Recording from vinyl, level too high

[sjrooney]

I thought I would finally get round to recording some of my old vinyl on to CD. Equipment used is a Michell Syncro turntable through a Musical Fidelity A1 amplifier. I'm using a phono - 3.5mm cable from the tape out socket on the amp to the line in on my Dell Inspiron 9400 laptop with onboard Sigmatel Audio on Windows XP Pro SP3.
I installed Audacity and got it up and running quite easily but when I record the input levels are way too high even with the slider as far left as it will go. In the Windows control panel I've selected line in as the input and dragged that slider right down to the bottom for recording as well. The A1 amp has no headphone socket nor does it have any way of adjusting the level for the tape out so is there anything I can do to lower the record levels so that the recordings aren't horribly distorted?

Regards,
Steve

[george13]

I think you have some very good playback equipment, it may really be worth looking at an external (usb or firewire) soundcard. Even the cheapest behringer is going to be much better than the onboard sound.

I used an apogee duet for converting some of my vinyl -> sounds very good, but is mac only and maybe a bit expensive. But there are a lot other and cheaper ones.

[waxcylinder]

@sjrooney. See this sticky thread: http://audacityteam.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=9477

@george13 - perhaps we can encourage you to add a short review of your Apogee Duet to the above sticky thread - it will be much appreciated?

WC

[sjrooney]

Thanks a lot, it looks like I need an external soundcard so I'll probably invest in a Behringer UCA202. Shame, as the parts of the audio captured without distortion sounded great.

Regards,
Steve

[steve]

I'll probably invest in a Behringer UCA202.

I have one of those, and I'm very pleased with it, however if I was buying again I may perhaps save up the extra bit of cash and go for the Edirol UA 1EX for the extra features - I would certainly be considering it.

[sjrooney]

I'll probably invest in a Behringer UCA202.

I have one of those, and I'm very pleased with it, however if I was buying again I may perhaps save up the extra bit of cash and go for the Edirol UA 1EX for the extra features - I would certainly be considering it.

What extra features do you think would be worth the extra cash? All I want to do is control the record level so I don't get distorted recordings, I'm not interested in any fancy mixing or anything like that, I just want to get vinyl->my laptop so I can burn to CD.

Regards,
Steve

[steve]

http://www.roland.com/products/en/UA-1EX/