Audio help required

[menace]

I have 2 avi's where the audio was recorded through the line-in of the soundcard (soundblaster pci128) and since converted to mpeg2 it sounds slightly distorted. Is there anyway to reduce the volume on the audio with re-capturing the whole thing?

Also, when i convert it to mpeg2, it sounds like my bass has dropped off or been reduced??? I am encoding mp2 at 384 kb/s is there anything i can do to bring the bass back up at the same time?

I used tmpgenc built in audio encoder but will be using toolame from now on to avoid this hassle!

thanks!

[menace]

I have just been testing and no matter what the sound comes out too loud--this is with line in turned virtually off. I read here somewhere that in order to compensate you have to pass it through another device. Since I have too many devices hooked to the puter already I am just going to get another soundcard with better quality line in

Any recommendations out there--50$ range does a nice quality capture, 2 or more channels 5.1 support would be nice--anything else you guys recommend?

[ndaher]

The Soundblaster Audigy is a very nice card. I have one and am very happy with the performance. 5.1 support, line-in, and even a Firewire port. You can get it for about $65 here: http://www.pagecomputers.com/cgi-bin/page/S0797394.html Hope this helps

[thefox149]

make sure it's not your mobo......What board do you have...if it's a via then what could be the problem is latency do a search on the forum for via latency and try the patch before you go buy another soundcard...well that is of course if you have a via...then all of this post was useless........hey man read my quote....

[menace]

Thanks for the tips--its not a via board so that not the problem. What about the SB live 5.1? Anyone have one of those? How does it perform?

[menace]

for any one with the same problem as me. i.e. can't get the line-in volume down low enough to prevent clipping, here is something i came across on another site:

Software Solution
First, try the input gain sliders in the "Input Levels" window. If you can move them, and if they have an effect on the input levels, you can drag the sliders to the left to reduce the input levels. If the sliders are not active, or moving them has no effect on the input levels, you need a hardware solution.

Hardware Solution
If you've determined that you can't adjust the input gain in your hardware from Sound Studio, check for any other way to adjust the gain. If your hardware includes a input level slider, use that. The Roland (Edirol) UA-30 and UA-3 have such sliders. Use them, even if the level meters on the hardware go into the red. What matters is the level meter in Sound Studio. As long as it doesn't clip in Sound Studio, you should not have any clipping.

What do you do if your hardware doesn't have a input level slider? You need to find another way to reduce the signal level at the inputs. The easy way is to reduce the volume on your source, be it a tape deck, amplifier, or instrument. Most things which output audio have an adjustable output somewhere, usually called a "headphone" jack. You can use the headphone jack, with the appropriate cables, instead of line-level outputs.

What if you don't have a headphone jack? This is where you may need another piece of hardware. You have many options here.

The least expensive is to get a headphone volume control. This is a little headphone extension cord with a thumb-wheel or a slider built-in which will adjust the signal level going through it. One such piece of hardware is the "Koss VC20 Inline Headphone Control."

If you want to spend a little more money, you can get a small stereo mixer which has knobs or sliders for adjusting levels. Then you just put the mixer between your source and your input device. Mixers are multi-function devices, and you can use them to record from microphones and electric guitars, to mix multiple sources, and to send the output to an external signal processor.

Another option is to get an amplifier with headphone jacks or other adjustable output. You could also build your own adjustable attenuator out of electronics parts, but this requires some expertise with electronics.

The thing to remember is that you want to adjust the levels before it goes into the A/D converter (audio input device), because that's where the clipping can occur. After it is turned into a digital stream of numbers, there is nothing you can do to get rid of the clipping, so you need to adjust the levels before that happens.