Special Audio Article from Vic
~~Vic
Ferri, WinTips and Tricks
Integrating Your Home Stereo System With Your Computer System
NOTE: This article assumes you have a TYPICAL soundcard that looks
something like this -
- and a typical component type stereo system (though I will cover briefly
how to connect other type stereo devices, as well) This article does not
deal with digital devices or recording methods (subjects that can be full
articles in themselves and which I may cover in the future)
An Introduction for Newbies
If you own a typical component style stereo system, you have the potential
to easily integrate it with your computer system so that you can record to
AND from your computer with convenience and ease. In effect, your computer
can become your stereo base or like another component attached to your
stereo system. You will be able to record any music or sounds you can play
on your stereo, such as tapes, CDs, vinyl LPs, and radio shows, to your hard
drive and save them as mp3s, wavs or other sound formats. You can then use
these to create your own CDs, send to online friends, or just add to your
collection or favorite player's playlist. Conversely, you will be able
to hear any sound coming out of your computer, such as mp3s, wav files,
midis, CDs, dvd movies, voice, and internet radio through your stereo's
speakers and have the ability to record any of that sound to your stereo
(i.e.: to your tape deck for creating custom cassette tapes).
Stereo integration like this also means that you will be able to record
to both your computer and stereo at the same time. For example, while an
Internet radio station is playing on your computer, you can hit the record
button on both your tape deck and favorite software recorder to create a
cassette tape and mp3s on your hard drive at the same time.
If this type of setup appeals to you, it would be a good idea to move your
stereo system close to your computer. This will eliminate the need for long
cables which can degrade the sound quality and perhaps and, more
importantly, make access to your system much more convenient. Personally, I
have my receiver, tape deck, CD player, and turntable stacked right next to
my monitor and always within arms reach when I'm sitting at the computer.
Because this article is being written with the newbie in mind, we will begin
with some basic audio definitions.
JACK - also called a socket, is a female connector, a hole which you
plug something into.
PLUG - is a male connector, which you insert into a jack.
AMPLIFIER - or Amp, for short, is the main component in any sound
system. It takes the weak electrical signals generated by your devices and
amplifies them to a level strong enough to drive your speakers. An amplifier
alone is not recommended for connecting to your sound card since it hardly
has any controls (a pre-amp is needed for that)
PREAMPLIFIER - or preamp for short, is a component you add to an
amplifier, to be able to control it. The preamp is the section that has all
the various controls such as volume, bass, treble, balance, input selector,
etc.
INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER - this is an amp with a preamp built in (and
thus the two are "integrated")
RECEIVER - the receiver is an integrated amp with a radio tuner built
into it (and thus the name "receiver" because it can also receive radio
signals).
COMPONENT SYSTEM - a system made up of a separate components, such as
a turntable, tape deck and CD player, which all connect to the back of a
receiver or amp -
with standard RCA phono plug cables.
I
The receiver/amp is the foundation of such a system. Everything connects to
it and unlike a one-piece system, the components you connect to it are
detachable and replaceable. The advantages of a component system are
customization and flexibility. You can pick the individual components you
want and each component can be from a different manufacturer specializing in
that component. For example. one system I had consisted of a Pioneer
receiver, Dual turntable, Shure cartridge, Teac tape deck, and Wharferdale
speakers. This gives you the potential to build a very high end custom
stereo system based on your own preferences and priorities. For example, if
accurate sound recording is more important to you then tuning into FM radio
stations, you would spend more on a high end tape deck than a tuner. Or, if
radio is not an interest to you at all, then you could skip buying a
receiver altogether and opt for an integrated amp instead. A true audiophile
or those with huge power needs would even skip the integrated amp and go for
separate amp, preamp, and tuner. No other type of home stereo system offers
the same flexibility, adaptability, and potential for achieving ultimate
sound quality.
INPUT AND OUTPUT
- Input - a jack that receives a signal from another source.
- Output - a jack that sends a signal to another source.
For example, when you play an mp3 on your computer, the signal goes from
the LINE OUT on your soundcard and INTO your computer speakers or into a
LINE IN on your stereo and then to the stereo speakers when that input is
selected. Or when you record from your tape deck or turntable to your
computer, it's the opposite action. The signal goes OUT from the LINE OUT
jack at the back of your receiver INTO your soundcard's LINE IN jack, which
receives the signal allowing you to record it with your favorite sound
editing software. A fundamental rule to remember is that IN connects to OUT
and vice versa. Never connect IN to IN or OUT to OUT.
