may find the USB input will be too loud, because Windows USB inputs have tended to become “hotter” over time. And if you want to record in stereo you will have to set Windows to do that. Please see the green box here: Audacity Manual for how to do that. Those steps apply to Windows 8 and 8.1 also.
…and it installed 1 new loudspeaker and 1 new microphone, both called USB Audio Codec.
…Given this information, do you think that I should risk and install the new Audacity software to see if it works with my old ADS box?
There’s no “risk”.
It’s quite common for Windows to see a USB audio device as a USB microphone. You may have to configure Windows for stereo and you may have to turn-off “microphone boost”, and any other enhancements. But if Windows recognizes an audio device and you are getting a digital audio stream over the USB bus, you can record it!
In any case, you are going to need recording software. Your choice of software won’t affect recording quality. The recording software just has to capture the digital audio stream and send the data to you hard drive. If you are cleaning-up digitized LP transfers, removing clicks & pops, then some software is more effective than others.
Thanks a lot for your help. I am new in this field and did not understand part of your comments. I am sorry if I did not get the right information about you audio capture device: I had to make do with the specifications in the sites of the manufacturers or vendors.
What I understood from your replies is that I can try to download and run Audacity with my ADS capture device before any further speculation.
I’ll read the manuals and try learning by doing. I’ll get in touch if I face further difficulties.
Thank you very much all of you who came to my help.
It seems to work. I installed Audacity, connected my old ADS Technologies USB box to the front panel of my Nad amplifier and Audacity played the music coming from the devices connected to the amplifier (turntable, cassette recorder and CD player). I did not get to the stage of saving or exporting a file.
We can consider my question as solved. Now I am going to read the Manual and experiment. I got interested in these matters and I am going to do some studying.
Kozikowski, Gale Andrews and DVDdoug, thanks a lot for your help.
