ChrisJBrady said:
Please can someone advise me re: the following TEAC LPR550USB CD Recorder with Cassette Turntable faults. The turntable runs fast. I digitised a BBC Transcription Disc of folk music that was clearly marked 21 mins. I captured the output from the USB socket with Audacity on my laptop. This registered as 19.5 mins. The sound was somewhat higher pitched than expected. There is no way to adjust the turntable speed. I then checked with a strobe disc and indeed the turntable was fast. The only way to adjust the pitch of such a recording is with s/w such as Audacity - something I didn't expect to have to do. Not good.
I see that you've tested with a strobe disc which should have put it beyond doubt, but does the turntable actually sound too fast to you when played live (using music you know well)?
Have you looked inside the turntable? If it's a low cost unit it might even have the type of DC motor that incorporates a speed adjust pot (like casstte decks had) - then you could set the speed with the strobe.
If not and short of getting a new turntable you could just experiment with Audacity record sample rates, start by going up one notch - each one has a fixed percentage effect on speed (depending how it compares with the incoming sample rate) So crude and inprecise, but you never know it could compensate exactly for the percentage of turntable error. (Unlikely!)
I suggest experimentation because I recorded some TV sound from my Freesat box via optical digital to a USB converter then into Audacity - when played back on Audacity the sound was slightly fast. The remedy was to adjust the Audacity record sample rate to be in sync with the (48kHz) that I was recording. So even though you (probably?) haven't got a digital mismatch, it's a way of adjusting the (perceived) Audacity playback speed.
With regard to your mono rec. problem: If you haven't already, try recording some other stereo USB source. Is the Audacity metering / playback then OK? If so, you've ruled out any possible Audacity settings problem.
The fact that both vinyl and tapes are affected means no problem with turntable cartridge / dirty (one channel) tape head but somehow with the
way the TEAC unit encodes the channels onto USB. (Two of the four wires in a USB lead, which you confirmed OK, are used for data and anyway a faulty lead would not cause the symptom with channel balance that you've described)