Not getting a clean recording on my PC...

[Kris]

I am trying to create a WAV file from an FM radio station by connecting my boom-box's headphone output to my PC sound card's mike input. I tried this for the 1st time today and the resultant recording was distorted (the vocals were clipped, missing in places, etc.) and filled with noise & hiss. Can you tell me how to get a good recording? My ultimate goal is to transfer the contents of a cassette tape onto CD. For the record, my PC is a PIII-500 running Win 98 with a Yamaha DS-XG sound card, 128 MB RAM and a 10G hard drive which is half-empty. I am using the Windows Sound Recorder accessory to do the recording and have tried playing back the resultant WAV file using both Sound Recorder and Windows Media Player, with the same resultant poor quality of recorded sound. In the past, I have recorded a friend playing the guitar using a microphone connected to the same socket on the sound card and the recording was satisfactory. So, I am wondering if the input from the boom-box is of too high an amplitude for the sound card, or some such similar incompatibility. Any suggestions you have would be very helpful.
Thanks,
Kris

 

[gaffa]

Two main points here - don't use the windows sound recorder, and don't use the mic in.
The mic in sockets are notoriously crap. Use the line in socket instead. That will solve half you're problems.

The other half of you problems will be solved by not using the Windows Sound Recorder. This weak excuse for a program can record only a minute of sound - no more, and for some reason it always sounds really bad.

Download one of the shareware programs that can record - I think that goldwave http://www.goldwave.com and Sound Forge XP (cona't remember the address) both record very happily, and the recording will be far superior than the Win Sound Recorder.

Also, be careful with the headphones output - it is not a line level output. See if your boom box has a proper line out, and use that. If not, it can be done with the headphone output, but you'll have to be a bit judicious with the headphone volume to make sure you don't overload the line in (which it sounds like you currently are.)

Hope you get it going

- gaffa

 

[Slackmaster2K]

I always wondered about that stupid sound recorder? Why the hell did they stick that 60 second limit on there?

A long time ago I realized that if you record a 60 second blank wave, and then hit record again, it will allow you to record for another 60 seconds and so on. Stupid, but I used to use it to pull tunes off of my 4-track way back when.

Anyway, that's off topic. As gaffa said, you need a better wave recorder/editor. Goldwave is very nice.

Slackmaster 2000