When I capture directly from my tv tuner I get great sound from my ati card, when I try to capture VHS from the composite connections the sound is not so great. I tried different record levels and it seems to take a lot of testing to get it close and still its not what I am looking for. I end up transferring through my dv cam to get perfect sound. Is there a way to know the exact level without doing multiple test records. Would a better sound card help the record sound or is it just for playback purposes? Currently I am running an old 16bit soundblaster card.

Should I just be working with the sound properties for record for setting levels, or does playback properties have some play into my record levels?