Using 5.1 sound system

[Donsky]

Hi!

I'm new in Audiacity.
I use ver. 2.1.0, Win 7.
I'd like to digitize my old audio cassettes using Stereo Cassette Deck RS B705.
I've connected Line Out of the deck to Line In of my PC. I've got a perfect sound in my headphones and in my 5.1 stereo system as well - full bass and treble.

The problem is:
When I play recorded in Audiacity tracks the basses are vanished. I can't hear them in the sub buffer and recorded music sounds "flat", exactly as the sound system is in "stereo"mode instead of "5.1".

What am I doing wrong?

[kozikowski]

I've connected Line Out of the deck to Line In of my PC.

Let's back up to that. Do you have an actual blue, stereo, Line-In on your PC? It's kind of an odd duck on many newer PCs, and if you try to adapt any other kind of connection, you could get very oddly damaged recordings—such as partial cancellation of some pitches of tones.

What does your Dolby 5.1 system do to make normal stereo shows "sound terrific?" Nobody believes Dolby just passes sound through to the speakers. That doesn't make good advertising copy. If Audacity is not set to play sound through the Dolby encoder, it may actually be in plain stereo. Set that in the Audacity Device Toolbar.

http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/device_toolbar.html

Also, did you turn off Windows Enhanced Services? Sometimes Windows will try to help you by "enhancing" your recordings...whether you want it or not.

Koz

[Donsky]

Let's back up to that. Do you have an actual blue, stereo, Line-In on your PC?

All my sound In/Outs are configurable. My first attempts were on front panel configuring a Mic-jack as a Line-In. Next, according to your advice, I configured a BLUE jack on a rear panel to work as Line-In. The result is the same - the direct sound from the deck is perfect 5.1 sound, but recorded in Audiacity project is just a "stereo".

How can I turn Windows Enhanced Services off? There is no answer in Google.

Anton

[Gale Andrews]

Audacity playback is always maximum two channels, left and right. So you may want to configure your sound device for an application that only sends stereo, probably duplicating left and right to the other channels.

How can I turn Windows Enhanced Services off? There is no answer in Google.

That is just Koz's name for it, not Microsoft's. http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/faq_ ... hancements.


Gale

[kozikowski]

I configured a BLUE jack on a rear panel to work as Line-In.

On a non-configurable soundcard, the (usually) blue stereo Line-In is generally the only connection available for a stereo connection such as a cassette machine or sound mixer. Later cards could configure Mic-In for stereo and high end soundcards can configure everything.

There's no shortage of people trying to force a cassette machine into the wrong soundcard connection.

Koz

[Donsky]

Audacity playback is always maximum two channels, left and right. So you may want to configure your sound device for an application that only sends stereo, probably duplicating left and right to the other channels.

Yes, actually Audacity gets two channels on analog input and produces two digital channels on the output (the codec doesn't matter). Windows gets two channels on the same input (Line-In, fixed or configurable - doesn't matter) and produces full 5.1 output.
Maybe the correct question is not "What is the problem with Audacity?" but "How the Windows is so good?"

[Gale Andrews]

Audacity playback is always maximum two channels, left and right. So you may want to configure your sound device for an application that only sends stereo, probably duplicating left and right to the other channels.

Yes, actually Audacity gets two channels on analog input and produces two digital channels on the output (the codec doesn't matter). Windows gets two channels on the same input (Line-In, fixed or configurable - doesn't matter) and produces full 5.1 output.
Maybe the correct question is not "What is the problem with Audacity?" but "How the Windows is so good?"

Yes but that is input. It appears you don't have the sound device configured to handle output from applications. For example, if you exported your recording from Audacity as stereo WAV and played the WAV in Windows Media Player, do you hear that WAV in all six speakers?


Gale

[DVDdoug]

I've connected Line Out of the deck to Line In of my PC. I've got a perfect sound in my headphones and in my 5.1 stereo system as well - full bass and treble.

Just to make sure I understand...

You are hearing "perfect sound" when playing the tape and listening through the computer?

What happens when you play a CD or MP3 on your computer?

What happens when you open a known-good MP3 or WAV file in Audacity and play it? (I'm trying to confirm that this is a recording problem.)


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Some background that might help you with your diagnosis...

- When you record, Audacity simply "captures" the digital data and sends it to your hard drive. It won't reduce the bass or otherwise alter the data. Any effects or processing have to be done manually after recording and it's pretty much impossible to do that accidentally.

- However, Windows can "enhance" the sound before it gets to Audacity, so Windows could be messing-up the sound before it gets to Audacity.

- And of course, there could be something wrong on the analog-side, but you'd hear that during recording if you are monitoring through the computer.

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Maybe the correct question is not "What is the problem with Audacity?" but "How the Windows is so good?"

By default, stereo will play back as regular 2-channel stereo through the left-front and right-front speakers. But home most 5.1/7.1 setups (with small main/surround speakers) are configured with "bass management" to route the normal stereo bass to the subwoofer.

If you have large main/surround speakers, these speakers can reproduce the normal bass and the subwoofer is only used for the "point one" channel low frequency effects when playing a true 5.1/7.1 channel track.

Dolby Pro Logic II adds optional "soundfields" & modes to take advantage of the surround speakers when listening to 2-channel stereo. Some soundcards some with non-Dolby utilities that apply similar effects. None of this is Microsoft Windows... It's 3rd-party software.

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When I play recorded in Audiacity tracks the basses are vanished. I can't hear them in the sub buffer and recorded music sounds "flat", exactly as the sound system is in "stereo"mode instead of "5.1".

Here's a little experiment you can try...

Start a recording and then after a few seconds, unplug the left or right RCA plug from the tape tape deck. If you still get recording in both channels, and if there is more bass with just one channel connected, that's a clue that the left & right channels are getting subtracted from each other and that's usually a connection/wiring problem. (Of course, if it's working properly nothing should happen to the right channel when you unplug the left.)

[Donsky]

Here's a little experiment you can try...

Start a recording and then after a few seconds, unplug the left or right RCA plug from the tape tape deck. If you still get recording in both channels, and if there is more bass with just one channel connected, that's a clue that the left & right channels are getting subtracted from each other and that's usually a connection/wiring problem. (Of course, if it's working properly nothing should happen to the right channel when you unplug the left.)

The problem is solved.
Plugging and unplugging L and R channels I found out that the L channel is additionally applied to the left rear speaker and to the Center channel of 5.1 system, and R channel is applied to the right rear speaker and to SW channel as well. Thus, it produces feeling of some kind Dolby surround system just by 2 stereo channels mixing.
But Audacity works correctly. The two channels are on there L and R places. So, when I compare the correct Audacity record with that online pseudo Dolby surround sound I have a feeling of some flatness, but actually the record is absolutely correct.

The mystery is unveiled!
Thank you DVDdoug!

P.S.
Why this channel mixing appears online is another question. I guess that that is some kind of audio driver problem.