imput volume

[roy windmill]

Hi, when recording an L.P the imput mixer(red) is hitting the buffers with a lot of distortion. When I try to adjust the Imput volume slider to the left, it shoots back to the right (max) position. What can I do to reduce the volume? I am using Aud. 1.3.9 on Windows XP. Many thanks, Roy Windmill

[kozikowski]

And although you didn't say so, a USB turntable?

There is no volume control unless the software that came with the package provides it. Sometimes you can go into the Windows Control Panels and find a control for volume, or sometimes there is a control on the turntable itself.

How is the turntable connected to the computer?

Koz

[roy windmill]

Hi Koz, My computer is connected to my High Fi stereo player by a cable plugged into the phone-out socket. And into my sound card panel. Thanks for your reply. R.Windmill

[steve]

Turn down the volume of your High Fi stereo player.

You should be using a "Line input" on your sound card and not a "Mic input" because a Mic input is designed for a microphone and is far too sensitive for a headphone output. If you are using a laptop this may be a problem as most PC laptops only have a Mic input and no Line input. In this case you will need to turn down the headphone volume so that it is very very quiet.

[waxcylinder]

If you are using a laptop this may be a problem as most PC laptops only have a Mic input and no Line input.

Or you can use an external soundcard - see this thread for ones which are known to work with Audacity: http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=9477

WC

[roy windmill]

Hi Steve, Thanks for your reply. I am using the line-in on my sound card. I have tried turning down the volume on my Hi-Fi and it does help, but I have to turn down the volume below normal listening level. Is there no way that I can get the slider on my input volume to work so that it doesn't slide back to the maximum volume? I am using Audacity 1.3.10, not .9 I don't know if this makes any difference. Many thanks, Roy

[waxcylinder]

For a start you need to upgrade to 1.3.11 - there is a bug in 1.3.10 which will bite you (when exporting multiple it rounds up each song to the next 5-second boundary - so you get a snippet of the start of the next song at the end of each one).

WC

[steve]

As waxcylinder has said - upgrade to 1.3.11 (probably won't make any difference to this issue, but fixes several others).

Go into the Windows Control Panel and find the "Sounds" section. Somewhere in there there is probably an option for "20dB boost" (or just "boost") for the recording input - that needs to be switched off.

[Mick Berg]

Nobody seems to be addressing the problem that the poster has, that the meter shoots back up to maximum after he reduces the level. This suggests to me that there is feedback (a loop between input and output) happening somewhere in his setup.
Mick Berg.

[steve]

Nobody seems to be addressing the problem that the poster has, that the meter shoots back up to maximum after he reduces the level.

That has not been addressed because it is extremely unlikely to fixing the problem. Audacity has very limited control over the sound card - basically Audacity just asks the computer sound system to give it sound when it is recording and asks the sound system to play sound when Audacity is playing back. The sound "controls" in Audacity are a convenience when they work, but all they actually do is to request that the sound card drivers adjust the levels on the sound card. The levels are controlled by the sound card driver and not by Audacity.

Some sound card drivers refuse to play ball and do not respond to Audacities requests. When this happens there is nothing that Audacity can do about it because it is not accessing the sound card directly. In such cases it is necessary to use the sound card driver interface to control the sound card (as it is the sound card driver that has control over the sound card).

On many computers the sound card interface is accessed through a loudspeaker icon near to the time/date on the Desktop. Not all systems have this, but the other way to access the sound card drivers on Windows is through the Windows Control Panel. There is some information about this here: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Mixer ... trol_Panel