Question about input feed playback and line-out VS headphones port

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PsiJohniCS

New member
Hi! I'm new. And off course, in need of guidance.

You see, I've decided to make some music again after many years. In fact, the last time I actually recorded songs I used Windows XP and a Creative Audigy sound card. What's puzzling though is that everything seemed to be easier back then; When I was recording in Acid I could hear my input feed together with rest of the output/mix while recording. When I record now I hear nothing, but it is indeed recording. So what do I need to do to get the sound through?

And on my XP there was also a "What U hear" playback device that was REALLY handy, playing back internal sound. Can't find that again nowadays. This was maybe a function on the sound card I had.


Oh, and one more question; when I use my XLR cables from by keyboards line ports and into my h4n, I either just get sound from one side, or complete mono sound. Also, it sounds absolutely terrible (edit: I think this may have something to do with the "line level"?). In contrast, when I just use a mini-jack from the phones port of my keyboard and directly into the line-in on my computer it sounds pretty good! Shouldn't I be using the line-outs and my expensive XLR's? Is using headphones out and minijack a bad idea?

Thanks a lot for any help :)
 
What's the soundcard you are using now ?

Creative and Realtec had a virtual driver for the sound passing through the system.

Regular audio patch cable for the keyboard
 
I noticed you are using the H4N. If you are connecting the XLRs to those, you will need to make sure your DAW is picking up Line 1 and Line 2 since each input is considered independent or if there is a stereo option, select that. Make sure you have both inputs as the source.
 
Without knowing your exact setup, including make and model of the keyboard and soundcard, it's really hard to tell what is going wrong.

What you will hear a lot will be "go get a recording interface, it will have the proper inputs and outputs and all the monitoring control that you need."

That is what you should do. Built in soundcard on computers now are just cheap things meant for listening to YouTube and plugging in a headset for Skype calls. If you are going to multitrack music, you should get hardware capable of it.
 
Thank you for your replies.

In fact I don't have a soundcard at the moment, but I use the h4n as an USB audio interface.. would that effectively be the same as an external soundcard? I also have a Focusrite Saffire 6 USB, but I the drivers aren't really supported for Win 10, and I couldn't get it work right away. Any experiences here?
 
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Built in soundcard on computers now are just cheap things meant for listening to YouTube and plugging in a headset for Skype calls. If you are going to multitrack music, you should get hardware capable of it.
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But to be clear; quality soundcards are just only better at converting analogue signals to digital data. As soon as it's "on the computer" soundcards doesn't improve my multitrack music. True?
 
Only as far as the op-amps you hear at the audio out. Along those lines, the new Blaster has dual output amps - one for L, &, and one R. On the !live 4620, many chose the rear op-amps as sounding better
 
Audio interfaces just have more recording related features. Zero latency monitoring, standard in's and out's that expect the appropriate levels, etc...
 
Hi John,
According to the info I can find the h4n has combi XLR inputs and so you need TS jacks to feed in an unbalanced signal from the keyboard (make, model please!) . Going into the XLR MIC input will cause overload I am sure.

The 'Listen to what is going thru' function has been dropped in W10. There is a discussion about this over at Sound on Sound forum and I think a couple of solutions. You will also find a review of the h4n I think and I seem to think it was not given great marks for usability as an interface?

Don't give up on the Focusrite, there have been several threads here and at SoS where peeps have got older kit to work on W10. I sent a guy an M-Audio 2496 card that was surplus to my requirements and at first W10 was a no-no. A few weeks later..Working!

Dave.
 
FYI - from the website

"Outputs
The H4n Line/Phone Out is a stereo ⅛" phone jack with dedicated volume control. Headphones can be connected to this jack for private monitoring of the input or recorded signal. There's also a built-in speaker on the back panel for fast monophonic monitoring of the recorded signal without the need to make any connections.

The H4n USB port provides a digital output of the stereo mix and allows data to be sent to and from computer editing software such as the supplied Cubase LE. USB also allows the H4n to be used as a 2-in/2-out audio interface and enables the installation of software updates from the Zoom website."
 
Farview said:
Audio interfaces just have more recording related features. Zero latency monitoring, standard in's and out's that expect the appropriate levels, etc...
Click to expand...

Isn't this exactly what a soundcard does (better than motherboard integrated soundcards). If I have an Audio Interface, what would I need a soundcard for?


The 'Listen to what is going thru' function has been dropped in W10. There is a discussion about this over at Sound on Sound forum and I think a couple of solutions
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So everything WAS easier back in the day :)

DM60
FYI - from the website

"Outputs
The H4n Line/Phone Out is a stereo ⅛" phone jack with dedicated volume control. Headphones can be connected to this jack for private monitoring of the input or recorded signal. There's also a built-in speaker on the back panel for fast monophonic monitoring of the recorded signal without the need to make any connections.

The H4n USB port provides a digital output of the stereo mix and allows data to be sent to and from computer editing software such as the supplied Cubase LE. USB also allows the H4n to be used as a 2-in/2-out audio interface and enables the installation of software updates from the Zoom website."
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info :) I tried to plug my phones to the phones-port of my h4n, but still didn't immediately get the sound through.

Regardless; any perceived problems with using a minijack compared to XLR cables? Is the recording quality supposed to be sub-par? Thanks! :)
 
PsiJohniCS said:
Isn't this exactly what a soundcard does (better than motherboard integrated soundcards). If I have an Audio Interface, what would I need a soundcard for?
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A sound card IS an interface. But the soundcard you were describing sounded more like a card version of the integrated sound that comes on computers. That's all the creative labs stuff was because back in the day, not all desk tops came with sound.

If you get an audio interface made for recording, it will have the appropriate ins and outs, built in monitoring, asio drivers (so you bypass windows sound stupidity) and it will do what you want it to do, without having to fight with something that wasn't made for what you are doing.

The H4N can be used as an interface, but that was an afterthought. It was meant to be a field recorder, not a recording interface.
 
It's likely that all you have to is enable input monitoring on your DAW track(s). RTFM to figure out how. Assuming the H4N and its drivers can provide low enough latency, it should work fine.
 
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