Audacity Forum

Hi, I am attempting to copy my vinyl to PC for burning to disc using Audacity. I have checked through the forum and read the tutorials but cannot find anyone experiencing a similar problem/solution.

The equipment/program in use is:
Audacity 1.3.12 - Beta (ANSI)
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
Awai record deck Model No. AP-D35H.E
Pre-amp Premier Farnell Ltd i/p and o/p impedance 50kohm, Gain 34db, Max i/p 1.8v RMS, S to N ratio 50db
Twin audio Phono lead
Twin Phono to 3.5mm adapter.
The set up is:
Awai deck male phono audio o/p leads of red and white phono plugs, connected to i/p of pre amp female's of red and black.
Pre amp o/p females of red and black connected to phono audio leads with male plugs of the same colour, to line in of the PC - blue socket using a twin phono to 3.5mm adapter plug. Leads and adapter came supplied with pre amp. The record deck although very little used dates back to the early 80's. Only needed a new belt.

Symptoms:
Before opening Audacity with deck connected as above, the record can be heard playing through the Logitec speakers. Volume adjusted to suit ears! Upon opening Audacity and selecting record the wave is clipped. (Under menu option 'View' I have the show clipping turned on showing the clipping in red). However the i/p slider is already at zero so I can't reduce the i/p further. If I increase the i/p with the level slider control by a nats then the wave becomes completely block red. The master alongside does not do anything except drop down to show the word master. I have checked the recording devices by right clicking on the speaker icon in the task bar. The device selected is line in Sound Max Integrated digital HD Audio and it is set as the default device. For the moment I have selected all other recording devices (mic) not to be used. The level tab for Sound Max is at zero and will change with level slider. I have tried same format but without pre amp and wave barely registers..

I have just ordered an inline 12db attenuator to place in the o/p of the pre amp before the line in socket but would be grateful to know if anyone has any other ideas? Is 34db gain from pre amp too much?

My first post ...so hope I have posted correctly, although I fear I might have posted in the general windows section..
Thanks!

This article from the Wiki should help you: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Mixer ... es#vistacp

This may help too: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Windows_7_OS

I'm an XP user on both my PCs so have no direcct experience of W7.

WC

I have just ordered an inline 12db attenuator to place in the o/p of the pre amp

Does the pre-amp not have a volume control? That's where you need to turn down the level.

POL

Hi Waxcylinder and Irish,
Thanks for your posts which are appreciated.

Waxcylinder:
Thanks for the links. The Wiki link shows Win 7 users how to access the mixer and other audio devices. To take the article a little further if you select your audio device from the list shown and click it then a new window opens with a number of tabs, one of which is called levels. Here you can adjust the o/p for the selected device or adjust it via the Audacity slider control. They are linked. In the level tab my level is also shown as zero which can be adjusted via the audacity level slider. Although I am only able to increase it!

Irish:
Unfortunately the pre amp has a fixed o/p and cannot be reduced. See this eBay link if its still live.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/RIAA-Phono-Preamp ... 4cf3dd7941

More Info:
Since I last posted I downloaded a trial version of another program similar to Audacity (pardon me!) with the same overload results. So I guess that rules the program out leaving the sound card or pre amp. Still waiting for the attenuator to arrive and will post results when known. Is there a reason why the 'Master' control does not work?
Thanks again.

It's unusual for an analog Line-In (blue) not to have volume controls somewhere. Are you sure you're in the Record side of the Windows Control Panels? There are (or were) two different Windows panels and they looked very similar. Each input "device" should have its own little volume slider and balance (left-right) slider.

Audacity doesn't have any way of creating damage that didn't come from Windows or the Sound Card. You can create damage later in post production if you want, but probably not on recording.

If you set Audacity Preferences to the same input as Windows, does the Audacity input volume control on the front panel do anything at all? You can click once in the red Audacity recording meters and they will wake up and meter the incoming sound without you going into record. This is handy for troubleshooting. You can leave that running without worrying about filling up your hard drive.

Koz

This is ringing bells. You can get uncontrollable overloading if you're plugged into the wrong computer input. We know of computers that switch one input between Mic-In (very easily overloaded) and Line-In (proper).

It's also possible to buy sound cards where Line-In isn't blue. Go ahead. Ask me how I know that.

Koz

are you sure you actually need a pre-amp? some TT's don't. try connecting the TT w/o the pre-amp and then turning up the input slider in audacity.

Hi Kozikowski and MonkE60,

Kozikowski:
Yep - I am reasonably sure that I am in the right place ...but I have some screen shots which may be more explanatory. I believe that the line in (blue) you refer to is controlled by the level slider I will show in one of my four pics. Certainly this control will increase or decrease in sympathy with the Audacity volume i/p slider and vice versa. It has been set at zero to prevent overload and clipping. I can also access the line in balance slider from this window. The balance sliders move in sympathy with the line in level control, so when the line in level is at zero so are both balance controls. Move line in up and balance controls mirror the setting. You can see from screen shots that I have disabled sound devices other than speakers in use and Sound Max HD on the record side. So if I were in the mic socket instead of the line in by my thinking there should be nil heard at speakers? I also checked the mother board manual and symbols pressed into the metal fof the pc case ...although this might not be conclusive! It did cross my mind that there might be a reversal of mic and line in colours, but the instructions that came with the pre amp warned of the consequences of connecting in error to the mic socket, so I hesitated (and still do) to try with the pre amp plugged into the 'wrong' socket. So instead I worked from the oppostie direction and plugged a separate mic from my bits collection into what porports to be the mic socket - pink. I can record my voice without clipping and can move slider level up from zero. (Of course I had the mic level enabled in sounds window for this test.) I have a USB webcam with its own internal mic, so the pink mic socket is free. (I have this USB mic disabled or it picks up sounds whilst trying to record from the record deck - two input devices functioning simultaneoulsy). I take your point about the program not being able to create damage which is another piece of the jigsaw to rule out. In audacity I have under View > Tool bars selected the devices so they appear permanently. I have the same devices selected here as for windows. The audacity i/p volume control with record playing when woken up moves instantly to far right i.e. almost max. This is with the level slider at zero. Even with no record playing and presumably just some hum present the i/p vol reaches half way point of -24. Think that covers your questions.

MonkE60:
Well I have consulted the original record deck manual and no mention of any amplification. But being belt and braces I decided to try the deck without the pre amp. The result was that reverse situation - hardly any i/p.
Once again all help appreciated.

Sorry the 4th screen shot did not post so here it is ....

I can't find much information about the Aiwa AP-D35H.E
Does the turntable work? Have you played records on it? If so, how/what did you connect it to to hear the record playing?