trying to record sound from in-line cassette connection, some distortion...

[mizugori]

I have one of those small handheld tape recorders, and I have connected it to the blue line-in port on a computer. then i tried using a couple of different programs, such as goldwave and blaze mp, to record a sound file from the tape. it works reasonably well but the file sounds a bit different than the tape, it almost sounds like the person speaking is standing in a stairwell.

i tried using the highest quality settings but it makes no difference.

any suggestions? is there any way I can improve this?

thanks!!!

[Arpatle]

There could be a few reasons for this:
1) The cable from your tape recorder to your computer is soldered in the wrong way or the cable is broken. Check the bottom of this (http://www.colomar.com/Shavano/ringtip.html) page to see how to solder these cables correctly.
2) The plug isn't pushed deep enough in its connector.
3) Go to the software mixer of your soundcard and disable every reverb/dsp/3d/spatial/whatever effect.

[mizugori]

none of the above =(

it's a cable from radio shack no soldering, connections are in tight, no special mixing stuff on the sound card is on...

[robertruetz]

This might be a silly question, but was the interview recorded in a stairwell? Sometimes you won't hear room echo or reverb on the tiny little speaker on one of those players. However, it will be horribly present when you get it onto a computer. I'm assuming you're using the headphone output of the tape recorder to record these from?

Rob
:cool:

[GZsound]

This might be a silly question, but was the interview recorded in a stairwell? Sometimes you won't hear room echo or reverb on the tiny little speaker on one of those players. However, it will be horribly present when you get it onto a computer. I'm assuming you're using the headphone output of the tape recorder to record these from?

Rob
:cool:


That's what I'm thinking.. he's using the headphone output, which is a "driven" signal and it is overdriving the line level input to the computer. That would cause distortion.