Recording Music: Tracks Missing

[Andy]

I have had this same problem with different combinations
of computer (Dell Inspiron notebook and HP Pavilion
notebook); sound cards (ESS in the Pavilion and SigmaTel
Audio in the Inspiron); and sound recording software
(PolderBits and Spin Doctor, and operating systems (ME
and XP).

When recording from an LP (record album) to my hard
drive, certain audio tracks (such as the background
vocals or the base guitar), that are on the original
record album, are not captured in the digital recording,
nor do they appear in the mp3 file once I have converted
them from Wave files. While recording I can hear the
full audio for each song over my loudspeakers, but when
listening thru headphones plugged into the headphone jack
of my computer to the same portion being recorded onto my
hard drive , I can detect that certain tracks are missing.

FYI, to make these recordings I use a "Y" connector with
left and right RCA jacks that connect to a mini plug.
The RCA jacks are connected to left and right audio
output jacks in the back of my stereo amplifier, the mini
plug connects with the soundcard of my computer via the
microphone jack. When recording I have made sure to
enable the "microphone" setting on the recording volume
control for my soundcard.

Sorry for the long-winded explanation, but this has been
a frustrating problem and I'd love to learn how to do
this right. Any thoughts or suggestions?

 

[Matt]

Are you sure the microphone input on your computer is a
stereo input? If there is a line-input on your sound
card, try it. I had a similar problem, and had to use
the line input instead of the microphone input which is a
mono input.