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#1
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Recording level low - Nomrd Jukdbox Zen Extra to Audigy 2ZS Platium Pro
I'm saving the pre recorded songs that came with the Jukebox in analog mode
from the headphone jack from the Jukebox to the Audigy Line-in 3 RCA inputs on the Audigy 2ZS external box. I have both the volume on the Jukebox and the recording level on the Audigy at maximum but the recording level monitor barely moved (one or two bars). S/N ratio couldn't be too great so what gives? Not enough gain on the Audigy and is this normal? |
#2
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Recording level low - Nomrd Jukdbox Zen Extra to Audigy 2ZS Platium Pro
# Fred # wrote: headphone jack from the Jukebox to the Audigy Line-in 3 RCA inputs on the Audigy 2ZS external box. I have both the volume on the Jukebox and the recording level on the Audigy at maximum but the recording level monitor barely moved (one or two bars). S/N ratio couldn't be too great so what gives? Not enough gain on the Audigy and is this normal? You're asking if something that's obviously wrong is normal? A better question is "What's wrong?" There should be enough level from the headphone output to drive a reasonable analog input to an acceptable recording level. You may not have the record level adusted properly for your Audigy card. I'm assuming you're using Windows. Open the Windows mixer, select Properties, Recording, and then select the Audigy. Make sure that the line level input slider is up. I suppose that it's possible that you're using an incorrect cable to get between the headphone jack and the RCA jacks. You might have a cable that's designed to go from RCA outputs to a mic level input, and the signal is attenuated going through the cable. It works both ways. Finally, I don't know what "one or two bars" represents. I guess that's a sort of meter. Is that two out of three, or two out of ten, or what? |
#3
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Recording level low - Nomrd Jukdbox Zen Extra to Audigy 2ZS Platium Pro
Finally, I don't know what "one or two bars" represents. I guess that's
a sort of meter. Is that two out of three, or two out of ten, or what? What kind of bars? Maybe he was drunk and didn't set the levels properly? :-) |
#4
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Recording level low - Nomrd Jukdbox Zen Extra to Audigy 2ZS Platium Pro
"Mike Rivers" wrote in message oups.com... # Fred # wrote: headphone jack from the Jukebox to the Audigy Line-in 3 RCA inputs on the Audigy 2ZS external box. I have both the volume on the Jukebox and the recording level on the Audigy at maximum but the recording level monitor barely moved (one or two bars). S/N ratio couldn't be too great so what gives? Not enough gain on the Audigy and is this normal? You're asking if something that's obviously wrong is normal? A better question is "What's wrong?" There should be enough level from the headphone output to drive a reasonable analog input to an acceptable recording level. You may not have the record level adusted properly for your Audigy card. I'm assuming you're using Windows. Open the Windows mixer, select Properties, Recording, and then select the Audigy. Make sure that the line level input slider is up. I suppose that it's possible that you're using an incorrect cable to get between the headphone jack and the RCA jacks. You might have a cable that's designed to go from RCA outputs to a mic level input, and the signal is attenuated going through the cable. It works both ways. Finally, I don't know what "one or two bars" represents. I guess that's a sort of meter. Is that two out of three, or two out of ten, or what? Thanks for the reply Mike. WinXP and recording level already at maximum on the mixer. I've switched to another set of audio cables from another setup with no improvement. One or two bars I mean about 5% of the full recording meter scale. I could drive recording level to saturation where the recording meter scale turn from green to red but that would be very loud from the headphone output jack - where you could feel the music - from my table radio. I suspect either the gain on the Audigy is a little low but wonder if others have the same problem. |
#5
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Recording level low - Nomrd Jukdbox Zen Extra to Audigy 2ZS Platium Pro
# Fred # wrote: I suspect either the gain on the Audigy is a little low but wonder if others have the same problem. Yes, this is a common problem, and not just with the Audigy/Jukebox combination. It can occur any time you don't know what output level or input sensitivity you have. But you might just not be interpreting the meters correctly. If you're recording at 5% of maximum level, that's -26 dBFS. It's only 10 dB below a "good" level. Do you have anything else that you can connect to your Audigy to see whether you can get the level up any higher? If something's broken, you need to determine what it is, and if nothing's broken, then you need to determine what you have. Just by the nature of these things, an RCA input jack should have adequate sensitivity to record a headphone output level. Does your Jukebox have a Line Output jack? Try that. Maybe headphone outputs aren't what they used to be. |
#6
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Recording level low - Nomrd Jukdbox Zen Extra to Audigy 2ZS Platium Pro
"Mike Rivers" wrote in message oups.com... # Fred # wrote: I suspect either the gain on the Audigy is a little low but wonder if others have the same problem. Yes, this is a common problem, and not just with the Audigy/Jukebox combination. It can occur any time you don't know what output level or input sensitivity you have. But you might just not be interpreting the meters correctly. If you're recording at 5% of maximum level, that's -26 dBFS. It's only 10 dB below a "good" level. Do you have anything else that you can connect to your Audigy to see whether you can get the level up any higher? If something's broken, you need to determine what it is, and if nothing's broken, then you need to determine what you have. Just by the nature of these things, an RCA input jack should have adequate sensitivity to record a headphone output level. Does your Jukebox have a Line Output jack? Try that. Maybe headphone outputs aren't what they used to be. My Jukebox has both headphone jack and a USB 2.0 port but no line out. I couldn't upload from the USB because the pre-installed songs were factory locked but I wanted to save it before I remove it from the Jukebox. Also I have about six portable MP3 players and all of them don't have a lot of gain to drive headphones very loud but most of my music is pop anyway so I don't drive it hard except when I need to record it to the Audigy. In any case, here is something new for me: My portable CD player has both output and a headphone jacks and when I adjust the sound level on the headphone jack to the same level as on the line out and connected to RCA input on the Audigy the results were surprisingly different. On the CD player via the headphone jack, the record level on the Audigy didn't register at all but on the line out the record level is at 40% ! I didn't know the impedances were so different between line out and headphone so I really need a pre amp for the headphone output to match the impedance to the RCA input on the Audigy to get good quality recordings. No? |
