[Davie]

Here's the situation -- I'm going from a tape deck to the mic in on my PC. To make sure I know what's coming out of the tape deck, I'm recording from the headphone jack, though the same problems are happening when I use the line out. I am unable to monitor the recording through the PC while I'm recording it -- can't hear a thing. Using the built in sound recorder or Total Recorder, I am able to record to mp3 and then play back through the PC sound board -- but it's converted from stereo to mono! I'm able to record in stereo with no problems from the sound board using sources other than the microphone (for example, realaudio). I've fiddled with various sound settings and am not getting anywhere.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

 

[fewtch]

The mic input is probably mono-only, since most mics are monaural. Isn't there a regular line-in?

 

[Davie]

It's a laptop and there's only one input jack (with a little picture of a microphone next to it). God, I hope it's not mono. That would really suck. Time to check the documentation...

 

[fewtch]

There are some pretty inexpensive USB soundcards around, that would probably be a good option (provided the one you chose had a line level input

).

 

[nickchen]

Uuuuups, from Tape's 6,3 HP out into soundcard, don't do that !!!!!! I've tried the same as a newbee with my old Guillemot soundcard, and after 2 or 3 weeks, one chip on the soundcard was destroyed (that was visible), and all input devices were dead afterwards. Found out later that 6,3 input was 5 times stronger than intended line in or micro default.

Be reasonable, crawl behind your hifi equipment and use the cinch out !!!

EDIT: I'd agree with fewtch, there are pretty good external solutions. Your laptop "thingway" propably doesn't support duplex mode, recording & playing at the same time. If you're willing to spent 100-150 bucks, you'll even be able to get into high end quality range. Last test I read (Dec 2004), the external USB or firewire solutions of Terratec and Creative dominated the whole field, getting 100 respective 98 points of 100 possible. Guess that was because they are situated "apart" from other interfering devices, i.e. grafic chip.