Robin, It sounds like you are on the way to a solution, but it is not impossible that the input jacks on your Bose speakers might work. However, you will need to explore your sound settings when something is plugged into that jack. The fact that your speakers are USB speakers implies that they are already acting as a second sound card. The trick might be that if they support inputs as well, you will have to switch to the inputs associated with the Bose speaker in the record tab within the sound settings on Control Panel. The Bose option, if there is one, may not be active unless something is plugged into the input jacks. It is at least worth a try. If you get another sound card, you are probably going to still need to explore the sound settings to get things to work, so doing some exploring in case you don't need the additional sound card won't be a waste of time.
It is also possible that your Microphone input on your desktop is still set for microphone and that it is overloading. The sound settings might be able to change the function of that jack to Line in which could clear things up. In addition, sometimes the Microphone dialog has a check box for additional amplification. Unchecking that box and lowering the volume level associated with it might work as well. However, sometimes I have found the input jack on the front of a computer is not stereo. Have you explored the back of your desktop? There are usually additional jacks. If your workstation is a laptop in a docking station, that can confuse matters further. Like you, I was more comfortable when each jack had a function and you new what it was. On my newest desktop, pretty much any jack can have any function. When I plug in headphones, a dialog asks which device did I plug in and I select headphones and then they work. I can use a microphone or headphones in either of the front panel jacks depending upon how I answer the dialog. In my case, some of the assignments are not easy to manage because the dialog doesn't work well with screen readers. Anyway, I hope you are able to get it figured out. Best regards, Steve Jacobson -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Robin Frost Sent: Tuesday, February 4, 2020 4:02 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [all-audio] Query about recording audio cassettes to mp3 via the pc Hi,, Awww you made me smile. actually when I did try using the mic/line in jack on the desktop tower its resulting sound was hideous I mean awful which is what started this trek down the proverbial rabbit trail. I spotted a reasonably priced sound blaster USB card which I consider purchasing to use solely for recording I just hope using such wouldn't impact my Bose speakers which plug into the pc via USB as well. In theory one would think that I could keep the Bose as my default for output and use the sound blaster solely for recording and such but one never knows with such things these days. Thanks for your reply I appreciate you. Robin On 2/4/2020 4:46 PM, Curtis Delzer wrote: > > I bet your speakers are just amplifying the sound from the cassette > directly. Try plugging your cassette deck into the microphone / aux plug > on your PC and hopefully a circuit in there will determine which to use > e.g. you don't want microphone amplification on the high level of the > cassette audio, or, you can look into your properties of the audio mixer > of the laptop and see if you can switch to "high level" input or auxiliary > type input, and there you can probably "monitor" the input with the > speakers, via an adjustment inside one of the pages of the recording input > of that item. Inexpensive sound cards with solutions to this kind of issue > are readily available, as well as such as > > virtual audio cable which can direct any sound source into as much as you > could possibly need, all behind the scenes. > > I use that all the time for many things. :) > > Hopefully your laptop has a facility which will suit your needs. > > and, I believe you are a bright girl, why not? > > > Curtis Delzer > HS > K 6 V F O > Rialto, CA > > [email protected] > > On 2/4/2020 6:22 AM, Robin Frost wrote: > >> Hi, >> >> Firstly I'd like to apologize in advance if my question isn't the most >> clearly stated. I used to be a smart girl but now suddenly I don't feel >> so anymore so when answering just assume I know nothing (laughs). >> >> It used to be that my desktop had a real dedicated sound card with tons of >> jacks from which to choose. However, sadly my newer HP Elite Work Station >> desktop is only fitted with the two jacks on front one for headset and one >> for microphone line in or so it'd seem. Firstly the sound from these seems >> to me to be worse than horrific. For speakers I'm using the Bose >> Companion 5's I think they were called which are lo longer produced. >> These speakers have a microphone line-in jack on their volume control and >> if I run a patch cord from say a cassette deck to it I can hear the output >> but no recording program seems to pick it up through stereo mix. >> >> Phew now with all that out of the way I'm wondering if any of you really >> smart and capable people have any thoughts on how one can make this work. >> Is the best way forward to grab a USB sound card and install it and set it >> for input only? If so have you any model recommendations? And if I plug >> one of these things in is it gonna disturb the performance of the Bose >> speakers which are plugged in via USB for output? >> >> I hope at least some of this makes sense. >> >> Thanks again for putting up with me today I hate not feeling smart about a >> topic. >> >> take good care. >> >> Robin >> >> >> > > > > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#3044): https://groups.io/g/all-audio/message/3044 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/70973438/21656 Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/all-audio/leave/1074140/405281159/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
