Excess Noise...AHHHH!!! I hate Noise!!

[clown7]

I have this problem. I have a
Tascam 424 MK2. That I use as a mixer to
send sound to my SoUND bLASTER 16 wAV sound CARD. Now I used the line out from the
Tascam into the line in of the cpu. I get
this annoying fuzz sound behind all my music.
I can't seem to get rid of it and also
I get a real low signal too.
What the hell could it be.
I'm using Cool Edit Pro to record.
If somebody could help me out I would be very
happy.......I also wouldn't destroy my cpu..
Donny

[Jon X]

Could be the SB16, they aren't known for being quiet. Do you only hear the noise once you are monitoring after the signal goes into the sound card, and not before when monitoring right from the 424?

[clown7]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Jon X:
Could be the SB16, they aren't known for being quiet. Do you only hear the noise once you are monitoring after the signal goes into the sound card, and not before when monitoring right from the 424?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Only after It's been in the cpu.
When I listen to it on the 4-track
it sounds great. I was thinking of recording
on to a vcr and using the 4-track as a mixer
and than recording it to the cpu from the vcr. May be that will cut down on the noise.

[joeguitar]

Do you have the WINdows "record" mixer turned up enough for the line input? Noise and "low" level tell me that you're not getting a good s/n ratio.

Good luck, joe

[Jon X]

Well, I've never used a VCR in my signal chain before, but normally the more things you put in the chain the more chance you're gonna have for noise to creep in. If you have the time though, try it and see. You never know.

Try first boosting the level coming out of the 4-track in order to get a stronger signal into the computer, THEN boost the windows record volume on the soundcard as joeguitar suggested if the level still is low. As long as the signal coming out of the 4-track isn't riddled with noise, then you should be able to turn it up to get a hotter signal into the soundcard. Also, to see if the problem is the soundcard, try running a line out from something else into it, like a stereo. Try a different cable if you have one too. Might take some trial and error on this one to figure out what it is, then once you do that you can fix the problem.