Audacity Forum

Been using Vibe turntable for a while and have an odd and inconsistent recording/playback problem for SOME of my records. When recording, sometimes the audio for vocals (and occasionally some instrumental tracks) is barely audible. It tends to happen with older discs ('50s and '60s) - more often mono ones but sometimes stereo. There's no obvious pattern. I use this for sound samples for my business so this is REALLY annoying.

I tried exporting the affected clips (as MP3) hoping it might be a playback issue (I listen as I record) - but that doesn't help. I'm operating on Windows 7. I've tried looking at every setting I can think of on Audacity and Windows Control Panel, but nothing works. I only have one playback device (RealTek HD Audio). When checking device on Control Panel -> Hardware & Sound -> Sound: for -> Recording "Line In" and "Microphone" are not plugged in. For -> Playback "2nd Output" is not plugged in. There is no way I can see to activate these settings - and I have no idea of doing so would help.

Any ideas why this is happening and how to fix? Thanks.

When recording, sometimes the audio for vocals (and occasionally some instrumental tracks) is barely audible. It tends to happen with older discs ('50s and '60s) - more often mono ones but sometimes stereo.

I think your turntable is defective. It sounds like something might be miswired* (like the phono cartridge?) so that you are getting a difference signal (left minus right or right minus left). Is the bass weak also? Are some clicks & pops very loud?

This is how vocal removal effects work... Subtracting left from right eliminates everything that's identical in both channels (like "center channel" vocals and bass). If the recording has out-of-phase reverb, the reverb will be increased, since subtraction of a negative is addition. Vinyl clicks & pops often contain out-of phase information too.

If you run a (digital) mono recording through a vocal remover, you'll get total silence. But, a mono analog record wouldn't result in total silence, since there will be slight differences in the left & right channels.

I use this for sound samples for my business so this is REALLY annoying.

When I search for "Vibe turntable", I found the cheapest USB turntable I've ever seen... If you have that cheap one and if you want to consider something better, Knowzy.com has reviews & recommendations for USB turntables.



* A missing/broken ground in just the "right" place can cause this. For example, if you take a pair of speakers (regular 'ol non-powered passive speakers) and connect both speaker-grounds together, but with the ground connection to the amplifier disconnected, you'll get a vocal-removal "ambience" effect. And, if you put those speakers in the rear, you can get a crude surround-sound effect.

Something similar will happen with the ground to the phono cartridge broken in "just the right place", and I think there might be another way to criss-cross the left & right cartridge connections for the same "effect".

Thanks for the thoughtful reply DVDdoug.

DVDdoug wrote:I think your turntable is defective. It sounds like something might be miswired* (like the phono cartridge?) so that you are getting a difference signal (left minus right or right minus left). Is the bass weak also? Are some clicks & pops very loud?

Thanks but I don't think that's the problem - unless the manufacturer got something as basic as wiring the cartridge incorrectly. Perhaps there's a short but I don't think that would cause the problem to be so inconsistent across different records - but I'm no expert. The bass is fine and there are no loud pops or clicks. I'm still thinking it's a settings issue.

DVDdoug wrote:This is how vocal removal effects work... Subtracting left from right eliminates everything that's identical in both channels

Not sure what you mean - what should the settings be, and where would I locate them, to fix it? I don't even know where on Audacity a "vocal remover" would be.

blackgem wrote: A missing/broken ground in just the "right" place can cause this. For example, if you take a pair of speakers (regular 'ol non-powered passive speakers) and connect both speaker-grounds together, but with the ground connection to the amplifier disconnected, you'll get a vocal-removal "ambience" effect. And, if you put those speakers in the rear, you can get a crude surround-sound effect.

Something similar will happen with the ground to the phono cartridge broken in "just the right place", and I think there might be another way to criss-cross the left & right cartridge connections for the same "effect".

How can I check the ground, if this is the problem? The wires to the cartridge look OK from the outside, and the connections appear solid - I don't know much about the technical issues here. Al I can say is, as far as I can tell, the problems occur when I try to record on SOME analog discs, not all. I don't think I've experienced problems with recording digital discs yet.

Could it be a problem with the USB cord itself, or the connection of the cord from the turntable to the computer?

DVDdoug wrote:

blackgem wrote:When recording, sometimes the audio for vocals (and occasionally some instrumental tracks) is barely audible. It tends to happen with older discs ('50s and '60s) - more often mono ones but sometimes stereo.

I think your turntable is defective. It sounds like something might be miswired* (like the phono cartridge?) so that you are getting a difference signal (left minus right or right minus left). Is the bass weak also? Are some clicks & pops very loud?

I agree that it sounds like this could be the problem.
We can probably test this.

@blackgem, are you recording as a 2 channel (stereo) track?
If not, please make a test recording of one of the problematic records as a 2 channel (stereo) track. Listen to the recording to ensure that the problem is present.

From the 2 channel (stereo) track, click on the track name, then from the drop down menu select "Split Stereo to Mono". This will produce 2 mono tracks.

By pressing the Solo button on one track only you will be able to listen to just that one track.
Listen to one of the tracks on its own, then listen to the other track on its own. Do they have the same problem or do they sound OK?