Help first timer with Recording Questions! Please? :)

[Ibrow]

I have a couple of questions. To all that reply, thank you in advance.

My setup. 1.2Ghz AMD comp with 256MB Ram and an SBLive 5.1 soundcard. I have an SM57 along with an ART Tube MP preamp.

I just set this up today, and now my questions. For some reason when I record in Cool Edit 2K, I only record in mono. Just the left or right channel. Is there anyway to record in stereo? I thought the preamp was stereo. Is there a switch to change it or something? I can copy and paste the left into the right to create a stereo recording, it's just a pain in the ass. I want to record my singing over what is being played off of CD, and just having the Left or Right channel isn't what I want.

Next, are there any programs I can use to either play off the CD in the drive or play a WAV off my hard drive, and be able to record myself singing along? That is without what I am listening to being recorded also. So I end up with just myself a cappella(sp?), but the recording was done in real time so adding it to the music in Vegas will be a snap. That way I can EQ just the voice track. There has to be a way to do this. It would just be easier if I could hear the music and myself singing in my headphones at the same time. Worst case, I'll just put the damn CD in my walkman and listen to it and sing into the computer. I just don't want to do it that way.

Thanks very much guys.

Ibrow

[AlChuck]

The ART Tube MP is a mono unit.

What you can do is record left and right an pan center. You can also automatically make it a stereo track rather than manually having to copy it. Eidt/Convert Sample Type pops open a dialog box; you can leave the sample rate alone and just select Stereo instead of Mono, then click OK. (You can also adjust the percentages of the original that appear in each side of the stereoized file to effectively pan it).

I don't know if anything will stream audio off an audio CD and record it while ytou also sing along, but it's easy to rip the audio CD to WV and then open the wave in CoolEdit. But CoolEdit is only a two-track editor, which makes it hard (if the WAV is taking up your two tracks, where's your recording going to go?). You can get their special 4-track plug-in for $49, is it? Then you can do whatever you want and mix the final results down to stereo.

[Ibrow]

Thanks ALChuck. Shit. I must not have done enough of my homework to let that slip by. I could have sworn I read somewhere it was a stereo preamp. Oh well. Ebay here I come.

Is the Prosonus Blue Tube a stereo pre? I think it is. So I should be able to just sing into it, and both channels, R and L, will be recorded simutaneously, correct? I hate it when my screwups cost $100.

About the recording from CD. I don't have to just use CE2K. I have Soundforge ( although I haven't figured out how to use it yet. Too intimidating.) Cakewalk (same as Soundforge), and Vegas. I am able to use realplayer and play the CD and sing along, and CE2K records both my singing and the song in the same track in CE2K. Unfortunately, I want to do exactly that, but I want my voice track separate so I can mess (EQ)with it. Then I will mix it down with the song off the CD in Vegas.
I think if I were recording vocals in a studio, I would be in my little soundproof booth, and the music would play into my headphones while I sang and was recorded, with no accompanyment, into an individual voice track. There has to be some software out there to simulate this phenomenon on a computer that happens in studio.
Anyone?

Thanks for any and all help. Also, any suggestions on a STEREO preamp, if it's better than the Blue Tube, for around $150 are welcome.

What would one use a mono preamp for anyway? Thanks.

Ibrow

[pratt]

Ibrow-

yes - the presonus bluetube can be used as a 'stereo' preamp (or as 2 'mono' preamps) - but really you need 2 sources (eg. 2 mics) to use it as 'stereo' - I have one and think it's a pretty good unit ('specially for $150) - bit noisy for vocals, maybe??

make sure that you're using the 'line in' on your SBLive card to get a stereo recording. the 'mic in' is mono

in regards to your recording endeavour - here's what you can do - first you have to 'rip' the track you want to sing over off of the cd (there is alot of software out there to do this) - this will allow you to create a '.wav' file with the track. Once you have a 'wav' of the track then dump that into track 1 in soundforge (I think you can 'import wav file' into track 1); set up track 2 for recording; and sing away.

pratt

[Ibrow]

I have figured everything out and am now just messing around with my new equipment! The ART Tube MP does record in both L+R. Whether this is stereo or not, I cant's tell you, I'm too new at this. Isn't stereo, two mics recording both L+R at the same time? If I was really worried about I'd look it up. It's got to be here somewhere. My setup is good enough for me at this point. What the prob was, I was only getting the Left side when recording with my SM57. I felt this was odd. My XLR goes from the mic to the pre. Then from the pre I run a 1/4" to 1/4" (Guitar basically) cord to a 1/4" to 1/8" adapter into my line in. Where the prob was was my adapter must suck. Yesterday I only recorded in the left channel. Today I turn it on and only record in the right channel. ODD. So I hit the adapter a few times and sure enough, both L+R channels. That was the weak link, but what can you expect for $3 at GC?

