Dunce hat time

[Treeline]

I have a Dell / intel PIII 600 running Win98 with a soundblaster Live! Value (yeah, I know) and n-track just ignores me. Won't even make coffee. What did I do wrong (Other than Dell, Intel, Win98 and Soundblaster...)?

[monty]

It wasn't you, it was your mother.

[ffmada]

I got a setup similar to yours. Dell PIII 933 Windows 98SE Soundblaster Live Value running N-Tracks. I had to change N-Tracks sampling frequency 48000 in the Preferences menu.
Apparently the SB won't do sh!t unless it is recieving 48000. If you already tried that, check the basics (i.e. soundcards mixer recording and playback controls)
Also, make sure that you have activated the monitors in N-Track.
Any more questions might confuse me, but I'll try and help.

madfadder

[ffmada]

BTW My parents bought me this computer for school and although I wouldn't have personally gone with Dell, this thing is pretty sweet. They even thought ahead enough to get 256 megs of ram. How sweet I have yet to use it for school though

monty it really was my mother

[Treeline]

Monty, don't fool with my mother. My mother invented the internet AND Al Gore. If she gets irritated, she might invent something else...

[Treeline]

Actually, I have owned a few Dells over the years and they're pretty nice machines. I stopped trying to DIY a while ago, but found Dell to have a reliable package and good service. But I'm not so sure about WIN98.

We have a stack of machines at the office (connected by sneaker net) pumping out word processing at an alarming rate. We sell our time and ideas, so fancy pants downtime = lost revenue. The two machines that are the most stable and productive of the bunch - by far - are (you guessed it) DOS machines running Word Perfect 5.1 flat out, all day, every day.

Go figure.

[DaveO]

Treeline,

I have the *exact* same PC and have no problem running n-Track. Have you been able to get it to do anything?

When I first started using it, I got no sound when I played back and that's when I found out about the 48000 sample rate. ffmada was right about that.

If you provide a litte more detail maybe I can throw out some other ideas. For example, can you see signal levels in the record meters when you try recording? Do you see a signal in the playback meter but hear no sound? Do you have the SoundBlaster mixer setup to use Line In when you record (another one of my gotchas)? Is the record level on the SoundBalster mixer turned all the way down, which will prevent any signal from coming through?

BTW, if you figure out how to get it make coffee, let me know. Maybe I can use that info to teach it to brew beer.

[Treeline]

ffmada and DaveO -

Thanks for the insights. Personally, I would skip the coffee and go right to the beer...

I expect this is like one of the simple things I've missed in the past, say, like being irritated at the poor cable signal but forgetting about that little "TV/VCR" switch. I have a talent for that kind of stuff. I back into things with my truck, too.

At any rate, I get a signal into the box, because I can pick it up on the Creative Recorder. Records, plays back, simple, no problem. When I run n-Track, I can wake the monitors up, do the time chart thing, all these doodads. The only thing missing is the signal. I fooled with the Windows volume settings and they're fine. DVDs and CDs play fine. I can run my Creative ditties all day in the background if I want. Just not picking up anything with n-Track.

I'm at work tonight until late, and it may be a couple of days before I can fool around with it, but I will check out the 44.1K / 48 K sample rate thing. I thought it was set for 48K. Thanks again, and I'll let you know what happens.

Maybe an analog coffeemaker is a better idea, after all.

[Treeline]

Problem solved!!

I had the card set for 48K; no change. Just too wierd for words. So I downloaded a new demo version of n-track and fired up. It works! Must have been a glitch in the old download.

Now I find I have a ditsy cable, or jack, or something. I'm only picking up one channel. I'm running a signal from the RCA tape outputs of a Mackie CFX stage mixer; it's not too noisy if I bypass the effects. So far I've ruled out the mixer and the cable. Now I have a junction and that little 1/8" stereo jack to check out.

By the way, any tips on recording piano with plebian mics? I'm still saving up for a matched pair of Octavas (from the Sound Room, of course...) but at this rate it'll be a while. I'm using garden variety dynamics.

Thanks...!