I'm currently working on a project that requires capturing a recording from a 1994 broadcast of the Nickelodeon programming block "SNICK."
Normally I would use my XP capture rig for this task, but I believe my Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card is malfunctioning. For reasons beyond my understanding, when recording audio with my Santa Cruz the left channel is both muted and distorted. Troubleshooting further up the capture chain confirms that it is in fact the sound card and not cables, capture devices, etc. CD, DVD, and previously recorded audio playback is unaffected by this distortion. I have not yet attempted to reinstall the Turtle Beach drivers, but I am curious if anyone on the forum might have suggestions as to how I might fix this problem. Otherwise I may purchase another Turtle Beach Santa Cruz.
In the meantime, I am capturing using a Windows 7 laptop and an ATI 600 USB capture device. After some initial test captures in
VirtualDub, I quickly became aware of consistently peaking audio levels. A few searches later led me to discover that editing the Windows registry entry for the ATI 600 USB allows a user to manually set the recording volume. However, after a number of failed attempts at editing the registry, I have decided to use an amplifier with a volume control knob to manually lower the volume of the incoming audio signal. This solution seems to work for the time being, but I can't help but wonder if there are any potential disadvantages to using this method.