Hello,

I have a 1998 jaguar with a Harmon Karman (sp) stereo system with cassette and CD player.  I want to use my ipod so I purchased a cassette adapter.  It works great but my question is…my Ipod id digital music, is it still digital playing through my speakers with the cassette adapter?

(answer after the jump)

Hi, Kurtis. Anything played through the headphone jack is analog. To keep it digital, you’d have to play through the dock connector. Regardless, tapes are analog, so your cassette adapter would necessarily be analog.

Oh well, it’s always analog when it comes out of the speakers! If you’re happy with the sound, that’s good enough. :)

When I plug the headphones into my iPhone, there’s no background noise–just perfect silence.

So, I went searching for a solution to the problem. Turns out, it’s not a software update or a configuration problem. I just have a cheap sound card. All sound cards introduce some level of noise (though my iPhone doesn’t seem to) and cheaper sound cards introduce more noise than better-quality sound cards.  Being a laptop, my computer has the sound card built into the motherboard, which makes it prone to this type of background noise.

If this were a desktop, I could simply add a better-quality sound card and plug my headphones or speakers into it. With a laptop/notebook/mobile computer, I need to add an external sound card or USB headphones (as described later). Check the reviews–some are better quality than others.

This problem also extended to recording. I regularly record voice-overs for instructional videos, and I had a seemingly incurable problem with background noise. When I bought a digital microphone (which uses a USB connection rather than the mic-in port), the background noise disappeared. Because I wasn’t using the analog microphone port on my laptop anymore, it wasn’t subject to the motherboard-induced background noise. The headset I bought also had headphones, and those headphones were immune to the background noise, too.

Moral of the story: if you hear noise when you plug a mic, headphones, or speakers into your computer, use a USB connection instead of the built-in analog connection.

Hey VistaClues.

I am looking for some way to make a keyboard shortcut for the volume control (Volume Mixer) so I can have fewer taskbar icons, but still have easy acces to the various things.

I’m also looking for a volume control tool, for the side bar menu.

In other words, a gadget that can control the master volume on the speakers (and microphone if possible).

Can you help me with the one, the other or both problems?

Thanks for all the help from your site.

Answer:

On any Windows Vista computer that you might sit at, you can quickly launch the Volume Mixer by clicking Start, typing sndvol, and then pressing Enter.

For me, it’s easier to remember “Sndvol” than a special keyboard shortcut, and it works on any Windows Vista computer, so that’s my preference. You can, however, launch any shortcut with a single key. The Volume Mixer doesn’t have a shortcut by default, however, so you first need to add one. Follow these steps:

1. Click Start and type sndvol. Right-click sndvol on the Start menu, and then click Copy.

2. On the taskbar, right-click the clock and then click Show the Desktop. Alternatively, you can press Windows+D.

3. Right-click the desktop, and then click Paste Shortcut. This adds a SndVol shortcut to your desktop. You can always double-click this to launch the Volume Mixer now, but that’s not the real point–we want to use this to add a keyboard shortcut.

4. On the desktop, right-click the Sndvol -Shortcut and then click Properties.

5. On the Shortcut tab, click the Shortcut key field. Now, press the keyboard shortcut you want to use, such as Ctrl+Shift+Alt+V.

6. Click OK.

Now, just press the keyboard shortcut you chose to launch the volume mixer. You can do this for any program or batch file. Also, let me recommend getting a keyboard with volume controls built-in. If you can find one with a volume wheel (instead of just volume up and down buttons), all the better. I’m using the Microsoft Natural Ergo Keyboard 4000 (it has the buttons, rather than the wheel, unfortunately).

1. Right-click the Volume icon in the notification area, and then click Sounds.

2. The Sound dialog appears, with the Sounds tab selected. Clear the Play Windows Startup sound check box.

3. Click OK.

The next time you restart, you’ll be greeted with silence.

Audophiles, prepare to cringe.

Windows Vista includes Bass Boost which increases the volume of low sounds (you know, like that switch that was on every 80’s walkman and boom box) and Virtual Surround, which varies the timing of the left and right channels to sorta make it sounds like you have more speakers.

To enable Bass Boost and/or Virtual Surround, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.

2. Click Hardware and Sound.

3. Click Sound.

4. The Sound dialog box appears. Click the speakers with the green check box (that’s your default speaker output). Then, click Properties.

5. The Speakers Properties dialog appears. Click the Enhancements tab.

6. On the Enhancements tab, select either or both Bass Boost and Low Frequency Protection and Virtual Surround. You can also play with Loudness Equalization to even out some of the highs and lows, and something audiophiles will love: Room Correction to better adjust the volume of individual speakers (requires you to have an external microphone).

7. Click Apply. Then, test your settings by playing some music or something.

8. When you’re ready, click OK twice to make your settings take effect.

This happens to me all the time–I turn the volume on my computer way up to listen to something. Later, someone instant messages me, and the ringing instant message sound is so loud my neighbors can hear it.

Some apps, like Windows Media Player, include their own volume control–but most don’t. Fortunately, Windows Vista makes up for this shortcoming. To adjust volume for individual applications, follow these steps:

1. Click the Volume icon on your taskbar, and then click Mixer.

2. The Volume Mixer appears, as shown at the top of this page.

The Device volume on the far-left controls the overall volume, just like Volume did in earlier versions of Windows.

The cool part is the Applications list. Here, you’ll see your open applications. On the far left of this list is Windows Sounds, which controls things like the Windows startup sound and various error and notification sounds. Just drag an application’s volume slider where you want it (dragging it higher than the Device volume will automatically raise the device volume, but other applications will be relatively quieter).

Scroll right to see more applications.

Let’s say I want to find pictures taken on New Year’s Eve, 2006. I’ll type date:december31, 2006 and press Enter. Windows Vista immediately shows all my files modified on that date.

Then, to limit it to only pictures, I can click Picture on the Show only toolbar.

Instantly, I see all the pictures I took that day. Any of these variations work, too:

• date:today
• date:yesterday
• date:december
• date:dec
• date:tuesday

You can combine this with other criteria. For example, to find text files that I modified today, I can search for date:today *.txt.

AQS goes far beyond just date. Check out these examples:

• genre:rock. Find all music with a Genre defined as “Rock”.
• Artist:”Beastie Boys“. Find all your Beastie Boys songs.
• conductor:”Gerard Schwartz”. Find everything on your computer that Gerard Schwartz conducted.

Like Google, you can use a minus symbol to exclude something (or the keyword NOT). For example:

• genre:rock -wait. Find all rock songs, except a song named Wait or songs by an artist named wait.
• date:today *.txt -cookies. Find all text files modified today except files named Cookies.

“OR” works as well, if you want to search by multiple criteria. If you have other good examples, please add a comment.