Vinyl Recording Audacity HELP

hjm12

My setup is a Kam BDX900 USB turntable and a Dell Inspiron with SRS Premium Sound with Reason 7.

I've also used the turntable on my home PC and it works fine when recording vinyl into audacity.

I've been trying to get it working with the laptop, but when i record, the audio comes out incredibly loud and distorted, as if there's way too much gain. But i don't have a clue how to change any of this. I've tried altering the volume settings in the control panel and in audacity, but nothing has changed the problem.

Does anyone have an idea how i can sort this? Desperate to get some of my vinyl onto the laptop. Much thanks.

YOP1992

record into audacity on your home pc and transfer the files to your laptop with a usb key or external hardrive ?

hjm12

true. only thing is i'd like to get it working on the laptop as i'll be moving away from home next year and would like to be able to do it while i'm away.

Android 666

There's a gain slider to the left of where the soundwave appears - have you tried that?

Klim

Is there a 'line in' jack on your laptop? That's the one you need for recording in Audacity. If there are only two (headphone and mic), then you probably need an external usb soundcard or something. Had the same problem myself. Got a soundcard cheap enough for round twenty euro.

hjm12

Klim wrote: »

Is there a 'line in' jack on your laptop? That's the one you need for recording in Audacity. If there are only two (headphone and mic), then you probably need an external usb soundcard or something. Had the same problem myself. Got a soundcard cheap enough for round twenty euro.

yeah, there are only two jack inputs, one for headphone and one for mic..

so what is it i need to look at getting? and what will this do?

thanks.

Klim

hjm12 wrote: »

yeah, there are only two jack inputs, one for headphone and one for mic..

so what is it i need to look at getting? and what will this do?

thanks.

I basically had the same problem as you. Changed my laptop recently and it only had the two jacks instead of three that were on my old one. I bought one of these off Amazon in the link. Cost around €20. It's basically a box that you plug your lead from your mixer (that you were using already) into it, and it has a usb lead that you then connect to your laptop. That sorted out my issues.

Hope that gets you sorted.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B003TO3KHY/ref=oss_product

hjm12

Klim wrote: »

I basically had the same problem as you. Changed my laptop recently and it only had the two jacks instead of three that were on my old one. I bought one of these off Amazon in the link. Cost around €20. It's basically a box that you plug your lead from your mixer (that you were using already) into it, and it has a usb lead that you then connect to your laptop. That sorted out my issues.

Hope that gets you sorted.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B003TO3KHY/ref=oss_product

My turntable has a USB socket, but will i just not use that if i get one of the usb external sound cards? Will i run a lead from the red and white line outs into the external sound card?

Klim

hjm12 wrote: »

My turntable has a USB socket, but will i just not use that if i get one of the usb external sound cards? Will i run a lead from the red and white line outs into the external sound card?

Not sure man, sorry. I was going through the mixer.

I just used a one jack output lead from the red and whites running from the back of my mixer, just the same lead I was using to plug directly into my laptop at the start. If you haven't got one of these, they're only a few quid.

EarlERizer

hjm12 wrote: »

My setup is a Kam BDX900 USB turntable and a Dell Inspiron with SRS Premium Sound with Reason 7.

I've also used the turntable on my home PC and it works fine when recording vinyl into audacity.

I've been trying to get it working with the laptop, but when i record, the audio comes out incredibly loud and distorted, as if there's way too much gain. But i don't have a clue how to change any of this. I've tried altering the volume settings in the control panel and in audacity, but nothing has changed the problem.

Does anyone have an idea how i can sort this? Desperate to get some of my vinyl onto the laptop. Much thanks.

Alright m8 , this may or may not help ya, if it does it'll save ya the bother of buying something you dont need!! your laptop soundcard should be fine, I've a Dell Inspirion and mines spot on...Anyways, I got some pointers when setting up Audacity for converting vinyl / recording mixes which were great, the following is an extract from the tips I was sent (copied verbatim as i'm lazy!) I think "Step 3" through to "Step 9" should see you right.

STEP 3
ok now that step is done its onto actually settin up recording levels open 'AUDACITY' and leave it open. now what you wanna do is lower the volume on your mixer to about 10% roughly, (a few test runs will get the optimum level when you get used to it). do the same in 'AUDACITY' (theres a little mic pictunre at the top middle of the screen beside the volume out put in audacity.

STEP 4
right now thats all set up its on to the levels on your laptop sound card. if you look at your pc screen you will see an icon on the bottom left or right of the screen for volume (looks like a little speaker lol), anyway, if you 'RIGHT CLICK' this and select 'RECORDING DEVICES' on the pop up menu. when you click this another pop up box labelled sound will appear, it should have mic as the recording device enabled, but if not don't worry, just right click in the box and click 'SHOW DISABLED DEVICES', then right click the mic and click enable.

