Is a USB connection better than sound card analog for transfering tapes to Hard Drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter northsinger
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northsinger

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Hi--

I am transferring some songs I wrote to digital format on hard drive, and then to CD.

I wonder if there is a cable that works like the USB mics that are used for voice activated programs. Instead of using analog (RCA) outputs from my tape deck into the SoundBlasterLive's mini-stereo analog input--

--can I go (and does it work) from the RCA's via a cable to the USB port of the computer, to have less soundcard interference?

I have gone that route with a headset for voice activated recording (with Dragon NaturallySpeaking), and the connection is very quiet and full.

Any ideas?

JoeLoesch@aol.com
 
From what I understand, you are trying to transfer music from your tape to your computer. Is that right?

What kind of tape machine is it?
 
This time around, it's a Sony cassette deck, fairly high quality. It has two RCA outputs.
 
...can I go (and does it work) from the RCA's via a cable to the USB port of the computer, to have less soundcard interference?
Click to expand...

Hello again...

You seem to be somewhat confused here. There is no significant difference between what happens to a signal that you connect to a sound card's Line In amd one that you connect to a audio device that connects to the computer via a USB port. Ther is no "cable" that you can use to magically turn the analog signal carried by an RCA cable to a USB connector on a computer. There has to be a analog-to-digital converter in the chain. Any computer audio interface requires that the analog signal from your microphone or other source be converted into a digital representation before the computer can do anything with it.

The difference is that the sound card is connected directly to the computer's data bus (usually via a PCI slot these days) while the USB devices must connect to the USB port before getting into the computer's data bus. The former has way more bandwidth; hence the multitude of cards that can take four or eight or more analog signals and pass them individually into the computer at 24-bit, 96 kHz, while the best USB device claims it can pass four input tracks of audio in if you keep it set to 16-bit and 44.1 kHz.

Beyond those restrictions on the USB devices, the result is more-or-less identical. The signal from the analog source is digitized so the computer can pass it around as data, manipulate it, etc.

Whatever "interference" a sound card introduces, is also introduced by a USB device. Except for variations in quality, of course. A cheap audio interface like the on-board chips that so many motherboards boast these days will have relatively crappy AD converters compared to a nice $200+ USB box from M-Audio or Tascam or Roland, in exactly the same way it will differ from a good $200+ PCI card like the M-Audio Audiophile or the Echo Mia.

If you already have a Sound Blaster or something, there's really no need to get a USB device.
 
Going from your tape deck to the line input of your soundblaster live should be fine. If you are unhappy with the sound quality of the soundblaster then you should purchase a soundcard with better quality converters like an M-Audio Audiophile, Echo Mia etc.
 
Thanks Alchuck and Alfalfa. My USB thought was based on comparing recordings of voice into Windows-Recorder, with an analog and a USB headset, in getting involved with Dragon NaturallySpeaking. The voice recording through my soundblaster (which is fairly new) had background noise sort of like ... when you open a can of soda. The USB was just quiet. Hence the question.
 
Could be the USB headset mic was a better one than the cheap SB Live mic, if that's what you were using.

For serious recording you would get a good mic and a preamp for it and send the preamp's signal into the Line input.

You can also use the USB mic if you still have it...

I'm confused when you say "with an analog and a USB headset."
 
Hi Alchuck--

To answer your question, the "analog" was the headset that I plugged into my Sounblaster Live! card, as opposed to the "digital" USB headset/cable.

My entire question began with someone on one of these forums saying that for voice activated applications, if you use a headset that has a USB cable as part of the headset (such as the Plantronics DSP), then your voice enters the computer in digital format. Whereas, when you plug into the mini-jack of your sound card with a regular headset (Plantronics again, but not USB), you are putting in an analog signal which must go through the sound card as analog before getting converted into digital format. The person writing (who sells high calibre mics and such) presented this as a way to get the voice into the computer in a cleaner fashion, without possible sound-card noises. So I bought the Plantronics/USB headset, and compared recordings into Windows recorder with that headset and the other; there was zero background noise with the USB set, but some hazy or bubbly noise in the background with the non-USB. And I have stuck with the USB since then.

I thought the same might be true with sending taped songs into the hard drive: send them in "already digital" through a USB connection, for a cleaner transfer.
 
Exactly.

The USB device simply does its analog-to-digital conversion first, then sends it to the computer via USB.

The regular mic plugs into the SoundBlaster's Mic In, which includes a preamp in the circuit that gets the mic signal raised up to the right level, then digitizes it.

As I was suggesting, no doubt the headset mic device simply is superior upstream of the analog-to-digital converter.

You could probably get even better results with a good traditional recording mic routed through a decent mic preamp, the output of which is then sent to the Sound Blaster's Line input.
 
Thanks for all the tips, Alchuck. --Re using a mic, I am transferring tapes, rather than singing/playing live on this go-round. But better sound cards are maybe the thing to do. Thanks again.
 
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