blud

In the end I gave up on trying to get it to sound good recording it with my PC. So it will just have to remain a mystery why it was doing that. That's ok because I'm never going to be recording tapes like this again so it doesn't really matter. Instead I just used my mac and everything went fine. Thanks very much for all the advice and help.

They aren't. This is a track of a person speaking. The whole track has static. Not consistent static that stays on in the background, but rather staticy noise any time the guy is talking. So any time the sound isn't silent or close to silent, there is static along with his voice similar to a radio station that isn't quite tuned in or something. It's sort of like as if are 2 tracks, one with him talking and another with his talking turned into CHHH CHH CRACKLE CHH. (the noise directly relates to him talking) The static is not super loud though or overpowering the voice. (But plenty noticeable)

Hmm, my Yamaha RX-V496 seems to only have 2 optical inputs, So I guess that means I can't output to the soundcard over optical after all

Does this show what you are looking for?

How would I check that, and more importantly why wouldn't it be at the same bit rate? So yeah, I gave the recording to someone else and they also hear the crappy static. So basically this makes no sense. It sounds fine on the monitor while I'm recording it, but then when I play the file back it sounds bad.

Yup, I confirmed it's plugged in properly. I checked the manual and everything. Bit rate, I did 24 on Creative WaveStudio and 32 on Audacity. 44,1 or 96 khz, both sound the same (bad).

Yes, I'm hearing what's "on tape". If I turn down the line in *recording* volume (not the playback volume, although that would obviously turn it down too but not in a way that is meaningful for what you are asking), the volume goes down. That's why this is so confusing to me.

Yeah I can hear what's being recorded and it sounds fine when it's being recorded. But when I play back the file it has static. I'm using Audacity (and I also tried creative wave studio) both of which show the vu meters which I can see look fine to me. I've just got it set to use the sound card for input and the line in on the sound card.

When I play the tape deck through the computer it sounds fine. Specifically this tape begins with a guy talking. But when I play my recording back there is static along with him talking like a rattly speaker. I tried the Creative WaveStudio and Audacity, and I tried various volume levels for the playback device. Even if I turn down the volume and the levels aren't anywhere near the red line, it still has this static. I don't get how when I play it through it sounds fine, but when I record it and play that back it sounds lousy

I'm going to try to use soundblaster's WaveStudio to record the tapes, and I have to choose a sample rate and bit-depth. The highest bit depth is 24 so I assume I should use that? About the kHz though, is there any reason to use a kHz higher than 44? Should I just crank it to 96? Common sense tells me I guess use 24 bits and 96 kHz, but you guys seem to have detailed uncommon sense that I would be interested in hearing edit: Also, on the right side of the WaveStudio program there are meters showing the dB levels. The green area goes from -90dB to -20dB and then it's yellow from -20dB to -10dB, and red from -10db to the top which I guess is 0db. Meanwhile, on my Tecnhics M5 tape deck there are meters which go from -20 to +5. If loud music on the tape is hovering around -5 on the tape meters, what should I want it to be on the WaveStudio meters? As I understand it, if I was getting up in the red then I'd be getting distortion and stuff. Right now as I record, I'm getting into the yellow a little bit every few beats, but generally flucutating in the green between -30db and -20db. Does that seem right? (To get this I have the Line In volume set to about 70%) I mean, if I look at the wavestudio and tape deck meters in %s, then in wave studio I'm averaging about 70% up, but on the tape deck more like 40% - so, that makes me think I need to turn down the line in quite a bit.. but I don't really know...

Thanks guys. Going straight from the tape deck to the computer sounds logical. However, aren't I risking more interference that way? I'll be running the RCA-to-mini cable down behind the computer and into the line in. But if I used the fibre optic cable from the stereo, then the normal rca cables will be going from the tape deck to the stereo and they will be a couple feet further from the computer which I assume puts them out of interference range. (And obviously the fibre optic cable doesn't get any interference) Or am I just way off base about that?

I have a bunch of old audio cassettes that I want to record to my computer with the best sound quality I can get. These are either rare or self made recordings, not music I could just re-buy on cd. I have a Technics M5 cassette deck, a Yamaha AX-V496 receiver, and a soundblaster x-fi sound card with optical in/out. There's a couple ways I can do this, and there's several settings on the tape deck and the receiver and I just don't know what settings I should be using. First of all, I could connect the tape deck via a rca to mini wire directly to the line-in on my sound card. OR, I could connect the tape deck to the receiver and then use the fibre optic out from the receiver to the sound card. I don't know which would be better, but I kind of assume the optical would be better? Also, on the tape deck there is a switch for dolby noise reduction that you can either set to "IN" or "OUT". I don't understand what that does (because when I choose IN it sounds like the noise is being reduced but I thought it should have been when I chose OUT?) Also there is a switch for Metal, CrO2 or Normal. I don't know which to use? Do I just choose whatever type is printed on the cassette tape? (And what setting should I use if nothing is written on the tape?) There are Left and Right input level knobs, but I assume those have no effect on what I'm trying to do right? Also, on the yamaha receiver, I can choose (Dolby) "Pro Logic", or No Effect. I mean, the Pro Logic seems to maybe sound better, but I'm wondering if I'm chopping out some of the sound or flattening it or something with that. And there is the matter of what volume to set the receiver at. Any tips on this stuff would be appreciated. Thanks!