Mixing down from 4Track to computer instead of stereo cassette?

[suling]

Hello there, a great place for info this site, very informative, back again. I have a laptop, small, not a lot of power, cheap soundcard I'd guess, so not so easy to change as in a PC. Anyway I record traditional acoustic instruments, keyboards, field recordings(from MiniDisc) all onto my 4Track recorder. I then use an Alesis MidiVerb for EFX processing. I recently got a burner to make CD's of my music and it was suggested to me recently to just mixdown to my computer(instead of 4Track mixdown to cassette-to computer from cassette-burn to CD-R). So I am having trouble mixing down from 4Track to computer. I have some free software I use, the Acid 2.0 software is not so great at recording from outside computer(MiniDisc samples sound noisy). Then one called Goldwave(records short samples quite clear, full, longer samples/songs have a bunch of clicks and pops in them, so not so good). Don't know if it's the software, system noise, soundcard, what????. Mixing 4Track to stereo cassette actually sounded much better, surprisingly(something everyone says wouldn't.). So I want to know of any software out there is good at this, collecting sounds through the "Line-In", something I can try, free, read a lot of horror stories on sites of people buying software and finding out it doesn't work or is trash, know of anything out there? Send me a notation.

[TexRoadkill]

CoolEditPro will probably do the job for you. You might want to look at the Sound Blaster Extigy card. It is an external USB card for $150 and will definately sound better than your laptops' card.

[suling]

Sorry TexRoadkill, I'm new at this, didn't know how to send a reply to someone who gave me a message till today(sent one to Chris guy and you on other forum(Computer Soundcards), now I'll respond to this one, sorry about that. All this stuff(mailservs/lists, message boards, these things are totally new to me-really within the last 2 months, never knew about them, foolish I know, but.... nice knowing how much info and connection they can release.).
So the CoolEditPro is for the software(to record sounds to computer in a clean way), and the external USB card is for the soundcard? How does that work, an encased card in some sort of housing, jacks on it? You use these? That's not in my budget right now, quite tight, any other options? Phoenix huh,.... lucky guy, I've been obsessed with the place for years, somewhere I'd like to live, city in the desert, is it really that close, the desert(I love nature particularily that type of landscape, there is just something about it?

CoolEditPro will probably do the job for you. You might want to look at the Sound Blaster Extigy card. It is an external USB card for $150 and will definately sound better than your laptops' card.

[ausrock]

suling,
Welcome to the forums. First off, if you wish to quote someone, it may be better to put that at the top of the post, i.e;

QUOTE;...."So the CoolEditPro is for the software(to record sounds to computer in a clean way), "..............

It makes it easier for old dumbies like me to follow

OK, Cool Edit in it's various forms is a great software package and a free version may possibly be downloaded at www.cnet.com among other places. A soundcard which is more "music oriented" would have to be to your advantage and I imagine an external one would give you more connection options than an internal on a laptop.

[Kris-10]

The older versions of the soundblaster were more geared as entry level recording cards, the new USB model isnt quite the same, it only has 1/8" imputs, and the frequency response isnt as goos as previous models, (which would explain the drop in price from 200 to 150) your going to have to spend about twice that for a decent outboard card for your laptop. Im reaserching that subject myself. The best looking so far would be the Roland U8 the Tascam US 224, which are both controlers also, or for the best quality/price, I think the Aardvark USB 3, which can handle 24/96 looks to me to be the best solution and bang for your buck about $300 US. But I would aviod the new soundblaster, it was designed for the consumer market, so joe doe can have good sounds while watching DVD's in his hotel room. on the sound blaster I say Caveat Emptor.

[Kris-10]

In reply for the question of outboard sound cards, Yes Ive used a couple and Im looking to upgrade now, I was using a Quattro and it dosent cut it for me, its a jack of all trades and a master of none, Im looking at the Aardvark Usb 3 basically because its a dedicated interface that just records, no MIDI or anything else. Yes external sound cards have jacks that you plug into and work just like a regular sound card, your couputer dosent care that its outside the machine. The big advantage is the EMI (Electro Magnetic Interference) which is the noise generated inside of a computer by all the other components (Video card, CPU etc...) not as big a deal with a home box, but inside a laptop the sound card is the last thing a company making it wants to shield because of weight and expense, so an outboard sound card eliminates that by doing the D/A, A/D conversion outside the machine, now if your staying digital, (sampling ReBirth) on a laptop no problem but if you want to record anything live you'll notice the difference. Hope this helps
K-10

[suling]

Ausrock,.... tahnks for the tip, I've downloaded the Cool Edit 200 1.1 free version just to try it out(I have three other software packages loaded and I'm going to record the same piece on all of them to see what the difference is.
By the way where in Australia do you live(another dream place of mine!)?

[suling]

Kris - 10,
Yes the info was a big help, especially the fact of having an outside piece of equipment allows one to avoid system noise, makes common sense, that would be good. Funny just got an e-mail from someone I must have sent the same message to at a computer/software update site, with a link to a site containing the Tascam US 224! A neat looking machine. What are the differences between it and the Aardvark Usb 3? I seem to see Aardvark mentioned a lot. Well they are out of my budget right now, hopefully not for long though, thanks.

[eternalmuzik]

CakeWalk is really cheap and u can get it with a soundblaster card thats whut i got

[bubinski]

I have a SB512 card and master to freeware ( cd wave editor ) avalible at hitsquad.com Just keep the source under -3db to keep from clipping. You can also run " test only " to set non-clipping levels, then record.