Bringing Line Level down to mic level

J

jac.pic

New member
I have a cassette recorder and tapes that I want to mixdown into my interface.
Bad news is that my cassette recorder puts out line level while my interface only accepts mics and instruments.

What can I use to bring the signal from my cassette recorder down to mic level.
I had someone mention the ART Cleanbox Pro... is that good? Most everything I see brings the signal up while I need mine lowered.
 
A few years ago, line and instrument level were pretty well interchangeable. Most cassette decks will work pretty well into the instrument inputs - have you tried it? Just fur the gain down and it's almost certainly going to be fine. With cassettes being a bit hissy anyway, using a DI box to get the cassette output down to mic level and then using more gain to get it up again won't do your noise figures much good. Slap the thing into the instrument input and try it out - on my Tascam interface, the instrument input can handle a very wide range of levels with no issues.
 
Definitely try it first. If you still need to bring it down because there's not enough headroom, you could try an A-Designs ATTY or some other attenuator
 
A mic preamp at unity gain is a line level input. Many are at unity when turned all the way down. Some go even below unity. The impedance might be a bit low for some sources, but will often be fine.
 
jac.pic said:
I have a cassette recorder and tapes that I want to mixdown into my interface.
Bad news is that my cassette recorder puts out line level while my interface only accepts mics and instruments.

What can I use to bring the signal from my cassette recorder down to mic level.
I had someone mention the ART Cleanbox Pro... is that good? Most everything I see brings the signal up while I need mine lowered.
Click to expand...

What interface are you using?
 
As the cassette deck will be -10db line level, plugging it into the mic inputs will be fine with the trim turned down. Make sure the phantom power is OFF.

If you need to pad the level you can do this with a very simple circuit see here.

Wiring diagram below for connecting RCA to XLR.

Alan.

XLR-RCA2.gif
 
You interface should accept a -10 line level signal just fine.

If you really need to bring line level down to mic level, that's what a passive DI box is for.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top