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[johnp]

Can anybody help?  I have tried everything suggested on this site and elsewhere, but can still only get low quality, mono recordings via the line-in on my laptop (a Toshiba 4200 series).  I have come to the conclusion that the microphone jack (there is no line-in jack) is the source of the problem, as the playback via the soundcard from any other source is releatively good, and in stereo.  Is there any way of solving this, perhaps via a recording line-in via the USB port?

[JohnT]

Are you using a stereo cable? Even so, the microphone jack on the sound card is not always stereo, you'd have to check the specs for your computer.

If you're not recording from a microphone, make sure the microphone "boost" is turned off in your mixer controls (usually an Advanced button gets you to this checkbox). If the boost is on, you'll get a lot of distortion.

If you can't get past the mono problem, you may have to get an external sound card (with line-in jack) hooked up via USB.

[johnp]

Thanks JohnT

Yes, I have checked everything else, and the cable is stereo.  I am now 99% certain that the Microphone jack is wired as mono, as I moved the balance control on the tape player, and the sound remained unchanged when on left channel, and completely silent on right channel.

Thanks for the tip about external soundcards. I was hoping there might just be a cable which could be plugged into the USB port, but I suppose that was over optimistic.