Noise when recording vinyl

[ljbates]

Well, I was a little inebriated when I posted the other night, and the blessed silence I heard then was actually due to me forgetting to plug the sound card output back into the amp when playing the recording back, coupled some rather stern advice from my girlfriend to get to bed and to stop playing with t'hat bloody record player'.

After many more hours of playing with 'that bloody record player' and 'that sodding computer' including fiddling with the suspension springs, trying various weird cures from the internet to dampen platter ring, lots of swearing, and for a while losing all sound on my computer, I think I've stumbled on the answer.

If I change the sample rate to 96000kb to record and then back to 44100 to export, I get this:
http://dl.toofiles.com/vaaoje/audios/noise2.wav

It still has noise, now a deep heartbeat though and it has to be turned up way louder than I would listen to music for it to be any problem. It also sounds like it is exactly what I am getting out of the amp when I play a record. It, or something similar, appears on every record I have tested so clearly there is something wrong with my turntable somewhere, although I think I can put up with it I finally have enough money to upgrade (in my dreams to a TD160). The recording of the record converted to FLAC and played back on my mp3 player sounds wonderful to me anyway.

No idea why it works and the technicalities will probably go way over my head, but would be interested if someone can try and explain.

[steve]

If I change the sample rate to 96000kb to record
....
but would be interested if someone can try and explain.

I have an idea of why it may be.
Did you say what your operating system is?
What sample rate did you originally have Audacity set at?

[ljbates]

Using Windows vista. Can't remember what the sample rate was set at but don;t think I ever changed it, so whatever the default is, 48,000?

[steve]

The default sample rate in Audacity is 44100.

In Windows 7 and Vista the sample rate for the recording device can be set in the Windows Control Panel.
Audio hardware will have one or more "native" sample rates that they use internally.
It is not uncommon to for there to be some sort of problems if the native sample rate, the Windows Control Panel sample rate and the Audacity sample rate do not match (this should not be a problem, but it often is).

I'd like to suggest that you try setting the Audacity sample rate to 48000 and see if that works.

[ljbates]

Yep, turned everything to 48000 in the control panel and set the same in audacity and it's all working fine now.

Thanks .

[steve]

If you fancy trying another test, try changing everything to 44100 and see if that works.
This would be preferable if you are making CDs as CDs use 44100 Hz.

[ljbates]

Yes, that works too. I'm starting the process of recording my vinyl to listen to on my mp3 player, the player supports flac, which does sound subtlely better to me on there when I've tested against mp3 - little things like echo on drumbeats are better detailed.
Will sample rate make any difference to that?

By the way, I noticed this morning that the only record I have successfully recorded so far after all the angiush of getting set up had a download coupon inside......

[steve]

the player supports flac, which does sound subtlely better to me on there when I've tested against mp3 - little things like echo on drumbeats are better detailed.
Will sample rate make any difference to that?

yes FLAC is better sound quality than MP3, though the quality of MP3 can be very good if you use a high quality setting. In Audacity 1.3.12 you can select different "Quality" setting for MP3 during the Export, by clicking on the "Options" button on the Export dialogue screen. The "Extreme" Preset will provide extremely good sound quality that is virtually indistinguishable from Flac or WAV.

I doubt that you'll notice any difference in sound quality due to sample rate as long as it is at least 44100 Hz

[tabslive]

I was having this ringing issue and found this thread to be a surprise. It was even more perplexing that the ringing was stated to be 3900 Hz which matched my ringing frequency. I realized that the likelihood that two turntables resonated exactly as described was pretty farfetched. I took the solution from this thread and ran a quick test. If Windows 7 audio sampling rate in the control panel is set differently than Audacity's sample rate for recording, the ringing occurs. In the case of issue discussed in this thread, the ringing was 3900 Hz. That happens to be the difference between 48000 and 44100. Go figure! As long as the two sample rates match there's no ringing. I tried all 4 combinations between these two rates. I should have thought of this but the ringing really does sound mechanical, like the platter barely touching something making the platter "sing" so to speak. It leads you to think that it had to be the turntable. Thanks for posting the solution guys. I'm certainly happy now.