Poor audio quality after transfer

[Bleb]

I'm brand new to this forum and to Audacity, and something of an audio newbie as well. I just succeeded in dubbing a music cassette, saving the file, and exporting it as an MP3. (I'm running Windows XP on a Dell desktop.) Three questions, if I may:

1. Both channels work, but do I get true stereo sound through the (blue) line-in jack on my computer? I am using a stereo Y-cable, and I did select 2 channels (stereo) in Audacity preferences.

2. That same preference menu gives me a choice of two recording devices: Microsoft Sound Mapper input or Realtek HD Audio input. I think both work. Does it matter which I use?

3. And my big question: Why is the sound quality so poor? It's not the cassette or the deck or my computer speakers or the connection, because the music sounds fine when fed straight into my computer. But when I play back the recording on Audacity, it's slightly distorted; there's a tinny, metallic quality to the music, a little like a cell phone call from another country. I don't think the levels were too high during recording. What else might be responsible?

Many thanks for any help.

[kozikowski]

You can answer #1 yourself with a simple Touch Test. Unplug the RCA cables from your cassette machine and, while recording, touch one and then the other like this...

http://www.kozco.com/tech/audacity/pix/touch.jpg

You are intentionally creating noise for the purpose of testing. In the above illustration (soon to get its own web site), you should hear buzzing on one channel only -- the right.

Since you're in Windows and I'm not, I'm going to sidestep and tell you that recording from the internet takes very different settings than recording from Line-In. You should not be recording from Mix-Out, Stereo-Mix or What-U-Hear. That will give you all sorts of oddball problems like echoes or talking-in-a-barrel when you do simple sound recording.

Windows Control Panel
http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php? ... trol_Panel

Koz

[Bleb]

Kozikowski: Thanks for the reply. On question #1: does this touch test tell me whether I've got stereo sound or just that both channels are working? On question #2: the input sources you mention don't apply in my case, and the page you linked to (about mixer toolbar issues) also doesn't seem to speak to my particular situation.

Would appreciate hearing from anyone about these issues, and particularly about sound quality.

[Bleb]

Have spent more time reading the Wiki and the help file, and still can't figure out why the sound quality is as poor as it is. Help!

[whomper]

go into realtek and ensure all the crapola is turned off
it often defaults to some terrible sound fx

are you sure the recording is not clipping when you make it ?

mp3s can sound like crap how does a wav file sound ?

if you sent stereo in with a stereo connector to the blue plug
then you should get stereo recorded
unless the sound card (realtek hardware) is bad
which happens all too often

not sure why you have a y cable
for stereo recording from cassette
i go from my cassette to the blue input using a 3.5mm-3.5mm cable
with the stereo trs style connectors on each en d

you should see mme and realtek in the options panel
but
also go into realtek itself and fix the options there so it doesnt mess up the recording - click on the speaker icon in the tray

[steve]

does this touch test tell me whether I've got stereo sound or just that both channels are working?

The touch test establishes that you are in fact recording through the cable and not via some other route such as a microphone built into the computer.
It also establishes that both channels are working correctly and that your Y-cable is not faulty.

Establishing that your recording is actually coming through the cable is the first step. Once that is established I'm sure we can help you get through the rest of the jungle (it's not really a jungle, but I know it can seem that way when things aren't working )

A small addition to the touch test that would help to diagnose the problem - if you start recording something, then unplug one of the plugs from the cassette player, then unplug the other (while Audacity is recording), you should see one channel of the Audacity recording meter go completely dead, then the other. Does that happen?

[Bleb]

Whomper: Thanks so much for your reply.

>>go into realtek and ensure all the crapola is turned off
Do you mean muting everything except the line input? If so, then, yes, I did that.

>>are you sure the recording is not clipping when you make it ?
Not sure what "clipping" is (distortion from excessive volume?) but I used a commercially released music cassette for my first try. It sounds fine when I play it -- and even, as I mentioned, when I feed it into my computer's speakers.

>>mp3s can sound like crap how does a wav file sound ?
The tinny sound showed up when I first made the recording from the cassette, before I chose mp3 vs. wav to export it.

>>not sure why you have a y cable for stereo recording from cassette. i go from my cassette to the blue input using a 3.5mm-3.5mm cable
>>with the stereo trs style connectors on each end
Well, I'm playing the cassette on a deck that has L and R line-out jacks with red & white RCA plugs.

>>you should see mme and realtek in the options panel
Not sure what "mme" is, but all I saw were the two options I mentioned: Microsoft Sound Mapper or Realtek

[whomper]

check all the tabs under realtek
there are more things that it can default to
like sewerpipe echo effect or
the eq can be way off by default

[Bleb]

Maybe it's the version of Realtek I have, but most of these options are missing from my control. I certainly have nothing eq-related. I'm still stumped, then, about why the file Audacity created from a commercial music cassette sounds so bad.

[whomper]

not all realteks are the same
realtek is just software on top of a hardware chip
pc makers may buy different versions at different prices

or you may need a newer driver
that has solved some folks problems

now on my dell one channel was all but dead and the otehr was noisy
the hardware was at fault
audacity and realtek sofware were fine

under edit preferences in audacity
host - i have options of mme and direct sound
pick mme under edit preferences host
for in/out choose realtek

but on the main screen i see 5 options including modem and sound mapper and realtek and direct sound
choose realtek for in and out

BUG also noted - when i minimise to partial screen the in/out boxes stay at the top of the screen and the rest of audacity minimises into the frame


does teh wav sound bad or just the mp3?

are you positive the levels were not too high when you recorded?

are you running any other software like skype or teleconferencing ?

look at realtek again
there is stuff hidden in there that you have to tell it to show.
then be sure you turned it all off.
look for "easter eggs" not everything is obviously clickable in realtek.