This is more of an audio question, but I'm hoping a video guru could
clue me in here. I have a Canopus ADVC-100 converter hooked up from a
cassette deck to my Intel Mac via Firewire so I can digitize some old
audio cassettes. I thought I could fire up QuickTime Pro and do a "New
Audio Recording," but I don't seem to be getting signal from the deck.
I checked under the Sound panel in the System Preferences, hoping to
find the ADVC listed in the Input list, but no. Any suggestions as to
how to get the audio piped into my Mac? Will QuickTime Pro do the
job? I also have ProTools and Garage Band.

Thanks.

-Fleemo

fleemo17@comcast.net wrote:

I use the same box but on a PC and it works great.
If I wanted to capture just audio though, I'd go through the inputs on my
sound card as the Canopus box is designed for capturing both audio AND video
simultaneously.

Mike

On 3/03/2007, fleemo17@comcast.net posted this:
This came up recently (were you that poster?).

Try connecting any old video source to one of the video inputs of the
converter while trying to record the audio. Then demux the resulting
file.

--
Gene E. Bloch (Gino)
letters617blochg3251
(replace the numbers by "at" and "dotcom")

Thanks for the input, Mike.

Not I, sir.

Gene, I tried taking an old TV's video line out and plugging that into
the ADVC-100's video in, and the audio out of the cassette deck going
into the ADVC-100's audio in (RCA jacks on the front). Nada.

I'm not sure I'm even looking in the right place. Would a new device
show up as an option in the Sound panel of the System Preferences?
Would I see a level indication beneath QuickTime's main window? How
does one know whether the ADVC-100 is successfully feeding a signal in
to the computer?

-Fleemo

fleemo17@comcast.net wrote:

Sounds to me like you're confused about what the Canopus box does. It's
primary purpose is to convert analog video & audio to a firewire signal or
vice versa. I've never used a Mac so I can't comment on any of the things
you're looking for.
Try doing it Gene's way again but, this time, see if iMovie (or what ever
NLE you have) will recognize it as a vaild audio/video signal. If it does,
capture it, delete the video portion of the stream and resave it as an
audio-only file.

Mike

<fleemo17@comcast.net> wrote ...
Dunno why a Mac or a PC would recognize an ADVC-1000
as an *audio* device? The only thing "audio" about it is that
it will encode a couple of channels of audio as part of the DV
video stream it produces.

Maybe there are some applications that recognize a DV stream
as an "audio source", but I've never heard of any. And there is
some doubt whether an ADVC box will even produce a DV
stream without a video input.

<fleemo17@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:1172979768.630006.210280@v33g2000cwv.googlegr oups.com...
So you are now saying that you have never had the
ADVC-100 working? The ADVC-100 should be providing
a Firewire/i-Link connection using the Canopus DV codec
for the video format. Your "capture" should be with an OHCI
or DV capture process.

Have you ever used this setup to capture Video and Audio?
If so using what software? What type of file was created? AVI?
MOV?

Luck;
Ken

fleemo17@comcast.net wrote:
Why not try iMovie?

-bill

Thanks to everyone who has given of their time to help this novice
out.

Well Mike, converting an audio signal to firewire is exactly what I'm
attempting to do, just not very successfully. :/


I launched iMovie. In the main project window, it says "Camera
Connected" on a big blue screen. Beneath that, if I click on the
little camera icon, it lists the ADVC-100 and Time Lapse, so
apparently it recognizes the converter ok. I click on the "Import"
button and the message on the screen says "Camera Playing," but I get
no audio at all. Shouldn't I be able to hear the audio? The levels
are bouncing on the cassette deck, but I don't hear a sound from the
computer.

Nope, I borrowed the gear from our video guru at work. He assured me
it was as simple as plugging in the tape deck to the converter, the
converter into my Mac, and launching QuickTime to do a capture of the
audio. Perhaps Richard's right and the ADVC-100 simply won't do what
I'm hoping it'll do. :/

-Fleemo

<fleemo17@comcast.net> wrote ...
Then you have pretty much confirmed that the Canopus
boxes do not work for just audio. If you fed some kind of
video signal into the Canopus box along with your audio,
you might get something more than a blue screen.

