Question Sound Blaster AE-9 flangey, distorted audio but only on recording monitoring

[Docsavagefan1884]

I've always purchased (and preferred) the Soundblasters with the front panel. However, as they've gotten cheaper over the years, it became harder and harder toattach RCA cables to the front.

In 2021, I had a pc built which I hoped would be a monster PC for audio and vintage sound restoration (there's my AMD freezing issue in general - getting rid of icue may or may not have fixed that,it certainly helped), with 128 gigs of RAM and the SoundBlaster AE-9. I collect old time radio, and although I'm increasingly retired from the recording side, I used to record a lot from my turntable setup to the pc.

Although I love the listening (on headphones) side of the AE-9, it's a pain in the neck to record. The headphone amp cable isnt' really long enough on the headphone amp, and I have to go through a bunch of inconvenient situating (the headphone amp rests on top of the turntable dust cover during normal times) to record. To make it more intolerable, the audio is distorted (heavily flangey) while live recording. It 'seems' to be normal when saved, but this makes it really, really, hard when there's a skip, warp, or some issue with the record.

I use Audition for recording, but tried several different ones to see if that was the problem. Same thing on every program I tried. I went into the Sound Blaster command app and adjusted everything I could (I always turn off the after-effects), but nothing I did there worked, either.

Is anyone else having this problem? That,and the contortionist part made it such a pain to record that I've pretty much stopped recording anything. There's no room to set up my turntable at the old PC. My 2010-era PC was much better for recording.

 

[Docsavagefan1884]

Oh, I forgot an important part of the description. When I'm recording, I attach the RCA cable to the only RCA input, on back of the headphone amp.

My PC also has an onboard soundcard, but that would be an awful burden to switch to it every time I'm recording, and I don't have speakers. I use headphones (which are attached tot he AE-9).

Insofar as listening, this is probably my favorite SoundBlaster of the bunch. Too bad recording is a PITA. I suppose I could set up a t-splitter for trying the input on the back of the PC, but the way the room is set up, it's really difficult to get to the back of the PC.