SBLive/ALSA /Line In recording issue

[rueben_sano]

Hi

I am using PCLinux2007 2gig AMD 2800+ nvideo5200 dual monitor. EIDE hard rives. SBLive card AlSA drivers.
Audacity 1.3.3 beta
Portaudio V19
I have an old Yamaha MT120S cassette deck that i wish to use to record some cassettes to a hard drive.
the cable from the Yamaha goes form the stereo out to the line in on the SBLive card
I have turned off the KDE system sounds

I am unable to to get a clean recording of these tapes. there is general distortion on all peaks, often but not always clicks appear. none of this on the original tapes.

cno matter what controls i 'fiddle' with the sound is distorted.

I have the record and playback device set to ALSA:SB Live (unknown):ADC Capture/Standard PCM Playback (hw:0/0)

I should say that last june using the same tapes and cassette deck and an 800mhz SUSE 10.2 system I was able to get very clean recordings with Audacity.But time marches on <grin> and I upgraded and now am unable to do so again.

I have a number o question the mixer panel does not allow me to select an input when i use the above device. I assume that there is none to select . but if i hange the device to ALSA:default i can select various input devices in the mixer panel including line input.

the input control does let me adjust the levels l . ie if i put it all the way down no recording takes place although i can still hear the playback
when the input level is all the way down.
(I am not using software playback so this must be a function of the hardware)

my focus is on the proper use of the mixer control and how to interpret the recording meter.
as i stated i can turn the input all the way down and no recording occurs
if i turn it up just a little i see the meter activate the bars are red and redder there is a red line which a generally to the right of the the end of the bars there is a blue line which remains at about 3/4 of the way across the recording indicator. it never moves
the recording level will go tot he blue bar and stop.

my first question is how do i properly adjust the recording level?
as i stated no matter how i manipulate the recording input level the recording is distorted.
turning down the master on the cassette deck does not change this behavior.

If you need more information i would be happy to provide it.

Thank you

[rueben_sano]

Once again Hi

I should also mention the i changed the sampling rate to 48k per something i read on the forum. Apparently that causes Audacity to do the sampling instead of ALSA.
At anyrate it didn't change the distortion..

[terryxela]

Rueben,

Since I installed the Qamix it has been a major improvement to control the sblive. It may not correct the type of distortion you have however it will allow you to turn off other sound inputs that may interfere with your recorder.

http://alsamodular.sourceforge.net/

-=terry(Denver)=-

[steve]

As terryxela has said, QAmix is a great tool for the SBlive and makes controlling the SBLive very much easier although I have heard of one user of PCLinuxOS who had problems with it.

I should also mention the i changed the sampling rate to 48k per something i read on the forum

Yes. The SBLive runs internally at 48 KHz and is much "happier" at this sample rate. (With ASIO drivers, that is the ONLY rate it can be used at)

There is a quirk with the SBLive in that on many set-ups it will run out of headroom a couple of dB below 0. Effectively 0dB will register as around -2 dB. In such cases it is necessary to allow a little more head room and keep the peaks below about -3 dB. This is slightly inconvenient, but once you get used to it it's not much of a problem. Other than that the SBLive can give very good results.