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Old 2007-04-06, 04:26 PM
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Five Five is offline
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Canada
Re: RCA to XLR Conversion

the XLR inputs are for amplifying the very weak signal that comes from a microphone and carefully bring it up to line level inside the circuit. Since a cassette deck and vhs put out the desired line level already in order to properly "take advantage" of these XLR inputs you would have to run through a direct box which means it passes through a transformer which adds noise and dulls the highs a little. Then when it gets to the XLR inputs it would have to be re-amplified, adding some more noise, from your description a low amount of noise, but still more noise that is unnecessary. The only possible advantage to this is if you absolutely need to run more than 20 feet of cable.

If you avoid the direct box by just getting connectors to go from RCA to XLR then it will sound even worse than that.

The proper way is connect the outputs of the cassette deck/vcr to the line in inputs of the soundcard. Use a short 3' high-quality cable (get it at the guitar/music store, not at the buck store).

If you're not convinced, try hooking it up both ways, capture the same little stretch of tape twice in a row and give a listen. Who knows? Maybe adding a little noise and dulling the highs could take the edge off a cold digital recording.
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