Recording RCA out into Laptop

[sv85]

hey guys, im using a Matrix b52 200 mixer. http://www.amazon.com/B-52-Matrix-200-3 ... 320&sr=8-1. The mixer has a RCA out (one red and one yellow) to record. I have a RCA to 3.5mm wire that i plug into my laptop.

I recording speechs and the sounds seems someone distorted. I tired bringing the recording volume on Audacity down to like .1 and its still sounds buzzy, but you can still understand what the speaker is saying. if i try to recording instrumentals, its just not possible because it distortes so much that you can even hear it.

Any idea if i need another equipment to send the sound into before it goes to the laptop?
thanks!

[steve]

The problem is that the microphone input on the laptop is about 1000 x too sensitive for the output from the mixing desk.

You may be able to get it to work if you turn down the output from the mixing desk so that it is very vey low (and turn the recording volume back up).

A better way would be to get an external USB sound card that has a "Line level" input. I use a Behringer UCA 202, which is inexpensive and does the job nicely. There are plenty of other makes and models available.

[sv85]

If i bring the level too down then it will be low for the audience to hear, since this is live sound recording.
so i think getting the behringer might be the best thing to do.

thanks alot man!

[sv85]

hey, i have a Presonus bluetube http://www.presonus.com/products/Detail ... oductId=11. my brother had a bunch of recording gear and this was left here.

is it possible to use this?

sorry for such a newbie question.


thanks

[steve]

Looks like a nice pre-amp, but according to the website link it is not USB, so you would have just the same problem connecting it to your laptop. The point about a USB sound card is that it completely bypasses the on-board sound card.

There are some specific information about using Audacity with USB devices in the Audacity wiki (see link at top of page).

[sv85]

good point steve.

one last question(hopefully) the behringer usb interface takes an RCA cable as input?

[steve]

one last question(hopefully) the behringer usb interface takes an RCA cable as input?

Yes - like these:

[sv85]

thanks so much!
im ordering the device today.

could you explain to me what a Line Level input is?

[steve]

"Line level" is a relatively high level signal (in the order of 1volt) that is commonly used for sending audio signals between one piece of audio equipment and another. For example, the output of a cassette deck, or a CD deck will be approximately line level.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_level

[destijl-atmospheres]

Will this also work with a UCA200 instead of the 202?

Here's my situation:

I have an Akai DPS16 digital audio workstation (from like 1999-2000) and I use it to record live shows. I would like to be able to get the tracks off of it onto my laptop so I can work with them. What I've been doing is recording onto a standalone CD recorder and then ripping the CD tracks onto the computer. I would like to bypass the CD recorder aspect and record directly into my laptop. Well, actually I would like to just copy the files directly from the Akai to the laptop but it only has a SCSI hard drive and those aren't too common anymore. I actually found a SCSI>USB adapter on eBay but it's only for up to Windows XP and I'm on Vista. The Akai has RCA and digital coax outs. It also had 1/4" aux sends. Could those be used as outs?

I have no experience with this particular problem so please help!

Thanks in advance,
Nick