Hey guys,

I'm a noob when it comes to recording my mixes onto the PC. I have been using an RCA cable coming out of my mixer, with an RCA > 1/8" Mono adapter at the end. The adapter is plugged into the Mic In port on my leptop. I use Cool Edit Pro, set at 44100Khz with a 16-bit sampling rate, to record the input from the Mic port.

The problem is that things don't sound good. Going from Stereo to Mono is enough of a problem, but no matter what I do I get a hiss in the background of my recordings. At first I thought it was my mixer (an Ion), but upgrading to a Numark DXM06 (which is supposed to have an all-digital output), I still get the hiss. I'm using all digital equipment (CDJ 200s and the DXM mixer), so why does it sound like I have a needle on a vinyl somewhere?

Also, sometimes if the cable going into my Mic port is rotated or bumped, sometimes the music input cuts out and is replaced with a loud "buzz" sound. Sometimes there will be a bit of buzz, then what sounds like pops. Many times I have to take the cable out, then put it back in to fix the problem. There distortions are clearly visible on Cool Edit's waveform display, and I'm really tired of random distortion mucking up my mixes...

I don't know how to exactly describe it because I am not experienced in sound engineering beyond hooking the equipment up. Any advise or suggestions would be appreciated. I just want to record a clean-sounding mix-tape

What do I need to do to get a good sounding mix?

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Get an interface with a native Line-In port not a Mic port, the decibel capabilities of a mic port is way too low to record music directly from mixer

Which interface would you recommend? Any brands to check out (M-Audio)? Any to avoid?

Thanks in advance.

___________________
Overload (House/J-Pop/K-Pop): Click
No Pants Dance (Funky House/Electro House/K-Pop): Click
Dark Beach (Deep House): Click

I heard good things about the Echo Indigo DJ Soundcard
made for laptops fits right into your PCMCIA slot

Theres also the M-Audio Firewire

dont trust my answers though, havent researched interfaces as i stopped using my laptop and went into CDJs

take a look at the sound blaster audigy series...if they still make them. my buddies swore by that external soundcard.

i have some cheap $50 sound blaster soundcard with a line-in, and it works great. im not making music or whatnot, so its kinda hard to justify a nice interface if im just going to be recording

i got a edirol ua-1ex because i was fucking sick of crappy sound cards. it works like a charm and does everything i need, for now. altho i'd prefer if the optical output and the headphone jack on it wouldn't be in the same hole so i have to unplug the other to use the other one.
also my cable from my mixer is like 25 meters long (it's coming from the other room) so that causes background noise as the signal isn't balanced (normal rca). i'm getting a mixer with balanced outs soon though so i might end up updating my sound card to something with balanced inputs.
anyway the edirol is nice for just recording using rca connectors. it's not too expensive either, but there are cheaper sound cards out there. i just don't know if they do the job well enough (i know my previous ones didn't).

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My Numark DXM06 has balaned outputs (1/4'?).

Looks like I'll be heading to the electonics store/music instrument store for an adapter with either RCA-in or 1/4-in from either Eridol or Sound Blaster...

Thanks for the help guys.

___________________
Overload (House/J-Pop/K-Pop): Click
No Pants Dance (Funky House/Electro House/K-Pop): Click
Dark Beach (Deep House): Click