Newbie: audio playback woes

[JodyLevinson]

Hello all,

I'm new to home recording and new to this forum.

I just bought a SoundBlaster Live! Platinum 5.1 and downloaded the Cakewalk Sonar demo.

I'm having multiple headaches trying to figure out how to use it, but I'll start with just one:

When I plug an instrument or mic into the 1/4" input and record an audio track, the playback "flickers" in a rapid rhythm. I can't seem to get a smooth clean signal. I've tried both singing into a mic and plugging my keyboard directly in and I get the same thing. I don't have this problem when I do the keyboard directly through the MIDI connectors (I have other headaches there, but I'll save 'em for another message).

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks!

Jody

[brzilian]

Instruments with line level outputs should be connected to the Line-in jack on the SB not the Mic input. I would proably do the same for a mic (connect it to Line-in), but add a mic preamp in the middle.

You should check your line-in level by bringing up the recording mixer also.

What kind of computer/OS are you using? Sonar needs a pretty beefy setup to run smoothly.

[JodyLevinson]

Oh, dear.

I don't see anything called "line in" that's separate from the mic in. There's a line in on the back, but the diagrams show that going to a casette, CD or synthesizer. On the front panel I've got: MIDI in & out, 1/4" mic in, 1/4" phones, SPDIF in & out, minidisk connectors and auxiliary analog input. (CD, tape, etc). On the back I've got a digital speaker jack, line in (for CD, etc) Mic in, Line out & rear out (surround speakers) and a joystick/midi port.

I was using a mic in the mic in port when I had the problem. I don't know what a mic preamp is or what "line level output" means.

I'm running WinXP Home on an AMD Athlon processor, 256MB ram. It should be up to the task.

Thank you for your patience!

Jody

[brzilian]

All the jacks are color coded - line-in is the blue one.

The difference between line-in and the mic input is that CD players, VCR's, DVD players and synthesizers output a signal that is somewhat controlled (you have a specific voltage range that its send from their outputs). Microphones have "unregulated" outputs. A mic-preamp takes the unregulated output of a microphone and "smoothes" it out so it is like the output of the devices mentioned above.

Just as an FYI, it is a known fact that most motherboards that support AMD processors have problems with soundcards (the VIA chipset in particular). It might be something you should investigate further.

When you say instrument, do you mean a keyboard/synthesizer or a guitar? If you're talking about a guitar, you'd want to do the same thing as a mic - not plug it directly into the computer.

Here is a link to a fairly popular Mic-preamp:

http://www.midiman.com/products/m-audio/audibudy.php

[JodyLevinson]

Thanks for the explanation. According to the manual, the mic in is supposed to be used for a mic, guitar, or other line in.

What I want to do is record mostly "live" - vocal, clarinet, sax into the microphone. And I also have a KORG keyboard which I'll be delighted to record via the MIDI inputs, as soon as I can figure THAT out. But I'll be playing the keyboard "live" too - not intending to do a lot of computer manipulation.

Mostly what I want to do once I get the tracks recorded is mix, eq, etc. to get a nice "live" sounding recording.

I'll have to check into the AMD issue.

Thanks again for your help!

Jody

[acidrock]

Just reading your post I noticed you said you were going to record midi.Not to be condescending but are you aware of what midi is and how it works?
There are numerous excellent articles on the web to help you out (along with the forum members).The only reason I'm saying this is that it's a common misconception among newbies that midi is audio,if you are aware of this just disregard this post.

[crosstudio]

i don't think anyone is addressing the "flickering" problem.

do you hear the flickering while monitoring the recording? i don't mean to insult you, but when i say monitoring i mean listening to the playback of what you are recording into the computer while recording it.

what computer are you using? what's the speed of the cpu, how much RAM to you have, and what is the size and speed of your hard drives.

what are your audio settings? your driver and file bit depths, mixing latency, i/o buffer size, and how you stream > 16 bit can cause that flickering sound.

i had the same problems with the m-audio duo usb recorder when i first got it for my laptop, until i got the settings just right in sonar.

give us more info, and we'll help you nail this down.

[JodyLevinson]

Acidrock, please don't be concerned about being condescending. I don't think it's possible in my case. I know that MIDI is not audio, but I'm not sure I understand what difference it makes. I do know that when I recorded through MIDI, the keyboard sounded great on the playback and when I just went line out of the keyboard into line in on the PC it sounded terrible.

Crosstudio,

Thank you. I'm not monitoring while I'm recording. Do you usually do that?

I'm running WinXP Home on an AMD Athlon processor, 256MB ram. The processor speed is 1600 Mhz. The drivers and settings are the defaults for the SoundBlaster card I just installed.

Do you have recommendations for file bit depths, mixing latency, i/o buffer size, and how I should stream?

You know, I've been in a studio numerous times and have made several professional recordings. I have a whole new respect for engineers now!

Jody

[Major Tom]

For the "flickering", try going to Options/Audio/Advanced, check the "Always use MME drivers even if WDM drivers are available" box. I had a problem that sounded like that until I tried the above. My WDM drivers seem to work with everything except Cakewalk (Win XP, Soundblaster PCI 128). Also try moving the slider to the right in the Options/Audio/General tab.

[JodyLevinson]

Ground Control to Major Tom

Thank you! I tried your suggestions and it worked! I get a message from the software saying the drives are not supported and asking me if I want to disable or use anyway. I selected use anyway and it seems to work fine.

Thanks so much for your help.

Jody

[Major Tom]

You might have to run the wave profiler again, too - options/audio, then click on the wave profiler. On another post for a similiar problem, someone stated that there is an updated driver for SBLive on the Windows Update, you might try that. The WDM drivers provide lower latency, but that doesn't seem to be an issue for me yet...

[sonnylarsen]

As for bit depth, I believe the sblive 5.1 will only record as high as 16 bits, so that's what you should go with for bit depth.

Also, trust me, it gets easier.

[Shana]

Dont believe him! The more seriously you get into it the harder it gets!

[sonnylarsen]

shhhh.
Keep that quiet dammit!