A couple of recentish thoughts on SRS:

[Flickserve]

Actually now I think about it, it should be easy enough to record Pleco's audio output onto my PC and add it to Anki that way.

not sure that can be done unless you are happy with recording microphone direct from speaker to MP3. I have a cumbersome solution for that.

[realmayo]

I have an alternative plan but will take a couple of weeks before I can try it.

 

And if that doesn't work, wouldn't it be possible to plug a lead into the headphone jack of my phone, to output into the microphone jack of my PC?

[edelweis]

That's what I used (audio cord with two jack plugs) to make mp3s from cassettes. Or mp3s from vinyls.

But those tracks (language lessons or music) are long enough and interesting enough to be worth the hassle. Single words in the other hand... meh.

[Flickserve]

Yup. That's one option but loses quality.

If you are ok with individual words MP3, I did in fact find a better solution posted in another forum.

You can input the Chinese word in an online dictionary (the one I used worked for this), and then use a video downloader plugin for Firefox. You can then select to download the MP3 of the word which can then be included in anki.

[Shelley]

plug a lead into the headphone jack of my phone, to output into the microphone jack of my PC?

 

You need to be careful when doing this as the output of the headphones is an amplified signal designed to drive your headphones with power (watts) the microphone input on your pc or indeed any mic input is expecting a very small signal relatively.

 

So be very careful with your volumes, low low out of the headphones might just work but it will probably be very distorted.

 

You might get better result if you plug you headphone out into one of those little speakers designed to work off the headphones and then use a microphone placed near/in front of the speaker, again be careful with your levels.

 

Remember to start low with volumes and turn them up slowly till it starts to distort then back it down a bit till it sounds good, good quality is important as you are using this to learn from not just boogie

[realmayo]

Thanks for the advice Shelley. I'm still a few thousand miles away from my PC but I remember its sound card has six different sockets to choose from. Are any of those likely to be better than the microphone one?

[Shelley]

Yes, if you have a line input you stand a better chance of getting a usable result. Again watch your levels, start low out from the headphones into the PC.

 

Remember you are still using an amplified signal going into an input that is expecting a small signal, line input accepts a higher input level than mic but still not as high as the headphones output.

 

Be interesting to know how you get on, when you are reunited with your PC.

[realmayo]

Thanks, will let you know. I also have some cassettes for Chinese textbooks that I need to mp3-ise too.

[Shelley]

My partner does a lot of audio (that's our business, amps, speakers etc. anything dj's or bands use, not instruments) and he does a lot of that sort of thing cassette, vinyl etc. to mp3, wav's and so on.

 

He uses a little USB mixer, you can then plug any source in the mixer and then it is sent to the PC using USB. he then has a bit of software to deal with the file with which he can adjust the tones, volumes and levels. Works well, I had him do all my old Chinese lesson tapes so I can have them as mp3s on my PC, tablet and phone if I want.

 

The mixer is a simple little Behringer xenyx502 (there other makes and models available ) with an USB audio interface, not too expensive.

 

You can buy other simple USB audio interfaces that don't need the mixer, but they tend to be for just one format ie line level to USB or mic level to USB and so on. The mixer allows more flexibility.