DART News - Connecting Audio Gear to a PC and getting it to work!


Les Noise, from  http://www.dartpro.com  offers some advice.

We get a lot of questions about connecting a phonograph or a tape player to a PC and then recording the audio from it. DART CD-Recorder is particularly good for this application as well as DART XP and XP PRO. We know many of you know how to do this but there are still a lot of people who don't know or have had problems getting it to work. We have written detailed instructions on how to connect audio gear to a PC and get it working. The full article can be found at -

     http://www.dartpro.com/Soundbytes/Connect2PC.asp?c=cmp008

Here is a short version of the article.

Obtain a stereo Y-cable for connecting the audio equipment (turn-table, tape, deck, etc.) to the PC sound card "Line-in" plug-in. The double end of the Y-cable plugs into audio equipment and the single end plugs into "Line-in" on the sound card. Make sure the audio equipment has enough line level for recording into the PC and onto a disk file. If not obtain a Pre-Amp, plug the audio gear into the Pre-amp and then plug the Pre-Amp into the sound card "line-in" using the Y-cable. Plug a set of speakers into the PC sound card "Line-out".

Under the Windows Control panel, "Sounds and Audio Devices", select the "Volume" tab and the "Advance" button. Then select "Properties" from the "Options" menu and then select "Recording", check "Line-in" and then click the "OK" button at the bottom of the panel. From the "Recording" panel that should be visible, again select "Line-in" Volume control and set the volume high enough to hear. On the "Volume" control panel, select the "Volume" level high enough  to hear. This control is for the "Line-out" line level to the speakers. You must select "Line-in" and the volume levels for both "line-in" and "Line-out" in order to get audio to play from the audio equipment through the PC and out to the speakers.
Now test the setup by simply playing some music from the audio equipment. if the setup is done correctly you should be able to hear sound coming out of the speakers. View the volume control panels and make sure you can move the volume selectors and hear the volume changes. Go no further until this setup is working.
If it is working, now you are ready to launch DART CD-Recorder and record the audio from the equipment to a disk file which then can be recorded to CD or cleaned up with the DART audio tools.

If you can not not hear the audio, it is likely one of these problems need to be resolved. One, the audio equipment does not have enough line level and a Pre-Amp is needed. Two, the cables are not properly connected between the audio gear and the PC and speakers. Or three, the Window volume and recording settings are not done properly - "Line-in" needs to be enabled and  "Line-in" and "Line-out" volume both need to be set high enough for hearing.

If you need more help getting the audio setup working or want to learn more read the full article at  - http://www.dartpro.com/Soundbytes/Connect2PC.asp?c=cmp008

Give DART a try now. Go to our download page and select DART CD-Recorder, DART XP or DART XP PRO and download for a free 30 day trial -
http://www.dartpro.com/Downloads.asp?c=cmp008


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