Thanks for the replies so far...here is the setup I'm using:
Numark TTX1 direct drive turntable
Standard 1/8" thick felt slipmats
Shure M44-7 Cartridge
Rolls VP29 Preamp (So I can go directly to the computer)
"Monster" style RCA patch cords
Dell optiplex GX260 p4 2.00ghz/512mb RAM/Soundblaster Audigy card

So, I think the sound card is the weak link at this point. I've always
heard that the Rolls Preamp's are good, but if you guys have other
suggestions I'm open. The reason I'm using the preamp is so I can
bypass my mixer and get the shortest path to the sound card. The carts
are less than 3 months old. I'm using the "S" style tone arm, and I've
adjusted the height, tracking, and weight per the instructions that
came with the carts. I also have a Nitty Gritty record cleaner that I
use to clean my vinyl before I record, and I use Gruv Glide after the
cleaning.
When I record, I use Sound Forge and I record at 44.1/16bit because
that's the highest the Audigy card will support reliably. I think that
44.1/16bit is "CD quality"...? I would like a card that can do higher
resolution, if you will, so that I can have good quality master files.
One of the main reasons I'm looking into this now is because I just
purchased a Stanton Final Scratch setup. If you're not familiar with
what that is, it allows you to play digital files on your computer
(.wav, .mp3 etc.) via turntables. I've been talking to a few other
DJ's that are also using this system and have been told that the
higher quality the sound file, the better it sounds, especially when
played at a higher sound volume. This may seem like an obvious
statement, but they are talking even beyond CD quality sound files.

In article writes:

So, I think the sound card is the weak link at this point. I've always
heard that the Rolls Preamp's are good, but if you guys have other
suggestions I'm open.

I don't know where the cartridge, turntable, arm, and preamps fit into
the scheme of things, but while the Audigy isn't the worlds greatest
sound card, I suspect that something else might be the weak link, if
there is one at all.

What's wrong with your recordings?

When I record, I use Sound Forge and I record at 44.1/16bit because
that's the highest the Audigy card will support reliably. I think that
44.1/16bit is "CD quality"...? I would like a card that can do higher
resolution, if you will, so that I can have good quality master files.

Understand that they'll never be better than what's coming out of the
preamp, but the recording, even with what you have, should be darn
close as long as you're careful to set the record level carefully,
making sure that you're not overloading at any time, nor are you
recording at too low a level.

As I recall, the Audigy actually works internally at 48 kHz and when
using it at 44.1 kHz, there's some hari-kari going on inside that
might cause it to sound noticably worse than if you were recording at
48 kHz. Since your goal is to play your recorded files off the
computer rather than burn CDs, record a few sides at 48 kHz and see
if that helps.




--
I'm really Mike Rivers - )

"CH" wrote in message

When I record, I use Sound Forge and I record at 44.1/16bit because
that's the highest the Audigy card will support reliably. I think that
44.1/16bit is "CD quality"...? I would like a card that can do higher
resolution, if you will, so that I can have good quality master files.


You ae right, the soundcard is *a* weak point. It should record up to 48K
fs, which is in fact preferably to anything else, as internally everything
gets resampled thru 48K whatever the source/destination sample rate, with
the Audigy and Live series !

geoff

"CH" wrote in message

When I record, I use Sound Forge and I record at 44.1/16bit because
that's the highest the Audigy card will support reliably. I think that
44.1/16bit is "CD quality"...? I would like a card that can do higher
resolution, if you will, so that I can have good quality master files.


You ae right, the soundcard is *a* weak point. It should record up to 48K
fs, which is in fact preferably to anything else, as internally everything
gets resampled thru 48K whatever the source/destination sample rate, with
the Audigy and Live series !

geoff