awepittance Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 Almost all mic/line ins on computers (unless you have a good dedicated soundcard) sound like complete shit. If at all possible I personally recommend recording to a source that isn't your computer, and then ripping from there. If you have a sampler, or a CD recorder, it'd be best. Personally, I record absolutely everything I do into an SP-404 with an 8 gig SD card, and then put the card in my computer and take the wav files right off, and it sounds perfect. funny, my computer inputs are just fine. have actually been praised on the clarity of my vinyl rips by many people. a lot of PC laptops i noticed have very low level inputs and also very noisey line outputs, so maybe this is what he means. Most motherboard soundcards these days on desktop PCs are pretty clean sounding and have not much noticable noise. So i guess im saying i'm kind of a mac fag when it comes to low end audio inputs/outputs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oscillik Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 i don't know but, aren't you being a bit too picky, i mean, it's a cassette ffs, a poor line input wouldn't be that significant. Trust me, my current soundcard input hums more than the chorus on my JX-3P. It's fucking horrible. Besides, some cassette tapes sound quite clean with a proper player & recorder. Not to say that lofi cassettes aren't charming though, as I did grow up loving cassettes and all their quirks. Sometimes I just want a clean sound off of them. wouldn't this be more of a grounding issue with your home electric system / computer? Almost all mic/line ins on computers (unless you have a good dedicated soundcard) sound like complete shit. If at all possible I personally recommend recording to a source that isn't your computer, and then ripping from there. If you have a sampler, or a CD recorder, it'd be best. Personally, I record absolutely everything I do into an SP-404 with an 8 gig SD card, and then put the card in my computer and take the wav files right off, and it sounds perfect. funny, my computer inputs are just fine. have actually been praised on the clarity of my vinyl rips by many people. a lot of PC laptops i noticed have very low level inputs and also very noisey line outputs, so maybe this is what he means. Most motherboard soundcards these days on desktop PCs are pretty clean sounding and have not much noticable noise. So i guess im saying i'm kind of a mac fag when it comes to low end audio inputs/outputs. oh yeah, quite a few laptops (especially PC ones, on the lower budget) have really shitty ins and outs. talking about Macintosh outputs though, at the VHS Head gig in Liverpool, one of the support acts that was using a Macintosh had to use someone elses PC laptop due to the amount of hum coming from his output. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaini Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 for laptops, a quick (but dangerous) workaround to determine if it's a ground loop problem is to wrap insulation tape around the earth pin on the power plug. obviously only to determine if it is indeed a ground loop problem; i wouldn't recommend anyone use this as a permanent solution. if it is the problem you can buy a ground loop isolator fairly inexpensively. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oscillik Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 for laptops, a quick (but dangerous) workaround to determine if it's a ground loop problem is to wrap insulation tape around the earth pin on the power plug. obviously only to determine if it is indeed a ground loop problem; i wouldn't recommend anyone use this as a permanent solution. if it is the problem you can buy a ground loop isolator fairly inexpensively. protip nice one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awepittance Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 yeah thats good to know in a pinch, thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 Trust me, my current soundcard input hums more than the chorus on my JX-3P. It's fucking horrible. Besides, some cassette tapes sound quite clean with a proper player & recorder. Not to say that lofi cassettes aren't charming though, as I did grow up loving cassettes and all their quirks. Sometimes I just want a clean sound off of them. wouldn't this be more of a grounding issue with your home electric system / computer? I am 99% sure it's not. I have a dedicated outlet that was somewhat recently installed, that was specifically made to be grounded and isolated that only the modem and PC go into. Think I've just had bad luck with hardware. My laptop is very hummy as well. *shrug* I'm happy with my setup anyways. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruising for burgers Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 for laptops, a quick (but dangerous) workaround to determine if it's a ground loop problem is to wrap insulation tape around the earth pin on the power plug. obviously only to determine if it is indeed a ground loop problem; i wouldn't recommend anyone use this as a permanent solution. if it is the problem you can buy a ground loop isolator fairly inexpensively. protip nice one my building electric installation doesn't have earth, i mean, the ground pins on my wall sockets are connected to nothing so, i'm on permanent danger, hence i do that insulation tape thingie all the time, or, i push the wall socket earth pins inside to avoid them making contact with the ones on the power plug. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Great Maker ShaiHulud Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 I am using izotope rx2 right now to clean up the audio from some VHS tapes. Same principle would apply to cassettes, I'd think. I tried running a hum removal plugin in Audacity and it crashed... so I gave free software my best shot first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kokoon Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 for laptops, a quick (but dangerous) workaround to determine if it's a ground loop problem is to wrap insulation tape around the earth pin on the power plug. obviously only to determine if it is indeed a ground loop problem; i wouldn't recommend anyone use this as a permanent solution. if it is the problem you can buy a ground loop isolator fairly inexpensively. there's an even easier (end less dangerous) workaround for laptops - just unplug it from mains (run it on batteries) and see if the hum stops. also works for other devices that can be battery-powered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Babar Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 ah thanks. That must be why i hear static when i plug headphones into my mac : my electrical installation dates back from the 60s and lot of plugs do not have a ground loop. Unfortunately, i only have 5 mins of autonomy. After that, it doesn't switch to sleep mode : it just brutally shuts down. I'm pretty sure it's software induced obsolescence and that a fix would be hackable without even having to open the beast. If anyone knows where i should head to (plist ? kernel ?), then let me know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest A/D Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 also, you'll probably want to do noise removal to get rid of tape hiss. if you're careful, you can do it without affecting the quality of the music. http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php?title=Noise_Removal unless you prefer the natural stochastic resonance of a cassette Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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