Audacity Forum

I am running Audacity for MacOSX 10.5 Leopard with Intel processor. The left channel is not recording at all except a hum. This appears as a straight blue line, whereas the right channel is recording OK. The left channel sounds like an awful hum which I can only minimise by turning down the 'gain' switch on the bottom of my Ion iTTUSB turntable. Then I delete the left channel and just save the recording to iTunes using the right channel recording. Can anyone help?

Sounds to me like you have a bad connection somewhere in the Left channel audio chain.

I would check that the push connectors (all four of them) are snugly home on the cartridge in the headshell. Check that he headshell is properly screwed in. The USB connection may be suspect too, try wiggling it gently, try a different USB socket - the USB connections at the other end will be inside the ION. The cartridge itself may be faulty.

Also do you have access to another computer that you can try it out on - so that you can rule out your computer as the error source.

If you are confident and nimble with your fingers you may want to try swapping over the L&R channels on the cartridge to test - but be careful doing this the pins and the cartridge are fragile.

But basically it should not be doing this, you have paid good money for it to work properly - and if you can't cure it you need to send the device back to the shop/manufacturer (In the UK our contract is with the shop not the manufacturer - I don't know how this works in other parts of the world).

I would try also talking to the ION helpline - telephone no. is in the manual. I have always found them extremely helpful.

WC

And by deleting the left channel as a workaround - you are throwing away half the stereo signal and half the music.

Thanks for your prompt suggestion. Sorry to be dumb but where is the cartridge and the headshell located? What do they look like? Also, the number on Ion's website is unobtainable. What number do you ring for support? Thanks again.

Ok TT design 101: The TT deck has a platter the big round falt thing that goes round that re LP goes on. There is a pivoting arrm which moves across the record as it plays. At the end of the arm it broadens out into the headshell (on some TTs the headshell is not removable - but on most it is, IIRC your ION came delivered with the hedashell separate and not plugged into the arm).

In the headshell is the cartridge, usually a boxy plastic thing about the size of the end of your first finger or thumb (this is where the stereo electrical signal is generated). mounted in the headshell is a small, very delicate, tube (the cantilever) - this tube carries a stylus, usually a diamond - except on very cheap cartridges where it may be a saphire.

The stylus lies in the groove of the record as it plays and is moved around by the changes in the groove wall of the record (i.e. the recorded sound). These movements are transmitted up the cantilever into the cartridge where they are turned into little electrical signals by moving magnets or moving coils depending on the cartridge.

These signals are passed down two leads per channel out the back of the cartridge onto four contact posts two for the Lesft channel and two for the Right channel (it is these that I suggested that you might try swapping over - but DON'T try it unless you really know what you are doing).

These four posts normally have four wires with push connectors on them as part of the headshell - the headshell then delivers the pair of sigals to a set of wires that are carried in the tone-arm and thence out of the TT for a bare deck or on into additional circuitry for a deck that has an on-board pre-amp or a USB soundcard built-in.

It is designed this way for ease of maintenance and for (relatively) easy replacement of a cartridge or stylus.

Sorry I no longer have the ION helpline number - it was printed in the manual, but I have now sold my ION so no longer have it - your manual should have the number in there.

WC

Thanks a lot. I took the cartridge and headshell off the arm. fiddled around with the wires but wasn't sure how to swap the wires so I just put it back onto the arm again. A wire must have been loose because it now works perfectly. Thanks again.

Glad you got it working - yes either a loose wire or the headshell formerly not connecting in the arm properly - so off you go with tanscribing your vinyl collection, have fun.

WC