Did he mean an *audio tape deck* or video?

Man, that's a drag.

Well, we were originally talking about conversions of *reel to reel*
tapes, so I'm pretty sure he knew I was talkin' about audio.

A hearty thanks to everyone for pitchin' in with advice. I do
appreciate it.

Best regards,

-Fleemo

On 3/03/2007, Gene E. Bloch posted this:
I'd like to thank Ken, Richard, & Mike for taking up the cudgel here.
You saved a little work for this lazy guy!

Ken's question about "Did you ever get the ADC working?" might be key
here...Not sure, but...

--
Gene E. Bloch (Gino)
letters617blochg3251
(replace the numbers by "at" and "dotcom")

With the help of some folks in the rec.audio.pro usergroup, I finally
got it figured out. All I had to do was take an RCA to minijack
adapter, plug the RCA end into the back of the cassette deck, plug the
minijack into my Mac Pro's Audio In, and create a "New Audio
Recording" in QuickTime Pro. That simple!

Many thanks to the folks who offered input. I really appreciate your
time.

-Fleemo

<fleemo17@comcast.net> wrote ...
Some of us are the same people. Note that you asked
a different question over on r.a.p Your question here
was based on the presumption that you had to use a
piece of equipment which was not suitable for your
job.

"Richard Crowley" <rcrowley@xpr7t.net> wrote in message
news:12uqv9lpirh3135@corp.supernews.com...
Yes, how foolish of us to post replies aimed at answering your
actual question, the Subject of this thread. It is still perfectly
possible to extract audio from the A/V files made by such
capture devices. In fact, most of us who use such capture
equipment, feed them separate audio and video, using
S-video, SDI, Component, or other video inputs. The audio
is provided on a separate path and need not have any
relationship to the video. Some of us maintain a permanent
audio connection to our A/V Amplifier/Receiver or a switch
that can connect to our home audio sources.

Luck;
Ken

On 3/06/2007, Richard Crowley posted this:
:-)

I.e., that he *had* to use it, no choice...

But didn't someone in this thread discuss using a sound-card input? I
forget and am too lazy to go back and look...

I'll send a smiley (implicit) for Ken too.

--
Gene E. Bloch (Gino)
letters617blochg3251
(replace the numbers by "at" and "dotcom")

Gene E. Bloch wrote:

That was me :-)
And I said (first response to the OP BTW):
"If I wanted to capture just audio though, I'd go through the inputs on my
sound card as the Canopus box is designed for capturing both audio AND video
simultaneously."

Mike

On 3/06/2007, Mike Kujbida posted this:
I have to say that you gave good advice :-)

--
Gene E. Bloch (Gino)
letters617blochg3251
(replace the numbers by "at" and "dotcom")

On 3 Mar 2007 14:53:56 -0800, fleemo17@comcast.net wrote:

I never owned a Mac but I am a PC\DTV guru. In Windows, if the Device Manager sees the device
(Canopus), it should work because the ADVC100 simply converts an analog signal to DV. Most NLE's
give you the option to capture only audio or only video.

The big question here is why would you even consider doing this? You are going to compress the reel
to reel signal and lose quality. You dont want DV audio when you could use uncompressed audio,
unless the tapes are not that important and you do not mind losing quality.

Tony

"Tony" <trusso11783@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:nmufv2169prbcltvkqej1uh9a3h0fpta64@4ax.com...
Please explain your interpretation of the 'compression' that will occur.
The ADVC-100, which I have and use, converts analogue audio (from a cassette
in this case, not the most high of hi-fi) into a digital file at 16 bits and
48kHz sampling rate. Where would you call it "uncompressed"? 24 bit?
96kHz? And, although a cassette uses two iddy biddy reels, I think of reel
to reel as something different, including, unfortunately, 3 3/4 ips quarter
track, a very lackluster way of storing analogue audio. So, guru, explain
yourself.

Steve King