THE HOOKUP
With a component stereo system.
What you will need:
TWO sets of shielded Y-connectors, each with a 3.5mm (1/8") STEREO mini plug
on one end and two standard RCA phono plugs on the other end.
See here for photo:
Note I placed the word STEREO in caps - you do not want a MONO 3.5 mm
plug. Mono and stereo plugs are both available and may look similar if you
don't know what to look for. An easy way to tell the difference is to look
at the mini plug - a stereo plug has 2 rings (insulators) around the pin and
a mono plug doesn't. Here's a pic to show the difference.
If you still don't feel sure and there is no labeling or packaging with the
cables, make sure to ask before you buy. If you end up with MONO, only the
left channel (which is the mono side) will be split when you record and thus
you will end up with mono sound on both channels. None of the right side
signal will be recorded.
You can purchase these cables from most computer and electronics stores, but
not all cables are of the same quality. I got mine from Radio Shack and they
are of much better quality than a set I purchased from a big computer store.
By better quality, I mean they have heavy duty shielding and gold plated
connectors to help reduce signal loss.
If you would like the same type and can't find them in your area, the
product numbers are:
42-2551 in the US.
42-2481 in Canada.
They can be ordered on line.
www.radioshack.com
for US
www.radioshack.ca
for Canada.
These cables are 6 feet long so they are meant for a stereo and computer
close to one another. As was mentioned earlier, this really is best,
but if you really must use longer cables, make sure they are well shielded
and avoid running them along electrical cords which can introduce hum - a
very common problem - which occurs when the 60hz voltage field of electrical
wiring mixes with the audio signal.
The Actual Connection
First the connection to get sound OUT from your COMPUTER and INTO your
STEREO system (i.e.: so you can play a CD in your computer's CDRom, an mp3
on your hard drive, or an internet radio station and have the sound come
blasting from your home stereo speakers instead of from your mini computer
speakers and also be able to record any of that sound to your tape deck)
1. Connect the mini plug of the Y-Connector to your soundcard's LINE OUT
which if color coded will be the GREEN one.
NOTE: some older soundcards may have both a LINE OUT and a SPEAKER
OUT. If this is the case with your soundcard, connect the mini plug to the
SPEAKER OUT, not the LINE OUT which in these cases is usually meant for
headphones and may not be able to drive your more powerful 8 ohm speakers.
If you already have mini speakers attached to your sound card, then you know
which jack to use - the same one the mini speakers are attached to. You
definitely have an older sound card if it has a volume control on it.
The reason many typical sound cards today have only a Line-Out, and not a
separate Speaker Out, is that almost all computer speakers are now powered
(amplified) so the Line Out can be used for both speakers and headphones.
Most typical soundcard jacks are color coded as follows:
Microphone input is pink or red.
Line Output is green
Line Input is light blue
Digital Output is orange
Line Out 2 (for rear speakers - analog) is black
The color code is known as the PC99 standard but not followed by all.
If your soundcard isn't color coded, the purpose of each jack should be
stated in text or displayed by symbols on the sound card (i.e.: an etching
of a microphone for the mike jack). If you're not sure, check your
manual or contact the sound card manufacturer.
2. After the sound card Line Out connection is made, connect the two RCA
plugs at the other end of the Y-Adapter to a right and left LINE INPUT at
the back of your receiver/amp. This could be a CD/AUX, TUNER, or TAPE IN
jack. Plug the red connector into the right channel input and the white or
black connector into the left channel input. If your cable has black and
white plugs, use the black for RIGHT and the white for LEFT.
Your first connection is now complete. To test it, turn on your computer and
your stereo - have the volume on your receiver set to low and the input you
chose to connect to (i.e.: AUX) selected. Play a sound file on your
computer and gradually turn up the volume control on your receiver. If
all went well, you should hear the sound coming out of your stereo's
speakers. Any sound coming out of your computer will now be heard from your
stereo system when you select Aux. If you have a tape deck attached to your
stereo system, you can now easily record any sound coming out of your
computer the same way you would record from any other component on your
stereo.
Next, the connection to be able to record sound from your stereo system to
your computer (i.e. : so you can record your tapes and records to wav or mp3
files on your hard drive)
3. Connect the two RCA plugs of your second Y-Adapter to a right and left
LINE OUTPUT at the back of your receiver or integrated amp.
