No Recording Volume Adjustment for Ion TTUSB05 and AT USB Turntables, Two strikes: No pre-ADC gain, no software volume level Options

[Knowzy]

As we previously discussed, few USB turntables offer gain adjustment before the signal hits the A/D converter (see chart #2 in the USB Turntable guide for specific models).

Here's what I didn't expect: There's no way to adjust the recording volume in Windows Mixer or Audacity.

"USB Audio CODEC" Screenshots

A Regular Sound Card

Of course, you can always normalize after you're done recording. Nonetheless, I expected to find a slider in Windows Mixer, just like any other sound card.

This could just be a limitation of the Microsoft's USB Audio CODEC driver (USBAudio.sys). I'm curious if Mac and Linux users have the same limitation.

Then again, I tried Ploytec's USB ASIO driver and got the same results, so maybe it's the nature of the hardware.

In the end, I guess you can always spin it in marketing terms: It's a feature- you never need to set your levels!



A Sample Clip
With that, I present my first USB turntable sample from the Audio-Technica AT-LP2D-USB. It is the first track from the Ultimate Analogue Test LP.

This 1kHz test tone is used for, among other things, setting the recording volume to read 0VU. Obviously, I cannot do this without post-processing.

BTW, the first 10 seconds are the sounds of the tonearm automatically placing itself on the record.

Many more samples are coming this weekend.

[AndyH-ha]

A minor point perhaps, but I’ve never heard of any professional or semi-pro audio card that uses the Windows mixer at all. They have their own software control panel, designed by the card’s manufacturer to utilize its particular properties. These are usually installed with the drivers, and nothing in Window’s mixer effects the cards in any manner.