Bypassing sound card

[Liz65]

I know this is a daft question, but, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Is there any way possible that I can record music onto PC without going through the soundcard. Cassette tapes sound great but once they're recorded, the hiss and crackle is terrible. Have tried de-hissing etc but doesn't make much difference. Many thanks.

[ACtheTROLL]

I think the short answer is no - recording direct to pc uses the soundcard
.... but
there are tons of devices - record players, tape decks, my DAB radio records MP3 - my ikkle mp3 player records sound

it's only a daft question 'cause you have't said what you are trying to do?

[Liz65]

Thanks AC, I want to put all my music onto CD/DVD and get rid of my cassettes and the only recorder I've got is in the PC.

[ChuckFickens]

How are you connecting your tape deck to the sound card?

my thought on this is it's not your sound card that is causing the hiss but your levels when you are recording.

I suspect you are running too low level into the card so having to max everything else to get the volume right hence amplifying the hiss too.

[ACtheTROLL]

you can get away with a double ended plug to connect earphone and mic in

or
google usb tapedeck or usb turntable

http://www.google.co.uk/products?sourceid=navc lient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GTKR_en___GB286&q=usb%20 tapedeck&um=1&sa=N&tab=wf

depends on your budget

[Liz65]

I'm using the earphone to mic plugs and I've adjusted the volume and it has improved tremendously. My thanks to both of you for your help. Liz.

[ChuckFickens]

Keep experimenting with the volume level on the tape deck and and record (input) levels on your sound card mixer and you should be able to get pretty spot on results.