Audacity Forum

Tutorial advises connecting tape deck to line in - but - my laptop only has mic in. What can I do?

I don't know how safe it is, though I suspect it should be no problem, nor whether it would work, but you might try it anyway and use the microphone option in the drop down menu in the upper right corner (see attached screenshot). Of course, you might want to wait for a reply someone who knows for sure, or a preferred way to do it.

Good luck.

JeffB wrote:I don't know how safe it is, though I suspect it should be no problem, nor whether it would work, but you might try it anyway and use the microphone option in the drop down menu in the upper right corner (see attached screenshot). Of course, you might want to wait for a reply someone who knows for sure, or a preferred way to do it.

Good luck.

Thanks for the feedback. I will try but I recall hearing somewhere mic in is not good for "quality" recording. Maybe someone else has a comment too.

Try it - and if its's good enough for you then it's good enough.

Better would be to use an external soundcard - Behringer UCA202 and Edirol UA-1EX get mentioned favourably on the forum a lot. The Behringer is cheaper - the Edirol has more functionality - personally, I use the Edirol with very good results.

WC

Waxcylinder's advice about other sound cards is solid.

You can use the Mic In, it's not going to hurt anything. But it also won't sound good and the recording will probably be mono instead of stereo. That Mic In port was designed to have a crappy little computer mic plugged in, it wasn't designed for high quality.

A few years ago, the Line Ins started to disappear from laptops (since very few people use them). All you can use with a stock laptop is a crappy computer mic. Anyone who wants to use a Line In has to buy an outboard USB/FireWire interface now.

Sooner or later those Mic In ports will also disappear and 95% of computer users (who don't need/want high quality recordings) will migrate to cheap USB mics (I'm not saying all USB mics are cheap).

Once that happens, it's a toss up as to whether or not laptops makers will bring the Line In port back, or if they'll just take any audio inputs out completely and run everything through USB/FireWire.

Sure it's not a case of just one jack input which acts as both mic in and line in (my SB Audigy SE card has this and it took me absolutely ages to figure it out).
Obviously you can only use one or the other, but by muting say the mic in on the vol. control panel you allow for a line in connection and vice versa.

mglinert wrote:Sure it's not a case of just one jack input which acts as both mic in and line in (my SB Audigy SE card has this and it took me absolutely ages to figure it out).
Obviously you can only use one or the other, but by muting say the mic in on the vol. control panel you allow for a line in connection and vice versa.

Really!? How can I "test" that on my laptop?

If that is the case, you'll have to go through the sound card driver software, but I would venture to say it's not likely. Your laptop manufacturer would be able to tell you for sure.

Quite.
In fact, you're very likely to find that info. in the literature provided with the machine when you bought it.

waxcylinder wrote:Try it - and if its's good enough for you then it's good enough.

Better would be to use an external soundcard - Behringer UCA202 and Edirol UA-1EX get mentioned favourably on the forum a lot. The Behringer is cheaper - the Edirol has more functionality - personally, I use the Edirol with very good results.

WC

I ordered the Behringer. As I was ordering I noticed a turntable pre-amp listed. At some point in time I want to convert some of my vinyl to MP3 also (besides cassette tapes). But I'm thinking I can just use my old turntable thru my A/V Rcvr to the Behringer in on laptop. Agree?

If that will work - would I just use the headphone output from front of A/V Rcvr to input for Behringer for both tapes and LPs?