STEP 5
now thats done, left click the microphone icon in the same box once! and then the properties button for it in the same box will become active, click it and another pop up box will appear. in this box in the 'LEVELS' tab click microphone (there should be 2 diff options in this but the 2nd has microphone boost on it, leave this one alone!) anyway in levels lower the microphone down to 20 (thats the level i have it on).

STEP 6
now at the top beside the 'LEVELS' tab will be the 'ENHANCEMENTS' tab, click that and make sure all the sound effects for the mic are turned off, otherwise you will get that poxy tin can sound that you get with very bad quality youtube vids, not good at all.

STEP 7
its also advisable to lower the high, mid and low on your mixer obviously keepin the high & mid range that little bit higher than the bass for proper sound with no over powerin bass. i have mine set at about, high and mid are at 2 o'clock and bass is at about 10 o'clock (this is best for recording a mix your wanting to record), for ripping tune i suggest puttin all levels in the 12 o'clock position so you get the proper level of the tunes and can mess about when tryin to mix with em as mp3s.

STEP 8
just click record in audacity and play on whatever deck and record for about 10 seconds, as i said you will need to do a few test runs to get it runnin properly for you so just restart and play it back everytime you test it

STEP 9
when you have that step complete and you wanna save the tune on your pc. in audacity, click the 'FILE' tab at the top left of the screen, a drop down box will pop out, on this box you will see the 'EXPORT' option when you click that it will automatically save as a wav, all you have to do is pick the filder where you wanna save it and name the file. click ok and your done.

Hopefully these will be of some help to ya!

Peace
G

hjm12

EarlERizer wrote: »

Alright m8 , this may or may not help ya, if it does it'll save ya the bother of buying something you dont need!! your laptop soundcard should be fine, I've a Dell Inspirion and mines spot on...Anyways, I got some pointers when setting up Audacity for converting vinyl / recording mixes which were great, the following is an extract from the tips I was sent (copied verbatim as i'm lazy!) I think "Step 3" through to "Step 9" should see you right.

STEP 3
ok now that step is done its onto actually settin up recording levels open 'AUDACITY' and leave it open. now what you wanna do is lower the volume on your mixer to about 10% roughly, (a few test runs will get the optimum level when you get used to it). do the same in 'AUDACITY' (theres a little mic pictunre at the top middle of the screen beside the volume out put in audacity.

STEP 4
right now thats all set up its on to the levels on your laptop sound card. if you look at your pc screen you will see an icon on the bottom left or right of the screen for volume (looks like a little speaker lol), anyway, if you 'RIGHT CLICK' this and select 'RECORDING DEVICES' on the pop up menu. when you click this another pop up box labelled sound will appear, it should have mic as the recording device enabled, but if not don't worry, just right click in the box and click 'SHOW DISABLED DEVICES', then right click the mic and click enable.

STEP 5
now thats done, left click the microphone icon in the same box once! and then the properties button for it in the same box will become active, click it and another pop up box will appear. in this box in the 'LEVELS' tab click microphone (there should be 2 diff options in this but the 2nd has microphone boost on it, leave this one alone!) anyway in levels lower the microphone down to 20 (thats the level i have it on).

STEP 6
now at the top beside the 'LEVELS' tab will be the 'ENHANCEMENTS' tab, click that and make sure all the sound effects for the mic are turned off, otherwise you will get that poxy tin can sound that you get with very bad quality youtube vids, not good at all.

STEP 7
its also advisable to lower the high, mid and low on your mixer obviously keepin the high & mid range that little bit higher than the bass for proper sound with no over powerin bass. i have mine set at about, high and mid are at 2 o'clock and bass is at about 10 o'clock (this is best for recording a mix your wanting to record), for ripping tune i suggest puttin all levels in the 12 o'clock position so you get the proper level of the tunes and can mess about when tryin to mix with em as mp3s.

STEP 8
just click record in audacity and play on whatever deck and record for about 10 seconds, as i said you will need to do a few test runs to get it runnin properly for you so just restart and play it back everytime you test it

STEP 9
when you have that step complete and you wanna save the tune on your pc. in audacity, click the 'FILE' tab at the top left of the screen, a drop down box will pop out, on this box you will see the 'EXPORT' option when you click that it will automatically save as a wav, all you have to do is pick the filder where you wanna save it and name the file. click ok and your done.

Hopefully these will be of some help to ya!

Peace
G

big thanks for taking the time out to post this man, but unfortunately i had no luck