Please help I dont know much....

[megabyte52]

Im hoping you guys can help me since I know little about this sort of thing. My friends are recording using two adats into a 24 channel mixer. We wanted to get it in my computer to make cds. However the only inputs i have in my sound card is a mic and a line. Now I know not to use the mic input, but the line is only one jack, thus changing it from stereo. Is there any way i can get it in stereo on my hard disk? Thank you to anyone who helps...

[Krakit]

I'm real green on digital recording myself, but I always assumed that the line input is stereo.

I think you only need a 1/8" stereo phono jack split into two RCA's or to whatever else your output might be. Most good computer speakers come with such a wire for going from the speaker out jack to both left and right spkrs.

Am I mistaken?

Carl

[zip]

You could use a "Y" connector. The one I have is 2 - 1/4" female mono to 1 mini male stereo. One side records to the left channel - one to the right...

zip >>

[dachay2tnr]

Krakit is correct. The "line in" connection is a stereo connection - like a headphone jack.

If your source (mixer) has two seperate output connections (L/R) then follow zip's instructions. Get a Y cable (available from Radio Shack). The arms of the Y cable would need to be mono and they connect to the L/R connections on your mixer. The base of the Y needs to be stereo (probably 1/8" miniplug) and connects to your sound card line in.

[zip]

But your instructions are much better than mine....

zip >>

[megabyte52]

So if were to just record it it would automatically capture it as stereo? And can anyone reccomend a good (free) program to capture the files into wav/mp3?

[ola]

Depending on SW settings, it would be captured as mono, stereo or left and right mono (i.e. separated stereo tracks). It would be captured as wave files. You need a MP3 encoder to make mp3 files from your finished tunes but if you want to make CDs, you only need 16bit/44.1kHz stereo wave files. Does Windows Media player still have that one minute limitaiton?

What soundcard do you have? You might want to look into an upgrade to get decent quality. $30-50 gets you a long way if you only need two channels. Check if the ADAT has S/PDIF out. Then you can get a soundcard with S/PDIF in and skip a couple of nasty analogue/digital conversions.

Good and free rarely match but n-Track is a mere $35 or 50 depending on version. Download the demo from fasoft.com and see what you think about it. I think that the demo version will actually suffice for your needs.

/Ola

[giaschel]

Isn't Pro Tools Free, euh... free?

[ola]

As far as I know, yes - but is it good? I have no idea. Never tried it and I forgot about it. You should of course try it MB52.

[getuhgrip]

For what it's worth...
Power Tracks http://www.pgmusic.com/ptwa/ptwa.htm is also free. Supports midi, 20+ tracks I think. Doesn't do 24bit. I found it easy to use until I got a Darla24.

Good luck.