#7
Posted to rec.audio.pro
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Recording level low - Nomrd Jukdbox Zen Extra to Audigy 2ZS Platium Pro
# Fred # wrote: My portable CD player has both output and a headphone jacks and when I adjust the sound level on the headphone jack to the same level as on the line out and connected to RCA input on the Audigy the results were surprisingly different. On the CD player via the headphone jack, the record level on the Audigy didn't register at all but on the line out the record level is at 40% This was a case of impedance mismatching, or rather, impedance matching. Headphones require some power but a line input (on your Audigy) requires only voltage and negligiable current. So the line output actually drops quite a bit when you plug in the headphones. A headphone output has a lower source impedance, so the voltage doesn't drop very much when connected to headphones, which are a lower impedance load than your Audigy input. When you matched the apparent level in the phones by adjusting the volume control on your CD player, you probably turned it down quite a bit. Can you turn the headphone volume up far enough to match the record level you're getting when you connect the line output to your Audigy? If your Audigy has a mic level input, that might be a better match for a wimpy headphone output than the line input. |
#8
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Recording level low - Nomrd Jukdbox Zen Extra to Audigy 2ZS Platium Pro
"Mike Rivers" wrote in message oups.com... # Fred # wrote: My portable CD player has both output and a headphone jacks and when I adjust the sound level on the headphone jack to the same level as on the line out and connected to RCA input on the Audigy the results were surprisingly different. On the CD player via the headphone jack, the record level on the Audigy didn't register at all but on the line out the record level is at 40% This was a case of impedance mismatching, or rather, impedance matching. Headphones require some power but a line input (on your Audigy) requires only voltage and negligiable current. So the line output actually drops quite a bit when you plug in the headphones. A headphone output has a lower source impedance, so the voltage doesn't drop very much when connected to headphones, which are a lower impedance load than your Audigy input. When you matched the apparent level in the phones by adjusting the volume control on your CD player, you probably turned it down quite a bit. Can you turn the headphone volume up far enough to match the record level you're getting when you connect the line output to your Audigy? Yes If your Audigy has a mic level input, that might be a better match for a wimpy headphone output than the line input. The mic input looks like it has a different equalization circuit as it only gets more distorted but not louder when the gain on the mike input is turned up. |
#9
Posted to rec.audio.pro
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Recording level low - Nomrd Jukdbox Zen Extra to Audigy 2ZS Platium Pro
# Fred # wrote: The mic input looks like it has a different equalization circuit as it only gets more distorted but not louder when the gain on the mike input is turned up. You need an Audigy expert, not a generalist. That may be a "consumer" card but there's got to be a way to make this work. Sadly, Creative Labs doesn't offer a lot in the way of documentation. You couid decide that it's time to get rid of that Audigy and get something that doesn't have too many tricks and more standard connections. |
#10
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Recording level low - Nomrd Jukdbox Zen Extra to Audigy 2ZS Platium Pro
"# Fred #" wrote in message
The mic input looks like it has a different equalization circuit as it only gets more distorted but not louder when the gain on the mike input is turned up. That probably means that the mic input has its gain control in the digital domain, and the source is clipping out the input circuitryu that comes before the gain control. Line level should work well enough with the output of a CD player. If necessary, boost the signal after recording using your digital editing software. If you don't have a digital audio editor available, download the Audacity freeware. |
#11
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Recording level low - Nomrd Jukdbox Zen Extra to Audigy 2ZS Platium Pro
"Mike Rivers" wrote in message oups.com... # Fred # wrote: My portable CD player has both output and a headphone jacks and when I adjust the sound level on the headphone jack to the same level as on the line out and connected to RCA input on the Audigy the results were surprisingly different. On the CD player via the headphone jack, the record level on the Audigy didn't register at all but on the line out the record level is at 40% This was a case of impedance mismatching, or rather, impedance matching. Headphones require some power but a line input (on your Audigy) requires only voltage and negligiable current. So the line output actually drops quite a bit when you plug in the headphones. A headphone output has a lower source impedance, so the voltage doesn't drop very much when connected to headphones, which are a lower impedance load than your Audigy input. When you matched the apparent level in the phones by adjusting the volume control on your CD player, you probably turned it down quite a bit. Can you turn the headphone volume up far enough to match the record level you're getting when you connect the line output to your Audigy? Yes If your Audigy has a mic level input, that might be a better match for a wimpy headphone output than the line input. The mic input looks like it has a different equalization circuit as it only gets more distorted but not louder when the gain on the mike input is turned up. |
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