Again, red to right and white or black to left. A good integrated amp or
good older receiver is more likely to have a separate line level output, but
chances are that the only OUT you will have is a TAPE OUT, so use that. If
your receiver can accept two tape decks and one set of jacks is unused, you
can use the unused Tape Out without having to lose your normal record
function on your main tape deck. TAPE OUT may also go by the name of RECORD
or REC OUT depending on your system.
In this amp, the tape 1 jacks are labeled RECORD (for OUT) and PLAY (for In)
4. Next, connect the mini plug end of the cable to the LINE IN at the back
of your sound card.
Make sure you do not make the mistake of connecting the mini plug to the
Microphone input . If your sound card jacks are color coded, it will be easy
to distinguish - the microphone jack is PINK or RED and the LINE IN is BLUE.
Without color coding, you should see an etched microphone symbol next to the
mike jack or it may be plainly stated. Just be sure NOT to choose it.
Your hookup of a component stereo system is now complete.
To test this last connection, turn on your computer and stereo. On your
stereo, choose the line out you chose. For example, if you connected to the
tape 2 line-out on your receiver, use the same setting you would use to
listen to a tape deck attached to tape 2) The idea is that we want to test
and monitor only the sound going into your computer. On your computer,
go to your Windows Volume Control Properties (double click the sound icon on
your taskbar or go to Multimedia in your Control Panel and under the Audio
tab, click the Playback icon). You can also get to your Volume
Controls in Accessories in Program Files (usually under Entertainment or
Multimedia)
Adjust the Line-In level with the slide adjuster so that it's at the same
level as the Wav control (WAV is the input that plays your music files).
Now, MUTE all the volume controls EXCEPT for the Line-In and Mute All
controls.
Then play a sound on your stereo, starting with the volume on low. If all
went well, you will hear the sound entering your computer as you turn up the
volume. This also means that you will now be able to record any sound using
your favorite software recorder.
TIP: If you have a receiver that has both tape monitoring AND
line-out controls to allow 2 way dubbing (1>2 and 2>1)
then you may want to choose to connect your sound card to the TAPE IN and
TAPE OUT of the Tape 2 jacks at the back of your receiver (assuming they are
free to use, and you have a tape deck on Tape 1) This would make your
computer like another tape deck attached to your stereo in the conventional
way and allow convenient bidirectional recording between your computer and
stereo with the benefit of being able to monitor the sound going in or
coming out, and at the same time allow you to listen to a different source
while the recording is going on. For example, say you are recording a
cassette to your hard drive from your main, tape 1, tape deck. You would set
your receiver's Out control - more commonly labeled Tape Copy, Tape Dub or
Duplicate - to copy from 1 to 2 ( 2 would be the line out going into your
sound cards line in). In other words you would be directing the signal
from 1 (your tape deck) to 2 (your computer). You can then monitor
this sound going into your computer by setting your Tape Monitor control to
Tape 2 or you can listen to the original source of the sound by setting it
to Tape 1 , allowing you to compare the source and output sound. As well,
while you are recording this way, you will have the option to listen to a
different source at the same time as the recording is going on.
In other words, while a cassette tape is being transferred to your hard
drive, you can be listening to your receiver's tuner or a record or CD. This
would just be a simple matter of bypassing both Tape 1 and 2 monitoring and
setting the control to Source but the Out selector would still be set to dub
1>2 (copying the playing tape 1 to your computer - tape 2)
Unfortunately, the chances of having the out controls above are slim if you
own a newer average receiver and even some of the more expensive receivers
made today do not have both two way tape dubbing and monitoring functions
(though they do have more inputs for video, surround sound, digital, etc,
they skimp on out controls). Your chances are better if you have an older
receiver - especially one of the monsters from the 70's (the "power war"
years) - when audio equipment was very competitive and when some of the best
receivers and amps were manufactured. As an aside, newer tape decks have
also lost a feature present in most older tape decks, and that is stereo
microphone jacks. Some new ones still have them but they just aren't as
common as they used to be.
If your stereo is not a separate component type system, but one of those
all in one console units, a "boom box", portable player, or the like, then
your stereo integration will be limited and depend on having the required
outputs and inputs - an output to make recording from the stereo to your
computer possible and an input to make recording from the computer to the
stereo possible. Here are the connection methods for some other common
stereo devices.
