Hi, if this question has already been addressed, I haven't been able to find it... I am trying to record cassettes onto my PC through the sound card's line-in jack. I know that this should work, because I tested a recording with the line-out on my CD player and it worked fine. Unfortunately, I don't have a cassette deck with a line-out jack. I have heard that the headphone jack should work, but when I try that, the sound is very quiet. Cranking up the volume doesn't really work -- it's still quiet and the sound is crackly and horrible (and cranking the volume probably produces a lot of the feedback.) Is there some way to amplify the sound? My sound card only has a mono line-in plug, if that makes a difference... If anyone has any suggestions, I would sincerely appreciate them.
Your tapedeck is connected with your amp somehow - right? You should use an adapter mini-jack <-> tapedeck's amp output. Another thing: You might want to get a soundcard capable of stereo input. Even cheapest ones today (including onboard sound) should have it. (What's soundcard do you have BTW?)
Wow, thanks for responding so quickly! Actually, I don't HAVE an amp. I am just using a basic cord with two "headphone jack" ends to plug in the headphone jack on the cassette deck to the soundcard... I'll have to check the make of that soundcard, but this PC is about 3 years old. I'm not sure that the soundcard is the problem, because line-in recording works when there is a "line out" on the source... (Which I don't have on my cassette deck, sigh)
Unless your tapedeck is a walkman there should be another output connection besides headpone out. Try to find it and get a cable.
There are the speaker jacks, (which I presume I can't use), but that's it. If a separate audio-out feed is necessary, do most tape decks have those? None of the ones we have here do.
If there are only speaker jacks there's an integrated amplifier? In this case your soundcard would be probably toasted if you try to connect ... So your only option is to get an amplifier for the headphone output (or another tapedeck from a friend). As an amp you might be able to use active PC speakers with headphone output.
Thanks again; I really do appreciate this. Last question: What kind of amp would work (and not fry the sound card)? And do you mean that I could maybe plug the PC speakers into the stereo and then output from them?
I've re-read your 1st post ... Are you talking about windows mixer's volume? Have you already tried setting all playback sliders to 0 and [bold]record[/bold] sliders (especially line-in) to high values (access them by double-clicking on speaker symbol in task bar, options -> preferences -> record)? This should avoid feedback etc. If this doesn't help read on ... My suggestion is to use the PC speakers *as* amp. If your PC speakers have: - Minijack input cable (for connecting with soundcard's line out) - Headphone output - a separate power cable and a volume slider you should be able to do it: 1. Set PC speakers volume to 0 2. connect Tapedeck headphone out -> PC speakers in. 3. connect PC speaker headphone out -> soundcard line in 4. Start playback + sound recording software and carefully increase pc speakers volume until you get reasonable results (use e.g. audacity's wave view to check). BTW: I'm curious about your nickname: Is it related to one of the songs with that name?_
Thanks; it's working great. Actually, I don't think I even know any songs that mention my nickname. It's an abbreviation of a the name of a character I made up once, as strange as that sounds.
