Clear my doubts Please!

D

dkimcohn

New member
Hello Pro Audio People
Well I've started doing some recording using my computer first of all I'll explain how I've been doing some stuff.
I personally use live 4 and acid 4.0, now some equipment I use are the rhythm machine korg electribe er-1, and a micro korg. Now both of these equipments I connect it to my dj mixer (rane mp22z) and the mixer is connected to the line connector of my computer. Apparently every time I record and play back something it sounds like crap, like some beats sound like they've been pasted together.
I wonder why this happens? is it because I'm using a crappy sound card that came with the motherboard?, I think my mixer picks some noise in the recording too...
I got some other synthesizers and what I would like to do is record each of them into separate tracks into my computer. ?Now what kind of equipment or interface do I need in order to to this and not use my dj mixer.
Is there anything else I need to get?
Please help I want to start my production work ASAP and would like any of your opinions. I would spend some money because this is what I love doing and want to get the best music and sound out of it.
Thanks everybody
Pz
 
hi,

yeah, you pretty much answered your own question: you DEFINITELY need a new soundcard. Those integrated cards that come with computers have no place in recording pro audio. You have an electribe and a Rane mixer, obviously you have quality stuff..get yourself a quality card and you'll be alright. Of course, "what soundcard should I get?" is the million dollar question of this forum haha :) I'll give you some quick guidelines:

1.)don't go with a USB 1.0 soundcard, they are shit. trust me on this one.
2.) go with a card that can record at least 24 bit at 96khz...no excuse not to nowadays.
3.) make sure the card is compatible with your motherboard
4.) make sure the card has quality drivers, ie: if you use Sonar, make sure the WDM drivers kick butt.

read reviews, read reviews, read reviews

that should pretty much cover the basics, I'm sure a few other people will help point you in the right direction

good luck and have fun!

Adam
 
hey dki,
welcome to the board.

Have you ever considered a software alternative? if you like your setup now then just disregard, but I have been recently using a program called reason and it rock, it has 2 synths, 2 samplers, a loop player, a drum machine, pattern sequencer and mixer (with other things as well). and is all virtual. I like this setup because i don't need to have anything runing into my computer except a midi controller. The sounds from outboard synths don't need to be sampled if they analog, so there is no loss in audio quality. I find the possiblities much more powerful than using hardware devices.

you said you were using ableton live, well that syncs up nicely with reason via rewire. my .02
 
ok so def a soundcard but....

Thanks adam and minofifa for your help. :) .....ok so that's one thing I def need a new sound card but part of my question wasn't answered.
LEt's say I didn't have my dj mixer to connect my equipment, and I want to use my synthesizers to record some sound into the computer. What equipment do I have to get? Is there like a machine with a lot of inputs and outputs? Something that I can connect the synth equipment and that to the computer, to record several tracks into the program.


equipment to ------?------ to computer

Hope you guys answer my question

dkimcohn :D
 
That piece of equipment would be the sound card. You can grab a Delta 1010LT for pretty cheap now. It gives you 8 analog ins and outs, and would basically replace the need for a hardware mixer. You'd use the mixer in Live for volume, pan, etc. It has MIDI I/O so you can connect a MIDI controller to your computer and control software synths that way. Here's a link to the 1010LT on M-Audio's site:

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Delta1010LT-main.html

I mention this card because it seems to be very popular among the forum-goers here. Heh, I feel like I've been pimping M-Audio, but they really do make some great stuff.
 
An M-Audio Audiophile 24/96 would be good for you I reckon.

It's only got 2-in 2-out, but since you have a mixer, that's not really a problem.
 
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