Trouble with Audacity and my USB turntable on Vista.

[johnski]

I have recently got a USB turntable to digitalise my record collection but I have been having problems with the set-up.
The specific problem is that the music comes through onto audacity but the volume is very low, the wave is almost impossible to see.
I have been through every troubleshoot and walkthrough but I still can't seem to get the volume up. I have tried the turntable on a PC running XP and have had no problems so I assume it's a problem with Vista. This is the last of a series which have all been incredibly irritating.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[waxcylinder]

This page on Vista/Audacity from the Wiki may help you: http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php? ... s_Vista_OS

Sorry I can't help you directly, but I'm sticking resolutely with XP and avoiding Vista like the plague ...

WC

[johnski]

Thanks WC, but I've already tried that wiki with no success.

Does anyone have any other ideas?

[brumar1109]

Try going into the control panel/sound section of Vista. Change to classic view to help you find the right area. Then in that column find the section that is listing your turntable. click on that and check the properties. You will probably find that the volume or gain on your input from the turntable is turned down low. Just raize the volume up and try again. Your answer is in this section. Check in control panel also and see if your turntable is being identified by Vista. There are many different sound settings in Vista but once you figure them out Vista is really quite a step ahead. Remember to check the playback tab and the recording tab in the sound section.

[waxcylinder]

... Vista is really quite a step ahead. ....

brumar, except that Microsoft have downgraded the sound handling in Vista cf. XP - see this article from The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/20 ... technology

That and the fact that may device drivers don't work on Vista...

So in spite of the glitzy new Vista "features", I think I'll stick with XP for a while yet

WC

[steve]

Does your turntable have analogue outputs as well as the USB?
What is the signal from the analogue outputs like? Stereo?

[johnski]

The analogue output is stereo, on audacity it is also stereo just one half of it is recording at a very low volume, I have tried turning it up with the toolbar but it is really distorted.

[steve]

The analogue output is stereo,

And I presume that you mean that both channels are coming out at reasonably matched volume levels?

Assuming the above is true, then the cartridge etc. are ok, so we are looking at the USB interface and the Vista sound system.

BTW, are you using a Laptop or a full size PC? With a full size PC there is always the option of using the analogue output, through a phono pre-amp into the "Line In" of the computer. Although this "solution" is probably less convenient, excellent results can be achieved.

I don't use Vista myself, but I notice that your query has been hanging around for a while, so I thought I'd try a few suggestions in the hope that we can get this thing up and running.

The two main documents to look at are:
http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php? ... s_Vista_OS
and
http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php? ... bar_Issues

I understand that you have looked at the first one already, but it may be worth another look in case you missed something.

In Windows XP, the record channels have a balance control (as you can see on the second of those pages). I don't know if that will apply to you with using Vista and USB, but a balance control pushed right over to one side would cause exactly the symptoms that you are getting, so it's worth checking.

It would be nice if we could rule out Audacity as the cause of the problem - have you tried recording with any other program (such as Windows Sound Recorder)? If you get the same problem with other applications, which I would bet is the case, then the problem is not with Audacity, is not with the cartridge or tone arm, but somewhere between the two.

Have you tried completely uninstalling the USB drivers and re-installing them? (sorry, don't know how easy/difficult that is with Vista).

If possible, could you try out the turntable on a different computer?