New to Recording

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BeginnerNeedsHelp!!

Post by BeginnerNeedsHelp!! » Tue Oct 14, 2003 1:46 am

Hi, I am very new to recording, but have recently purchased an Edirol AudioCapture device for my PC. It basically transmits one track of anything (direct microphone, guitar, mixer, etc.) directly onto my computer. I have an XP operating system and am using Sonar Cakewalk 3 to do the recordings. I have a mixer setup as my input (I get one input on the Edirol device), but have recorded both directly and through the mixer and am still having the same problems. The guitar sound is very muffled and sounds very distant and I have tried numerous things to fix it and have failed miserbaly. Also, my vocals sound like a helicopter affect (like singing and beating your fist against your chest repeatedly) Plus, there is just in general enormous amounts of static, etc. that is being recorded somehow???

I am recording the guitar tracks with a pickup, but have also tried going directly into the microphone.

Any suggestions or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks a lot,

Rich


GretscGuy
Posts: 434
Joined: Sat Oct 18, 2003 1:26 pm
Location: Massachusetts USA

Post by GretscGuy » Sat Oct 18, 2003 1:52 pm

Rich,
Let's start with your guitar and go from there. How exactly are you recording it? Direct or through a miked amplifier? Is there anything else (like a pod) in the signal chain?

The first suggestion I would have is to evaluate how your guitar sounds before it hits Sonar. Sometimes our recorded sounds are not that great to begin with. Although I do not see this as the sourse of your problem, keep reading.

When you say your voice sounds like a hellicopter is it fair to say that it is cutting in and out at a steady rate? If so, I would check to see if your clock is set to sync to Audio rather than midi. If it is set to midi, it will play back steadily chopping (to time) rather than randomly. Try setting your clock to audio and see if this helps.

If the stuttering is every now and again, check to see how your data is being cached. Look for the 'read ahead caching' box in your audio settings.

Finally, if none of this works, install the latest drivers for your audio capture device. That may solve your problem. If not post with your full system details (including soundcard and processor class) and I will give you some more ideas.

Good Luck!

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