No Control Over Input Volume?

[Atomic]

First time user, so apologies for the possibly dumb questions, but I appear to be locked out of adjusting
the input volume and as you can see the level needs to be lowered.

I have purchased a TAPE2PC cassette deck that came with version 1.2.6

My Preferences are set as shown on Windows XP.

Can anyone tell me how I can access:

a) The input source drop down menu which is currently locked

b) How I can get the input level to work?

Thank you in advance

[kozikowski]

An ION USB Cassette machine. They weren't doing enough damage with the turntables.

If you search the forum for ION Turntables, you will find billions of postings from people having troubles with them. Is there an analog Line-Out connection on the tape machine? If you have a deskside PC, you can go directly into the Line-In of your computer sound card and make this problem go away.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index ... age=search

Koz

[waxcylinder]

The ION USB turntables have a gain control to manage the output level of the signal. I would guess that ION are using very similar electronics and thet therefore you could possibly have a gain control on the tape deck. On the TT it is "hidden" in an awkward place - have a good look at your deck and read the manual. (Update: I just had a look on ION's t'interweb site - and looks like you have a big control on the front labelled "Record Level" - looks like the gain control to me.)

Koz somewhat overstates the case against the ION TT - many people run them ok - we only see the problem ones on the forum. I myself ran one for a while - the electronics were fine - and it interfaced ok with Audacity - but the quality of the tuntable was average/poor and gave too much wow&flutter.

WC

[Atomic]

Thanks guys, found a small Gain control on the back which has sorted the volume issue.

Any ideas on why I have lost the input options menu?

As for the deck, it seemed to have got good reviews which is why I went for it.

[waxcylinder]

You've lost the input options menu because you have plugged in a USB device - and Audacity knows that this single path from the soundcard in the tapedeck is the one that is needed. If you unplug the USB you should get your input options back again. Sorry I overlooked this point of yours in your first posting.

Question: if the gain control is on the back, what is the big control knob on the front for (as shown on ION's website photos of the device)? Just curious ......

But glad you got your recording levels sorted - and don't be red-faced/embarrassed about your choice of tape-deck - if it works for you and does what you need, then that's fine.

A tip for you: be aware that you can resize the meters by dragging them around. Bigger meters = better control over your recordings.

WC

[Atomic]

Thanks WC, that makes total sense over the input options drop down.

The rec level control on the front is for input levels to deck B and sadly does not operate output as it would be much easier
than having to mess around with the small back control.

Your tip about the Meters is great and I want to do this, although I can't get them to move? I can see an option to float them,
but while other float options work (tool bar etc) the meter one does not seem to play ball?

Here is a new question, the first recording I am trying to work with, seems to have different master recording levels.
By using the gain control, I can even them up, but where can I see an accurate read out of the db levels to ensure they are
matched? I can see a post record option to Normalise?

I'll have more questions if you can bear with me!

Cheers.

[waxcylinder]

Yes that does seem to be a dumb user-interface design from ION - it's worse on the turntable, where the little knurled knob is underneath the deck at the back- almost impossible to adjust safely while a record is playing on the deck (which, of course, is exactly when you need to adjust it!).

To move the meters about in 1.2 you can grab the little vertical bar on the left of the meter box and drag it around to a new position effectively "floating" it. You can do this with the other tool boxes too if you want/need. You certainly should be able to View/Float Meter Toolbar and expect it to work ok. I've just tested on 1.2 and it floats ok and I can switch between vertical/horizontal display mode (use the little black triangle to access the dropdown) and i can stretch the floated meter window vertically and horizontally. Don't be tempted to switch the meters to linear mode - you really need them in dB mode to monitor recordings properly. In 1.3 the Beta version you get much better control over the toolbars including the meters , as you can reposition them permanently rather than just floating them - so the next time you open Audacity they are still enlarged.

BTW: in order to monitor the level of your recordings better, you may want to switch the track dislay mode to dB (it defaults to linear) - and expand the track downwards by clicking and dragging downwards on the bottom of the track. You can toggle between modes while recording if you wish.

Enlarging the meters and switching the track display mode to dB - this should really answer your "new question".

Another useful trick: you can reset the maximum achieved level while recording by clicking in the record meter. You activate monitoring of the meters, prior to recording, by clicking once in the record meter - clicking again while monitoring will turn off the metering.

WC

PS - happy to answer more questions - but after tomorrow I shall be "off-air" for a couple of weeks, as I am off skiing.

[Atomic]

Thanks again WC, moving the meters worked perfectly and is a real help.

I'm not with you though on the setting the 'maximum achieved level', although I did follow the monitoring.

Thanks once again and enjoy your skiing!

Atomic