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Is it possible to adjust an enternal soundcard so it will put out more volume? I ask this as in a previous post I mentioned my volume output via earphone jack from a new laptop was less than 50% of what it was with my old laptop. Needless to say if I can't get this puppy to crank up it's volume I will either have to get an external soundcard (and I just spend 600.00 on this Lenovo so I will hate to do that) of just get another laptop.
There is just not enough volume to drive the PA without having to vrank the PA volume up to the point of distortion. I am grateful for any and all advice.
PS: I am trying to reach Lenovo to ask this same question, but response is very slow.
Thanks,
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Danny,
This doesn't sound quite right. I don't understand what you're saying "There is just not enough volume to drive the PA without having to vrank the PA volume up to the point of distortion." If there's not enough gain coming from the headphone jack it could never distort the front end of the PA. Maybe the soundcard is just defective and is distorting period. You just don't hear it until the PA is up.
Something is defiantly queer about this.
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There is no distortion from the soundcard, but because the volume(while set at max)from the laptop is not 70% of what my old Lenovo was driving. Therefore to make up for the lower volume coming from the laptop I had to crank up the PA almost to max and therein lies the problem and the less than perffect sound out of the speakers.
In fact I just returned from Office Depot where we tested every laptop in the store and not one model drove the volume my old Lenovo did. Bottomline there is nothing wrong with my new laptop, it is normal in that the volume is lower than older models.
I understand that there may be some "volume driving" software out there of which I am looking into, or maybe a pre-amp or external soundcard.
Thanks,
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This may be too dumb a Question , but have you looked at the control panel settings for types of speakers and possible volume increases ? You might have to get a usb sound card to fix the problem if it's the computer. My laptop uses a M-Audio mobilepre ,I bought on eBay for $40 came with Protools too that I didn't use and sold that back on eBay for $50 .
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Danny,
Do you have one of the small mixers for recording?
Consider using it as a stereo preamp between the headphone out of the laptop and the input to the PA.
Of course, you should use two of the Line inputs on the mixer and not the Mic inputs.
That would give you at least two extra stages of gain to boost the sig into the PA and you likely already have a mini mixer, or can pick one up for little cash outlay.
You'll get the separate channel gain faders as well as the master fader, plus you will likely also have some physical EQ shelving as well.
--Mac
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Quote:
Danny,
Do you have one of the small mixers for recording?
Consider using it as a stereo preamp between the headphone out of the laptop and the input to the PA.
Of course, you should use two of the Line inputs on the mixer and not the Mic inputs.
That would give you at least two extra stages of gain to boost the sig into the PA and you likely already have a mini mixer, or can pick one up for little cash outlay.
You'll get the separate channel gain faders as well as the master fader, plus you will likely also have some physical EQ shelving as well.
--Mac
When he said he plugs it into the PA I would hope he'd know that it has to go into some sort of mixer first. Not likely enough gain to drive just a power amp.He should either be using a mixer and amp or one of the box-top units. Either way there's something wrong if he can't drive the front end of a mixer or box-top with the output from the headphone jack. My Lenovo is no different then my old Toshiba in that respect.
Danny, you never answered my question about using the RED keys to up the volume.
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Quote:
Danny,
Do you have one of the small mixers for recording?
--Mac
Exactly what I use from Laptop (Laptop1/8 headpone jack to RCA plugs input of mixer, then mixer main to PA). Guitar and vocal mic also go into mixer so I control all levels sent to PA.
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Quote:
Quote:
Danny,
Do you have one of the small mixers for recording?
--Mac
Exactly what I use from Laptop (Laptop1/8 headpone jack to RCA plugs input of mixer, then mixer main to PA). Guitar and vocal mic also go into mixer so I control all levels sent to PA.
This is SOP I would hope this is how he was doing it. In fact I'm going to assume this is how it's being done so....... I still think there's an issue with the Lenovo. Either with the actual unit or operator error.
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You guys arent getting what I said.
I meant to use *a second small mixer* between headphone out and the line in of the PA's mixer.
But instead of viewing at as a mixer here, it would be functioning as a Line Amplifier to boost the signal that the main PA mixer is fed.
Not unorthodox at all, really, I do that quite often to obtain some extra inputs on the PA's mixer when needed, just press my home recording mixer into service jacked into one of the stereo line inputs of the main board and use it as well as the channels on the board. I have indeed done this to boost the laptop headphone signal into the main PA, too.
--Mac
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Quote:
You guys arent getting what I said.
I meant to use *a second small mixer* between headphone out and the line in of the PA's mixer.
--Mac
Exactly - 
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Quote:
You guys arent getting what I said.
I meant to use *a second small mixer* between headphone out and the line in of the PA's mixer.
But instead of viewing at as a mixer here, it would be functioning as a Line Amplifier to boost the signal that the main PA mixer is fed.
Not unorthodox at all, really, I do that quite often to obtain some extra inputs on the PA's mixer when needed, just press my home recording mixer into service jacked into one of the stereo line inputs of the main board and use it as well as the channels on the board. I have indeed done this to boost the laptop headphone signal into the main PA, too.
