Tried recording some some of my LP's and cassettes to my computer yesterday.
It records perefect quality but the computer randomly changes in the line in volume, some tracks it will record fine, others an absolute crock. I tried multiple sound recording programs to no avail .
The only thing i can think of is the possiblity of weird drivers or hardware that attenuates the line in if the input voltage gets to big (line in around ~600mV if i remember). I used exaclty the same setup on my old computer fine.
Also i have no way to get MIDI in . There is only one midi driver available that does absolutely bugger all with MIDI in and only does midi out. (I have got the 5 pin din sockets in the right way as well , out to the in of the keyboard and out of the keyboard to the in of the lead)
Has anyone had these problems? if so how did you solve them? (i guess its buy a new soundcard time )
Well first of all, no LP and cassettes record MIDI. (smartarse comment, sorry)
Well, I suppose you could fit some attenuator in between the computer and player. Do you get the random changes on both LPs and cassettes or only LPs? If the later, you might need an RIAA amp (don't ask me how I know all this, I seriously have no idea...)
- Ok, you must admit that was the most creative cussing this site have ever seen -
Sorry to be a smartarse but there was two seperature questions .
When i plug my keyboard in via midi it does bugger all and used to on my old computer.
And when i record anything via line in it randomly changes the volume. I tried recording sound off my tv card and it done exactly the same , so i am pretty sure its the computers end - I also listened to the LP's etc playing during recording and they played fine, its just this computers line in hardware or software .
The electronics is no problems for me (I build amplifiers etc ), its just that the soundcard is acting seriously weird.
Most cheap soundcards don't support MIDI IN. You can buy USB MIDI interfaces though, I use the Edirol UM-1SX.
As for the line-in problem, try either turning down the volume on the cassette player, or turning down the recording volume of line in in the windows mixer. You want the level to be low enough to avoid clipping. You can normalise it afterwards too if you have good sound software which will amplify the audio back to full volume, but dont forget that any tape hiss will be amplified too.
Thanks for your help everyone, i ripped the old one out and put one had i lying about (in my cupboard ) in.
The one in now is an Aureal Vortex (anyone heard anything about these?), the midi sounds very respectable anyway it works fine with everything .
My old soundcard did have MIDI in but it was rubbish anyway.
Tigerworks have you had luck with the USB MIDI interface? I was tempted with one of those (to use my keyboard on other machines, i.e. my mates), but my keyboad now works via the old 15 pin D socket and two 5 pin dins.
The line in thing was weird, there was never any clipping (it was line out to a line in) but it just randomly altered the input gain.