Help A Rookie Dummy

[kingdabeaki]

I don't know anything about anything. I'll tell you what I have and what I want to do and hopefully someone can shed some light for me. I don't know any recording terms or computer technical terms so keep that in mind, please. I have an M-Audio Mobile Pre and Cubase SL. That is all I have. I don't have monitors, mixer, etc. Just headphones. All I need out of this program is to create a drum track and add guitar tracks to it. When I record my guitar, there is a delay spitting back in my ear that seems to be about 2 seconds. And I don't even know where to begin to create a drum beat with the program.

[Bass Master "K"]

Do you have a virtual instrument in Cubase SL that is a drum sampler? We have in in Cubase SX and i would imagine you have it too. If you do, you can open a MIDI track, select the drum sampler as a VSTi, open up the drum editor and construct a drum track by hand. if you do it in small clumps, you can copy and paste it to make a complete drum track.

The delay you are hearing is called latency and there are ways to help fix it. Use the search function on the site and type in "latency", you will see heaps of threads.

[kingdabeaki]

thanks a lot. i really appreciate it.

[kingdabeaki]

I have searched and searched to fix the latency problem with no luck. This has effected trying to create drum parts too because they are not in time with what I'm hearing back....also, I can get to the drum effects but still do not know how to arrange and "record" them. I've read a lot of material and I guess I'm just not getting it. Perhaps I should have started with a 4 track and a drum machine! I need to know specifically what tabs and sub tabs to click on to reduce my latency. Any help out there? Thank you to those who take the time to help dummies like myself. :P

[radiorickm]

kingdabeaki.....
there is a WHOLE website infront of this BBS. take some time and read through all the articles and links. it will get you started on the learning...

[manning1]

i dont use vsti plug ins etc. heres another way to simply build a drum track using real drum samples. you can buy cd's for example of great drum samples.
look on google for a free program called HOTSTEPPER. this is a really neat free program. in fact it lets you sequence not just drum samples for drum tracks but also synths or any sample. one neat feature is it lets you TUNE
up or down a sample. haveing got your drum track right in hotstepper save it as a standard stereo wave file and import into cubase as a track.
then on another track(s) start laying your guitar(s) and vocal(s) etc down.
be aware hotstepper is addictive !!
if you still get latency issues using this method ive described then its probably an issue with your system set up.
i hope this helps.

[manning1]

another idea. i use powertracks that lets me build drum midi tracks and comes with different "patterns" of drum styles. the demo is at pgmusic.com.
there is also a drum machine like editor you can build your own drum patterns in. then just lay down your guitar and vocal parts etc.
give it a try sometime. talk to the users on the forum. very helpfull who have helped me lots in the past.

[kingdabeaki]

Thanks! I'll check it out.