Help needed, with turntable

:) The problem I encountered is not in the turntable actually but rather in the receiver or jack or computer:

I connected the turntable to the receiver thru which it plays fine. Then I connected the receiver and the computer (to record off the record) thru headphone outlet and that's where the problem starts: it gives a loud humming signal particularly loud in one channel (the music isn't even audible). Why's that? When I put my headphones in there it plays perfect thru them but when I put the wire that connects to the computer is distorts badly. I checked the wire it's good. So it's either the connecting jack (connects the wire to the outlet) or the receiver???

Please, does anyone know what is wrong with the damn thing?

I do believe that you need some software to turn analogue sound into a digital form.

Best ask the Doctor about that one.

OK, I am assuming this is not a normal record deck.....but instead it is one with a built in pre-amp ( if it has a headphone output it MUST have something to re-apply the bass to the vynil as well as make it audible on headphones).

It sounds to me like you are suffering from one or both of the following......

1. You need to "ground" your deck to the PC. If your turntable as a thin wire with no connector or a flat florked connector, that just hangs out the back of it somewhere, you shoul connect that to something on the PC that is connected to Earth, the metal case is usually a good bet, but you may have to scrape a teeny bit of paint away to get good contact ( you could attach it to the casing of the power supply, but if you're any kind ofa spastic it'd be too easy to poke the thing INTO the PSU and blow, the turntable, the PC and your arse into the next world. TBH though, if the deck is outputting Headphone level, I am SURE it has some internal "pseudo-grounding"

2. It's just a level and/or impedance (the same thing exactly as resistance, but always called by the other term when referring to alternating current such as audio signals.) Essentially, you are either trying to pour a litre into a pint glass, or trying to hit a "slow down" ramp in the road at 200km/h. First make sure you are not going in on the computer's mic input ( the one that typically has a pink identifier), but rather the line-in (pale blue I think), secondly, since headphone level ( and impedance) do not match even line level, you should turn the volume on the turntable, if it has one, RIHT down to 0 and then start edging it up slowly...you will find the distortion cuts back in really early, when the volume is seemingly "too" low, but it'll work. If this gets you nowhere...there's only really two options....either try and find an attenuator plug which will cut the headphone level down to something the PC can handle (they can be a bastard to find but if there's a big hobbyist's electronics and hi-fi shop in town they might have them, but I was looking for exactly the same thing on ebay recently, for almost the same reason you may need one, and couln't find one), OR plug your turntable into your hi-hi if it's a half decent one, and then feed the hi-fi amplifier's "record out" to the PC's line-in socket, where it should be just the right signal.

Ron, I am not going to comment on your answer until you've read it back a few tmes and seen the fundamental retardation of it yerself ;)

PS if you have recording software or a mixer applet with meters on it, make sure you still hear distortion when you turn the input record level down, if not, if the signal sounds fine as soon as the red "lights" go off, you've just been over-recording.

PPS, on re-reading your post, I see that you are indeed already running through your hi-hi amplifier, so forget all the stuff about earthing...it's just too much damn level. Look for a "record out" (it's where you would connect a tape deck to record what the amp is playing) and connect THAT to the PC, or try the massive volume reductions I suggested above. Certainly any output designed for making headphones work, will be FAR too hot for a line-in, and a thousand times more so for a mic-in.

Doctor? wrote:

Ron, I am not going to comment on your answer until you've read it back a few tmes and seen the fundamental retardation of it yerself ;)

man that's harsh. could have just called me ignorant, which would have been fair.

NOOLigan wrote:

Doctor? wrote:

Ron, I am not going to comment on your answer until you've read it back a few tmes and seen the fundamental retardation of it yerself ;)

man that's harsh. could have just called me ignorant, which would have been fair.

nope, ignorant would get you of the hook of knowing better :D

The SOUNDCARD does the digitizing, and even WITH that, what you hear from the inputs is (95% of the time) actually an analogue pass-through. Your brain got all confused, between what DIGITAL sounds like played back untranslated didn't it :D

Doctor? wrote:

NOOLigan wrote:

Doctor? wrote:

Ron, I am not going to comment on your answer until you've read it back a few tmes and seen the fundamental retardation of it yerself ;)

man that's harsh. could have just called me ignorant, which would have been fair.

nope, ignorant would get you of the hook of knowing better :D

The SOUNDCARD does the digitizing, and even WITH that, what you hear from the inputs is (95% of the time) actually an analogue pass-through. Your brain got all confused, between what DIGITAL sounds like played back untranslated didn't it :D

I was supposed to know that.

Thank you, Steve. I found out further that it has nothing to do with the turntable actually. I just disconnected it from the amplifier and basically tried to see what you can get in teh computer from the amplifier - it's all the same. It looks like it now:

Receiver ---(thru headphone outlet)---> PS outlet (into the pink one). As I see it doesm't matter about the PC outlets since one is for recording and the one just for hearing thu the speakers. I was just puzzled why I could get a good signal in my headphones thru the same outlet but it comes so distorted to the PC via the same wires.

I guess you're right about ehh the strength (ohms?). I've never been good at electricity. But 3 years ago, with another amplifier and turntable I did manage to record into Pc without any problems that's why this new issue so upset me (I just bought the turntable solely for this purpose).

Ah you ONLY have a mic-input then ( the pink one), eeeeek that's a toughie. Still worth using the hi-fi's tape-out if it has one on the back, that'll be a much gentler signal than from a phones socket, but it'll still overcook a mic-input.

A wee USB sound device might help, at least it will have a line-in on it not jst mic.

Hallelujah, I got it right! I turned my back to my big o amplifier and tried to connect the turntable to my bedroom stereo that I use for DVD player and it did work (thru headphone outlet again). The sound is pretty clear. Now I'm ready to re-collect records. So fadr I have only one LP and three singles here. All my previous record collection is thousands miles away and I'll probably hardly see it again.

Thanks, Steve.