Overwhelming BUzz while recording tapes to mp3

[vsorensen]

Howdy! I have the newest beta version installed on my Asus, Windows 7 laptop. Up until a few minutes ago, I have been successfully changing over my cassette tapes to mp3's thanks so much to Audacity. I have been using a portable "Ion tape express" which plugs in through USB. Now, when I play the tapes there is a HUGE buzzing sound with the content I am trying to record very faint in the background. When I play the tapes on another tape player, it sounds fine. But with both the portable Ion tape express and the TapeLink USB (I tried it on the latter after the former ceased to perform correctly) now it makes this disturbing sound like the input is too high. At first I thought it was recorded too high until I heard it on the regular tape player. I've tried cleaning the C: drive, restarting computer, rewinding and fastforwarding tape, searching on this forum for "buzz tape recording" and Windows 7 support...Help!

[kozikowski]

You can get buzzing like that if you have a loose connection. Unplug everything, power, USB, audio cables once or twice and plug them back in. Try recording again.

The USB connection is suspect because although it doesn't directly carry audio (it's all ones and zeros digital bits) it does carry the computer battery power and ground that runs all the electronics inside. That's still analog and subject to dirt.

Try changing the USB port if you have more than one.

Koz

[steve]

Are you describing a "buzz" like it is picking up an extra "buzz" sound from somewhere, or are you describing "massive overload distortion"?

[vsorensen]

Thanks Koz! I tried unplugging everything overnight and left laptop off. Tried every USB port. It is an overwhelming distortion. I actually can't even hear what's being recorded unless I have the other software on (EZ recorder - which came with the Ion tape express USB deal I use to play the tapes). Tried many different USB cords also. The visual on Audacity when this is happening is a very fat/wide center light blue line with very little of the dark blue on the edges. Also, the speed is VERY slow on the content (voices sound really slow and low as in low in pitch).

[steve]

I actually can't even hear what's being recorded unless I have the other software on (EZ recorder - which came with the Ion tape express USB deal I use to play the tapes).

What happens with EZ-Recorder?

[vsorensen]

EZ recorder allows me to hear the tape player. It is the software that came with the little player to convert tapes to mp3. However, I don't like using it because there's no options like pause, stop, creating tracks, exporting as mp3, etc. I always have it open with audacity so I can hear what's playing from the tape player when I push record on audacity. Anyway, that has nothing to do with my problem. It has been working fine for 6 weeks up until yesterday. I even restored my computer to an earlier time when everything was fine.

Just discovered it must be something with my USB plug ins. Tape players sound fine hooked up USB to my friend's older Dell laptop with Windows XP. How do I check USB? And any other advice for correcting this problem? USB drives are working fine for connecting my phone and wireless mouse...

[steve]

Try checking these settings and say which items you need to change or anything that is not as described.

Disconnect all USB devices except for your mouse and reboot the computer.
Connect ONE of the USB tape players and WAIT for Windows to recognise and connect to it.

Right-click over the speaker icon in the System Tray and select "Recording Devices".
Right-click on the USB icon in the Recording Tab and select "Properties".
Select the Advanced tab and set the default quality to "44100 Hz 16-bit CD Quality stereo"
Apply and OK to everything to close.

Open Audacity and go to:
Edit menu > Preferences > Devices.
Select the USB option as the recording device and your normal sound card as the playback device.
Go to: Edit menu > Preferences > Quality
Set the default sample rate to 44100 Hz and the default sample format to 32-bit.
Click OK to close the Preferences window.

Restart Audacity to ensure that the settings are saved.
Try recording.

[vsorensen]

Steve! Thanks so much for the specific answer! That solved the problem for the Alesis tape deck player (USB tape to computer archiver), but the little "tape express" by ion audio is still having the major distortion and slow playback. I'm working on getting a tape player de-magnetizer (hard to find these days) and will report back to you if it works! Thanks again for this!!!