In so far as singing and recording, I just use my SBLive! mixer that is down in the tray in the lower right of the screen. With CE2K the CD controls are right under the recording controls. There is a setup in the SB mixer, between the Play Control and Record Control screens that lets you play the CD in your headphones while singing and CE2K only picks up the singing. Finally, a legit home recording studio!

Now if I just had some talent, I'd really be able to do something.

Thanks gents.

Ibrow

[AlChuck]

Ibrow,

Pratt is right on, a stereo mic preamp is more properly considered a two-channel preamp. Stereo miking is one possible application but it is quite difficult and fraught with problems of phase cancellation and such. Besides, who has two throats? Stereo miking is only really helpful for picking up some of the natural ambience and sense of space in the room. But most home studios do not have rooms that sound particularly good, and like I said, stereo micing is a bit more difficult to deal with.

I think you are better off miking yourself in mono panned right and using your computer tools to mix and add effects like reverb and such to give the voice some ambience.

Sound Forge is really easy to use, very much like CoolEdit 2000... as you'll probably discover if you give it a shot. But it, too, is only a stereo editor. If you have Cakewalk and Vegas, though, you are set -- you can have as many tracks as you want. Very convenient. You can pull in the ripped WAV in stereo, then sing yourself into a nother track, even try take after take, muting the ones you don't want to hear, combining that great verse 1 from Take 2 with the perfect verse 2 from Take 5, doubling parts and singing harmony with yourself...

As to your statement:

I think if I were recording vocals in a studio, I would be in my little soundproof booth, and the music would play into my headphones while I sang and was recorded, with no accompanyment, into an individual voice track. There has to be some software out there to simulate this phenomenon on a computer that happens in studio.
Anyone?

I am not sure what you mean by "simulate this phenomenon," but if you mean isolate your voice onto a separate track, well, that's exactly what I am talking about above, and it's very easy to accomplish with either Cakewalk or Vegas.

[pratt]

yeah, I actually meant to dump the 'ripped' .wav into Cakewalk (not Soundforge) - where you would have an 'unlimited' (depending on your system) # of tracks to overdub whatever you want

Soundforge is a great audio editing tool, however - good for adding effects, etc. to your tracks. Cakewalk is a bit limited in that aspect.

good luck and good recording!

[schwa]

What about the $1000 worth of software you don't know how to use? I'd be much more upset about that. What kind of salesman would sell all that stuff at the same time?

Pratt,
What do you mean Cakewalk is limited when it comes to effects? It like Soundforge, uses direct x, so any effects available to soundforge are availabel for Cake. Additionally, they can be applied to each track (like the vocals) instead of the whole thing, as in SF.

[pratt]

I stand corrected - but just to let ya know - I was more referring to the 'built-in' effects and processing tools (the ones that come with the programs) - not DirectX add-ons

Soundforge is shipped with a pretty nice array of effects/processing tools. The Cakewalk that I have used (a # of versions ago) was pretty sparse when it came to effects/processing tools. Maybe the newer Cakewalk's are better equipped - and if so that's great.

"Additionally, they can be applied to each track (like the vocals) instead of the whole thing, as in SF." - this is sort of misleading, though - as SF only handles one "track" at a time (albeit, a stereo track) - but even with a stereo file - you can still apply effects/processing to one channel or a piece of the file.

peace
pratt

[schwa]

Actually, the SF plug ins make a nice addition to the effects available in Cake, since they are available in both versions. And since SF5 is/was available for $99, a great value.

The newest version of Cake, now called SONAR, has added the excellent DSPFX suite, so taken with the sound forge package, has nearly everything one might want.