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Vinyl ripping why distorted?

Paul L

coffee lounge for me
A mate hooked up my TT-834P-MC3 to my laptop to prove I could already rip vinyl without buying a separate and expensive something-or-other between phono stage and laptop. This was very distorted no matter the level set in the laptop. We tried my CDP and this was fine.

How do you reduce the gain or do you have to take the turntable output into some sort of RIAA device so that it has much lower gain?
 
Either the 834P output is too high and clipping the analogue input on the laptop or you've got digital clipping. How do the waveforms look in the recording software?

Does it still distort if you try a very quiet LP passage?
 
unless you are putting it through a pre amp with RIAA first surely it is going to be distorted. I do mine hooking my 32.5 tape out to the lappy.
 
Paul,

I had a similar problem a few weeks ago ( here is the thread i started: http://www.pinkfishmedia.net/forum/showthread.php?t=86937 ).

The problem for me was that the internal sound card in my laptops ( i tried 3 !) was rubbish.
I bought a fairly cheapish USB external sound card, ( http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/UCA222.aspx ) however soon discovered that it had no input signal attentuation. Luckily my Rotel RQ-10 'Michi' phono stage has a selectable ( via internal jumpers) output.
so it may seem a bit of a fudge but if i wish to record vinyl onto a laptop i use the sound card for A/D conversion and the volume control on the front of the Michi to adjust the input into the soundcard.

Hope this helps.
 
I use an Edirol R-09. In 24/48 mode it works very well indeed for high quality sources. I also leave it semi-permanently attached to the system so can record any time I want. Just pop the SD card into the computer once recording is finished. It's also a great field recorder and, having been superseded by the HR version, is around £100. Bargain. So good, I use two!
 
I suffered this on various laptop soundcards, so made an inline variable attenuator in a box is it. I put on my loudest record (Silent Servent, Historia y Violencia, which you will need) and monitor the input to hit peaks at -0.1db, adjust to taste.

This works, and results in non clipped recordings is it.

DS
 
most lappo audio in jacks are designed for a dynamic microphone rather than a line level signal. You would need quite a lot of attenuation to get a preamp output down to that level.
 
I bought a fairly cheapish USB external sound card, ( http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/UCA222.aspx ) however soon discovered that it had no input signal attentuation.

I got one of those bundled with a Behringer mixing desk and IMHO, it's ghastly; it's only redeeming feature is that it was free. The cheapest and best USB module I've found is the Edirol ua-1ex with analogue and digital ins and outs and running ASIO drivers (either Edirol's own or ASIO4ALL) offers 24bit 96kHz.
 
Either the 834P output is too high and clipping the analogue input on the laptop or you've got digital clipping. How do the waveforms look in the recording software?

Does it still distort if you try a very quiet LP passage?

Robert - don't want to disrupt this thread but could you check your pm's please.
Cheers,
Allan
 


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