--Mac
Oh I most certainly did get what you said.We've been saying for years how the headphone output was perfectly fine and was totally adequate. And indeed it is. I bet 99% of the people here are using it into there mixer with no issues and no added gain stage. I have a new Lenovo and this is not a problem. No one else is having a problem. He appears to be the only one. Makes me curious as to why.
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An experiment for you.
Plugged the Lenovo headphone out into the TAPE INPUT of my little Behringer mixer.Set the MASTER to 0. The TAPE IN has no other controls. Took one of my tunes and played it. 70% output on the Lenovo drives the mixer LEDs to 0. So.............
Something is wrong with his Lenovo, the PA OR the songs are mixed way to low.
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Here's something just to toss on the pile.
I have 3 laptops. On one of them when I look at the internal sound card properties, I can adjust the output level. On the other 2, that is grayed out (Or GREYED out for my Canadian friends!!) and there is nothing to adjust as far as gain, just the volume control on the system tray.
Kicker?
All 3 are Dell laptop. Why 2 of them act differently, I have no clue. I have done EVERY Intel chipset update I could find and nothing changed. (FYI I use a program called Driver Genius that has treated me quite well when looking for driver updates.)
So bottom line, if your volume control is 100% and you have no gain controls on the sound card properties, maybe the thing just doesn't have ear splitting capabilities.
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Of all the ways one might connect audio equipment, I like the 1/8" audio headphone jack the least. It is prone to failing with repeated use as the prongs inside get bent. You lose one channel, or the jack gets loose and you can't count on it staying in, and/or it gives you crackling noise with any vibration.
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Quote:
Of all the ways one might connect audio equipment, I like the 1/8" audio headphone jack the least. It is prone to failing with repeated use as the prongs inside get bent. You lose one channel, or the jack gets loose and you can't count on it staying in, and/or it gives you crackling noise with any vibration.
I agree with this. I only use it to drive my Harmonizer.This isn't really relevant to his issue of course if you are thinking Matt that the jack might be messed up.Could be even though it's new.
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Thanks, and I agree, it was likely not related to his original problem. My comments were more to encourage another solution for this different reason.
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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There's a good chance there is a hack out there for Eddie's Dell problem. Often it's software related rather than hardware (when things are grey'd out). Maybe not, and even if there is you have to decide if you trust the source.
As we've noted many times on these forums; music recording isn't a focus of most computer companies. Probably never even gets considered during design. We as recordists have to figure out how to make up for the shortcomings. That's what makes this forum great. Lots of knowledgable recording enthusiasts willing to toss out what they've learned along the way..
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
Make your sound your own!
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Quote:
This may be too dumb a Question , but have you looked at the control panel settings for types of speakers and possible volume increases ? You might have to get a usb sound card to fix the problem if it's the computer. My laptop uses a M-Audio mobilepre ,I bought on eBay for $40 came with Protools too that I didn't use and sold that back on eBay for $50 .
Yes,
Did all the adjusting I could via the OS (windows 7) and the computer controls.
Thanks,
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Quote:
You guys arent getting what I said.
I meant to use *a second small mixer* between headphone out and the line in of the PA's mixer.
But instead of viewing at as a mixer here, it would be functioning as a Line Amplifier to boost the signal that the main PA mixer is fed.
Not unorthodox at all, really, I do that quite often to obtain some extra inputs on the PA's mixer when needed, just press my home recording mixer into service jacked into one of the stereo line inputs of the main board and use it as well as the channels on the board. I have indeed done this to boost the laptop headphone signal into the main PA, too.
--Mac
Mac,
I do have a stand-alone recorder but I am trying to avoid taking another gadget on gigs. So with that said I am into remixing my entire songbook. If I get tired of this process I will go to a small mixer I can build into my rack or an external soundcard.
It's just that this new laptop does not have the volume drive of the previous 3 old trucksters. Heck I even spoke with Lenovo tech and they told me in no uncertain terms that the new lappys (not only theirs but all of them) just don't push the volume of the older ones.
I have two gigs this week after the 1st tune on the 1st gig I'll know if the re-mixing is working or if I have to go to plan B.
Thanks for the advise and suggestions from you and the others who have offered input on this post, I sincerely appreciate the time and thought in my behalf.
Later,
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Danny,
I would look into the purchase of one of those small standalone recording mixers such as the little Behringers for this purpose rather than go through remixing every song just to make the laptop work. For one thing, you know the songs are already mixed correctly and therefore they won't be once mixed to be louder on that lappy. For another, the sound may be loud enough once that's done, but the gain staging will still be wrong, can't avoid that with what you intend to do.
You can find one of those little mixers for under $30 these days.
The reason I suggest the use of the little mixer as a Line Amplifier into the PA is that a standalone Line Amplifier costs a lot more than the little mixers do, likely because of supply and demand issues. But the mixer can indeed be pressed into service to do the same thing as the Line Amplifier.
Another device that could be used here is the Active Stereo Graphic Equalizer, such as were popular as home stereo and PA devices. Most of them can deliver 12 to 15dB of gain, which should be plenty.
Adjust the signal, not the separae files, as it is the signal which is down, not the files.
--Mac
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