Volume too strong - recording LP to PC

[wigglytoes]

I'm trying to record my LPs into MP3 format.
To get there I'm playing the LP on my turntable (Old high end Luxman so no USB connection)
Taking the signal through my CJ PF-2
Out to my PC via a direct cable. (Coming out of the REC 1 ports)
This cable is plugged into a "Line In" port on my Gigabyte motherboard.
The PC is running Windows 7, and the software is Realtek HD Audio Manager
Trouble is that the signal is so strong that I have to turn the Recording Volume down to a thin hair above zero to get a recording that's not massively overdriven. (Even then it's a touch too strong)
Turning down the volume on the CJ has no effect.
It seems to me that the problem can be occurring in one or two spots. My CJ was never designed to push a signal to a computer, or the computer software is expecting a much lower signal. I'm trying to remove one or the other possible causes.

Anyone else solved this problem?

I'm using Audacity for recording, but that doesn't matter. The signal being delivered to any recording software is already way too strong.

[admin]

Some questions to better diagnose the problem.

1) What is the level when you feed the signal into an amp or say tape recorder? Is it still really high?

2) Instead of feeding the signal out of the Rec 1 port, what if you feed it out the standard output (labeled "main out"), is the level still to high? In other words, you can control the volume by the PF-2.

Just asking, but is there a good reason you are encoding to mp3? That's going to rob the fidelity (quality) of the music. You can instead record into a lossless format like flac.

[wigglytoes]

1) The level isn't too high when feeding into an amp or tape recorder. I rarely go above 1/4 volume when I'm playing something.
2) This works. Simply switching from REC 1 to MAIN OUT allowed me to set the recording level in my computer to a more reasonable level. (Interesting enough the CJ volume knob now has more control of the recording volume then the Audacity record level.)
3) I'm not really going to mp3. Everyone knows what mp3 is, and not everyone knows what flac, etc are, so it was easier to just say I'm going to mp3.

Thanks for your help.

[admin]

Have you tried it with another computer? Maybe it's something specific to that particular sound card in your computer? I would also just go through all the settings (including any software specifically released with that sound card). Sometimes they have an artificial volume/signal booster that could artificially raise the recording volume.

If you can't do it on the computer side, at least the Main Out works well so I guess that is a solution.