With an all-in-one console system
With an all-in-one system, you probably won't have any Line Outs or Line
Ins. In this case, your only hope is that it has a headphone jack and
almost all do so you should be ok. The headphone jack serves as an OUT just
like your soundcard's Line-Out does. More than likely, the headphone
jack takes a standard 1/4" plug, in which case you will need:
1: a 3.5mm(1/8") mini plug adaptor which is a 1/4" plug on one end a 3.5mm
jack on the other. You plug this into your stereo's headphone jack.
2: a cable with a single 3.5mm stereo mini plug at each end. One end goes
into the adapter headphone jack and the other end into the sound cards
Line-In. This connection will at least allow you to record whatever you can
play on your stereo to your hard drive.
In the event that your system also has a line in, then just follow the same
guideline as for the component system setup.
With a portable
If all you have is a portable stereo like a boom box or similar, it may or
may not have a Line Out connector. CD players may have one but most cassette
systems don't, in which case you would connect from the headphone jack which
in these systems are usually 3.5mm in size, not 1/4" as in the all-in-one
systems. Therefore, you will only need a cable with a 3.5mm mini plug at
each end. Connect one end to the headphone jack and the other end to
the Line In on your sound card. As with the all-in-one setup, this will be
just for recording to your computer.
A component stereo system is really the only method here that allows you to
fully integrate your stereo with your computer.
Connecting Single Function Components
You can also connect any component - aside from a turntable - directly to
your sound card for recording from. For example, you can connect just a tape
deck - without a receiver. The connection is the same - line out on the tape
deck to line in on the sound card. The sound will be heard from your
computers speakers.
TURNTABLE
To connect a component type (unamplified) turntable WITHOUT A RECEIVER to
your sound card, you will need a separate phone preamp . There are two
reasons for this:
1. Low output - Phono cartridges put out a much weaker signal - 6 milivolts
or so - than the other standard components of a stereo system do, which
typically put out 300 to 500 milivolts or more. A sound card line-in is
simply not matched for the low output of phono cartridges. That is why you
have special phono only inputs on your receiver.
2. Equalization - this is the process of weakening (compressing) the low
frequencies and strengthing (stretching) the higher frequencies. This is how
vinyl records are recorded and what makes it possible to squeeze the wide
range of sound within the narrow grooves of a record. If that signal were to
be played back directly, you would have a totally unnatural sound - screechy
highs and no bass. To be played back correctly, the sound has to be restored
to it's normal state during playback - the reverse of equalization has to
occur - and that is the purpose of a phono pre-amp which fixes the problem
by boosting the weak signal and "flattening" the frequency response.
You can buy a simple phono preamp for under 20 dollars.
This one from
www.mcmelectronics.com is only $13.50US (Part Number 40-630)
It boosts the phono signal to 500 milivolts. Once your turntable is
connected to the preamp's input jacks, you can connect it to your sound card
from the OUT jacks like you would another unamplified component, such as a
tape deck (using the Y-adapter cable with rca plugs on one end and a stereo
mini plug on the other). You can also use it on an amp that doesn't have
phono inputs.
Adding Input-Outputs to your Receiver
If you have a receiver with only one set of tape jacks and would like to
keep your present tape deck on it, you can add extra inputs and outputs to
your receiver/amp by using an adaptor such as this Realistic Tape Control
Center which allows you to add up to 3 tape decks to it or 3 other
components such as CD player or tuner - but not phono. It also allows you to
dub to and from any source connected to it. For example, you can copy from
tape 1 to 2 or tape 3 to 2, etc.
If audio and video are of interest to you, you may want to check out my
magazines:
Smart TV & Sound
http://www.angelfire.com/on3/vxdoin2/tvaudio.htm
and Computer VideoMaker
http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/vxdoin/VideoMaker.html
Both these magazines are excellent ways to keep on the top of the latest
happenings in audio and video, and to learn more about them. They gear to
both beginners and more advanced alike.
Vic Ferri owns the very popular
WinTips and
Tricks and
Registry Answers. Subscribe to either and receive free Windows and Registry
Tips. He is also in charge of the
Printing Tips pages at Linda's Computer Stop. Vic has also created a program
which allows you to Lock & Hide desktop folders in Windows 9X/ME.
Read more and get the free demo here. And, he now offers a service to
convert PowerPoint presentations to .exe files which can be viewed on
computers which do not have PowerPoint installed.
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