At 1:29 AM +0000 4/7/08, Steve Pelikan wrote:
>Thanks to everyone for their suggestions!
>
>It turns out the weakest link in the audio system I'll be using for
>the presentations is the soundcard in my old Gateway laptop. (Not too
>surprising since I reported problems when it was new and Gateway tech
>support said, roughly, "Too bad" and made no offer to help.) The card
>makes a constant high-pitched tone in speakers that can be heard if
>the signal is amplified but can't be detected through headphones. And
>the level and nature of the noise increases/changes when there's lots
>of hard disk activity. I observed the same problems with two different
>amps/connection wires and two different sets of speakers, so I really
>think the problem is in the computer.
You probably are going to turn up the output from the laptop all the
way to get ~ line level. Does the laptop have a cardbus/PCMCIA slot?
Its $200USD, but this card should work:
http://www.echoaudio.com/Products/CardBus/IndigoIO/index.php
I use this card just for these situations and I can record with it
too (line level input).
...
>1) Make sure that the sound files are all normalized to the same level
>so that playback is at roughly the same volume w/o needing to adjust
>levels during the talk.
Not sure I'd resort to normalizing them all. You can adjust the
playback level of each sound file individually in iTunes and even EQ
for each. Wait to make the volume adjustments while playing back
through your speaker system. Rob D.
>
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