[ale] Recoding in Linux

[Jeff Hubbs]

Chris -

I'm not sure what you mean by "sound extremely good," but I think what 
you're getting at is a gain structure problem.  By that, I mean that you 
1) don't want the incoming audio to be so hot as to "rail up" the A/D 
converter and 2) you don't want the level so low that it's only 
exercising the lower 4 bits of 16 and thereby giving you a 
Close-N'-Play-like theoretical max S/N of 24dB. 

Were it me - and I've dealt with this sort of thing when digitizing from 
reel-to-reel - I'd put one of these or something like it between your XM 
radio and your PC: 
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7374500771.

The compressor mode can be used to reduce or eliminate the railing-up, 
and that would also be good for in-car listening, where the ambient 
noise is real high. 

Also see http://www.pgmusic.com/compressor.htm - the discussion of 
"upward compression."

Jeff




Christopher Fowler wrote:

>Maybe some people here are doing what I'm doing and can give some
>insight.  
>
>I'm recording off my XM radio directly to hard drive as WAV.  I then use
>lame to encode that to MP3.  I then tag the files with mp3tag.  Finally
>I load those files onto my iPod so I can take XM with me.  My plan is to
>get many hours of good quality recordings so when I don't have my XM I
>can at least listen to the music/shows.  Right now I'm working on
>channel 150.  
>
>Is there a good program in Linux or Winbloze that can record this audio
>and automatically adjust the input levels to make is sound extremely
>good.  right now I'm using record that comes with the xawtv distribution
>and am manually adjusting the input levels.  I record then see how it
>sounds and adjust as needed.
>
>I have 2 laptops.  One with Linux and one with winbloze.  I don't care
>what program I use as long as the end result is near perfect.
>
>
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