Excessive noise on casette tape

[nigelew]

Hi. No problem recording from phono deck, but unable to record from casette deck due to excessive interference which completely destroys the music.  Any suggestions?

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

How is the cassette deck cabled to the PC? Is it going through the same amp as your turntable?  If so, does the cassette deck play back correctly through the loudspeakers connected to the amp?  If not, you know that the problem lies outside the PC (which it almost certainly does anyway).  You can also try alternative methods of connecting the cassette deck to the PC (such as running a cable from the deck directly to line-in on your sound card) - a bit of trial and error might resolve the problem.  You can use the 'monitor recording' facility in VinylStudio's Check Level dialog to listen to the signal coming into the PC (uncheck this box if you hear an echo).

If you can't get anywhere, perhaps you'd like to send us a short recording so we can take a listen.  The easiest way to do this is probably to select a minute or so of music in the Cleanup Audio screen and then use 'Save Selection As' after right-clicking in the waveform display.  Please save in MP3 format to keep the file size down and please uncheck the 'Save Corrections' box (so we get to hear the 'raw' recording).

As of a few minutes ago, you should have our direct email address Nigel as I have replied to your change-of-address request.  I prefer not to publish it here to cut down on spam.

[nigelew]

Hi Paul.  I'm using a JVC stack system vintage 1992, but it's a quality piece of kit.  The stack has turntable, amp, tuner, casette deck and CD player.  For both turntable and casette I've used a 1/4 stereo jack in to the phones out socket, and mini stereo jack into mic in on the laptop (which is a stereo socket).  This config has worked really well for handling vinyl LPs, but the noise on casette means that the transferred data is ruined.  Last night I managed to get a viable transfer after using rumble and hiss filters, but the resultant remainder sounded like a track that was going through a wah wah.  I then tried a walkman type casette player (Panasonic, so again, quality kit), which a little less noisy.  Any comment on this?  If not, I'll make a recording and send it.  Thanks - love the cat.  Best -   Nigel

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

Hi Nigel,

Yes, please send the recording.

[nigelew]

Paul

Noisy track sent by e mail.  Should I send it a different way?

Nigel

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

OK, I got it, thanks.  It sounds like a signal cable might be damaged - there is a lot of mains hum and that usually indicates that the signal cable earth is not connected properly, either because of a broken wire or a faulty plug or socket.  I suggest you try giving all the cables a good wiggle, and then replace them one by one if necessary.  Also, try recording from a known good source to try and isolate the faulty component.  I take it you have checked that the cassette deck itself is not faulty.

Just to reassure you, this is not a software problem but it is conceivable that your sound card has developed a fault since you successfuly recorded from vinyl.  That's most unlikely though.  As I say, work by a process of elimination - it's the only way.

Hope this helps - Paul.

[nigelew]

Paul - looks like it was the cassette causing the problem  Got a clean recording from my walkman using the same cable on a different album on tape.  Will use my JVC stack to record again tomorrow, but I think that's the prob solved.  Will let you know.
Best

Nigel

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

OK, thanks for letting me know.  Here's a sample of how it sounds, just in case anyone's interested:

http://www.alpinesoft.co.uk/forum_images/noise.mp3

Small wonder that VinylStudio was not very successful in cleaning it up!  It generally does very well with cassettes.