--- Forwarded Message from Damion Renner <[log in to unmask]> ---

>Date: Fri, 28 Jun 2002 15:30:55 -0400
>From: Damion Renner <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]

Date:    Thu, 27 Jun 2002 16:07:43 EDT
From:    LLTI-Editor <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: #6727 Recording from cassette into computer


Hello Mr. Millard,
        A better sound card will if anything produce a better
signal to noise ratio, though any 16 bit PCI sound card should
be adequate for digitizing analog material.  The sound quality will
depend a great deal on the quality of the source.  If you have poorly
recorded tapes, the end result will be poor in quality.  For poor quality
tape recordings, i use a Tascam 133 tape deck which allows me to boost the
left and right channels independently to get a stronger output signal. The
Deck also has Dolby Noise reduction which removes some of the surface
noise before it gets to the sound card.   Once the recording is digitized
you can further improve the sound quality by using the filters within a
sound editor like Cool Edit Pro or Sound Forge.  CEP has a noise reduction
filter which I've found very useful for voice recordings, and the eq is
not bad either.  Just remember with poor quality recording the best you
can do is to try and make it sound better than the original...the success
of this depends on various techniques which you'll have to experiment
with. Let me know if you have specific questions as I've done a great deal
of this type of work using many different combinations of hardware and
software, not limited to what I mentioned above.

Good Luck
-Damion Renner

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
    Damion Renner
 Multimedia Specialist
-Multimedia Centre in the Humanities

 Information Officer/Webmaster
-Computing in the Humanities

Phone: 416-926-1300 x.3256
       416-978-2535
Email: [log in to unmask]
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_




--- Forwarded Message from [log in to unmask] ---

>From: [log in to unmask]
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Recording from cassette into computer
>Date: Tue, 25 Jun 2002 08:20:31 -0400

>We have faculty who would like to record from cassette directly into our
>Language Lab computers using LINE IN.

>While it does record, the audio quality is very poor, unacceptable for
>their
>use. Has anyone dealt with this problem before? Is it because we are
>bringing analog sound into a digital source? If we invest in higher
>quality
>sound cards will this help?

>I'm not worried about formats or compression, etc at this time. Once I
>get
>higher quality .wav files I can deal with converting them later.

>Any insight you can provide would be much appreciated.

>Thanks!

>Jim Millard
>Senior Technology Support Specialist
>Instructional Technology Center
>Saint Michael's College
>DL337, Box L
>Colchester, VT 05439

>(802) 654-2983

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