Several Recording Problems

[tomroemmele]

Hi folks! I'm trying to transfer a recording made on a Roland VS880 digital studio to my Gateway laptop. I'm running through the Master Out on the Roland (RCA jacks) to the Mic/ Line In on the computer (Sigma Tel standard headphone 3.5mm jack).

The first problem is the unbelievable amount of static. The music isn't all that involved, so the static can be heard throughout the recording. The cord is brand new, so I'm not sure exactly what's causing that problem.

I went ahead and made a rough copy of the first song just to get a feel for how Audacity worked. Except for the static, the final sound on cd was pretty good.

But now when I try and record, no matter how low I set the audacity mic input slider, the recording is incredibly clipped. It also doesn't matter how low I set the output volume on the Roland. The resulting graph is just a solid blue line.

Originally when I would plug the cable into the computer, a window would pop up asking if it was a mic, or line in, or something else. That window doesn't come up anymore.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks so much in advance!

Tom

[steve]

My first guess is that you are massively overloading the audio input on your laptop,

I guess there's no way to digitally export from the Roland to your computer?

Originally when I would plug the cable into the computer, a window would pop up asking if it was a mic, or line in, or something else. That window doesn't come up anymore.

There will be an option in the sound cards control panel to enable/disable this. You will probably have a lot of trouble finding it (most people do, and the settings are in different places on different machines, so other than looking in the sound card interface I can't tell you exactly where to look - it is sometimes hidden behind a spanner icon).

On-board sound cards rarely give very good quality - it would be well worth getting a USB line level interface. I use a Behringer UCA 202 and am very happy with it. Another of the regular forum people uses an Edirol UA-1EX, which is possibly a bit better, but costs a bit more.

[tomroemmele]

There is an RCA digital out, as well as a SCSI connection to connect to a zip drive or burner. I was hoping to do it the quick way rather than trying to find a SCSI zip. Do you know if using an RCA to line in jack cable will transmit a digital signal? Is there an RCA to USB cable out there?

[steve]

I was hoping to do it the quick way rather than trying to find a SCSI zip

I don't blame you - SCSI Zip drives that work are going to be quite hard to find these days and probably not worth the expense.

Do you know if using an RCA to line in jack cable will transmit a digital signal? Is there an RCA to USB cable out there?

The RCA digital connector probably sends SPDIF data. Many of the more expensive sound cards available have SPDIF interfaces, but there are two types: "Coax" and "optical".

The RCA connector is the "Coax" type. Some sound cards are available with coax connectors, some with optical, some with both and some with neither.
It is unusual for any of the cheaper sound cards to have digital connectors.

As far as I know SPDIF to USB cables are not available.

Also, I'm not sure how well or badly Audacity supports SPDIF digital.

I presume that the Roland VS880 digital studio sounds pretty good. In which case I think that a Line level USB sound card would be the way to go. They can be pretty inexpensive.