Questions with Recording to and from a PC

[Jeff Strouse]

I'm stumped...blasted computers!

I have the line-out from my soundcard, connected to the L&R aux-in jacks on my stereo system.

I made a recording of a radio show onto cassette, but the sound level was low.

Does the signal need to be amplified between the sound card and the stereo system?

Would the caliber of sound card have any affect on the quality of the recording (mine is a Soundblaster 64V PCI card)?

My next step is to tranfer the cassette to the hard drive, using the Sony EZ Audio kit.

Because I don't have line-out jacks in the stereo (it's an all-in-one mini system), I have a stereo cable running from the headphone jack, to the sound card (line-in). The instructions recommend this method, although it does point out that a line-out jack in the back of the cassette player would probably be a better recording source. But the sound through the headphone jack isn't too bad...I can detect a little more "hiss" than normal, but can clean most of it up with the software. My Aiwa shelf system is the type that only records onto Type I cassettes, and there's no dolby.

Would purchasing more expensive component stereo pieces (like a cassette deck and amplifier/receiver) make a noticable difference in the quality of the recording?

And one more question - how could I get a good recording from multiple sources at the same time? ...Like, a cassette deck playing rhythm, while I play my steel guitar?

Sorry this is so long...

I'm just not getting the good recordings I'd like to and need some help!

Thanks!

[Don Benoit]

Double click on your volume control on your task bar. Select "line out" and turn up the slider.

I'm not familiar with the Sony kit.

Your sound card is adequate.

It's better to use the line out of the cassette deck.

For playing your steel with the cassette deck...use a small mixer like the Rolls MX 28 or the Behringer MX602A with headphones or feed the output of the mixer to an amplifier.<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Don Benoit on 11 November 2002 at 05:22 AM.]</p></FONT>

[Tommy Mc]

Or you can use multi-track software like Cool Edit to record single tracks....using only your one input, record your rhythm track from the cassette, then go back and do a second track for steel.