[Wearie_Willie]

I've used the ION TTUSB10 for 20 - 30 hours with no problem. G5, 10.5.1

[macmark]

I'm seeing the problem on audio input on any of the USB ports on my MBP running 10.4.11. I can't get around it and it has been very frustrating. I've tried two different USB A/D boxes and two different audio software packages (Spindoctor and Audacity). VERY frustrating and I know I am not alone on this.

[macmark]

Wow, I guess I stand corrected by this and other inputs about this being so pervasive. Unfortunately I am still dead in the water for audio input on USB causing my vinyl collection to remain silently sitting by waiting for a fix.

[Slartibartfast]

I know that a ground loop is the bane of any person listening or recording from a turntable. Perhaps one way to minimize the USB noise problem is to also minimize the possibility of a ground loop. By making sure that the computer and all powered equipment associated with the recording process (e.g. turntable, pre-amp, DAC) are all connected to the same power-bar. If you are plugging the different components into different power-bars and/or wall power receptacles, you could have equipment running of different power circuits which will create ground loop noise on all your recordings.

PS. "macmark" you may already be aware of this omnipresent issue but I'm also posting this for everyone's benefit.

[Wearie_Willie]

I agree that trying to eliminate a ground loop is a good idea. If that doesn't work, then gradually trying substitutions for each element might be helpful. Try someone else's laptop, replace the usb cable, try a different imput source, like a tape recorder or radio. If you're using a laptop, unplug the power supply, etc. It may be that the USB channel is defective. Try a different software. I couldn't find what equipment you were using, but knowing that might be helpful. Keep at it, as I know you'll love having your LPs "back".

[macmark]

Thanks for everyone's suggestions, unfortunately I've tried them all and even more, including settings in the MIDI, Audio and even date and time control panels. Ground loop problems sound different from what I (and others on the Apple forums discussion on this problem) are experiencing but I have tried that too - I used to "love" tracking them down back in the days when I built my own stereo equipment. The current forum discussion on this topic points to two possible near term band-aids: 1) back track the OS to pre-10.4.11; unfortunately I don't have media to do that with, and 2) set the input sample rate to 48 MHz, but I don't believe that will work for creating audio CDs (that run at 44.1 MHz) which is my ultimate goal with all of this. I'm afraid I might be stuck wanting until either another solution is found or Apple fixes the USB drivers that apparently were modified in 10.4.11.

[kimbarator]

I just want to emphasize that the thread which macmark recommended,
discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6479299

is in my view a MUST READ from top to bottom.

The serious USB audio problem which these people are describing has nothing to do with ground loops or anything else that's fixable by the user.

I do all my work on Al PowerBooks running 10.4.10. If you're doing the same, please do not consider upgrading to 10.4.11 until you read that thread! Apple has apparently damaged USB audio functioning from 10.4.11 on up, and we all should be aware of the potential problem, which Apple so far seems slow to address or even acknowledge.

[Dan Frakes]

macmark said:

As for you and others "never experiencing the same problem" I would be curious to know what USB A/D input hardware you are using and how many hours of digitizing you have logged with them. Sometimes the problem takes 30+ minutes to show up but when it does it destroys the audio. I have tried two different boxes, both recommended by Macworld (the , the ART USB Phono Plus v2 USB Phono Preamp being the current one) and have had the same problem with both.

I've got a Power Mac G5 running 10.4.11 that I've been using for digitizing with both the Phono Plus v2 and an ADS Instant Music. Over at least 50 to 60 hours of use, I've never experienced the problem.

Has anyone not using a laptop experienced this issue? I didn't see any in the thread, which seems to point to some combination of 10.4.11 and laptops -- software and hardware. Whatever the case, my point was only that this is not a universal problem.

[macmark]

In reviewing the thread the laptop does seem to be what the majority of folks are using (myself included), however I also see posts that show other systems that I've extracted and include here, if it helps:

1) 24" iMac 10.5.2
2) Dual 2 Ghz PowerPC G5 Mac OS X (10.5.1) RAM 3GB; HD 860GB; Safari 3.0.4;
3) iMac Mac OS X (10.5.1)
4) G4 cube; quote from entry: "I have a g4 Cube that still chugs along beautifully with its Giga processor upgrade although it is a bit sluggish under 10.5. Anyway I have used this machine for years to record from turntables and since it has no direct audio input I had to use an USD audio input device which was a Griffin iMic and the preamp was a $40 RCA device I had bought at Radioshack. It all went well until 10.4.11 when an echoing static started to appear. It got worse in 10.5 and I tore my hair out to figure out why..."
5) iMac Duo Mac OS X (10.5.1) 2GB Ram
6) Mac Mini Mac OS X (10.5)

There may be more but I think this makes the point that it is not just exclusive to laptop systems.

[Canster]

After finally getting around to following up on this article I downloaded the recomended CD Spin Doctor software. After many attempts to get the program to work I went to the Roxio forum and found, as every other peron who tried, this stand alone version of the software does not work in Leopard. I wish Mat Honan had mentioned this so that I didn't have to spend several hours finding this out for myself. I guess that the version that ships with Toast 7 and 8 works once patched but I'm not paying twice as much and will be sticking with Audacity for now, which is free.

[brazilianheat]

Even as part of Toast 8, the program sucks. I gave it another try after reading the review and never got the results he described. So, be glad you didn't pay for it.

[clint]

I have a LOT of old albums on vinyl - and I'm finally going to get off my butt and digitize them. I have a couple of questions - can anybody reply? I want to try to do this correctly from the start.
The author says that when using a USB turntable, to open Audio Midi Setup and set the format to 44100Hz and 2 Channel/16 bit. There are also options for 20 bit and 24 bit. Why use the option with lowest resolution?
I am going to use a PowerBook G4 to do the recording. That will become my "music server". On another Mac I already have a bunch of music in iTunes (downloaded from iTunes store, and from some CDs that I ripped). How/where do I find all that music so that I can transfer it to the PowerBook G4? (If I can find it, I can transfer it, but I need to know where to look for it.)
I plan to buy a big external hard drive that will be dedicated to music (and video) files. Anybody have any suggestions about a good external hard drive for storing music and video?

[Wearie_Willie]

Audio bit depth is beyond my understanding. You can get some information by searching the term on Wikipedia. iTunes music is found in users/username/Music/iTunes. I have been very satisfied with LaCie external firewire drives. Perhaps someone can explain bit depth better.

[clint]

I found my iTunes music - thanks. I should have been able to find that without help - that wasn't rocket science.

I read about audio bit depth. I guess the author recommends 16-bit because that is the bit depth of CDs, and he figures there's no need to record any deeper than that. It makes sense to me.

After reading the reviews and comments, I plan to use Audacity to digitize my LPs. After digitizing the LPs with Audacity, I will want to put all the music into my iTunes library - with album name, track titles, artist, genre, etc. Does anybody have any tips on how to do that?