MR-8 export latency issue

[mrx]

I just dropped some MR-8 guitar tracks into Cakewalk and found things just a bit out of sync with my MIDI backing. Strange, since I used the tempo map. I'm thinking it's latency between my MIDI interface and sound card, but am wondering if anyone else has seen this.

The audio tracks are in sync with each other in Cake, and when I offest the MIDI tracks by a touch, things sound much better. I have a USB MIDI interface on Win98 and think that could be to blame.

[mrx]

I'm starting to think that MIDI and audio just are not meant to work together. I'm going to start converting my MIDI tracks to WAV when they are finished and get that whole mess out of the equation.

I just pulled down n-Track and dropped in some MR-8 wavs - looks like good stuff. I've dug deeper into the n-Track forums and it sounds like it's pretty stable for mastering MR-8 stuff. In any event, it's 49 bucks and appears to only be limited by your computer horsepower.

[mrx]

Sorry to keep answering myself, but I just got a mix up in n-Track after owning the app for less than an hour - pulled in six tracks from two separate MR-8 tracking sessions (three vocals, three guitars) and a bass/drum backing created as a MIDI file in Cakewalk and converted to wav with Virtual Sound Canvass. I'm friggin' blown away at how easy this was to do in n-Track - markers, auto-panning, etc. It sounds great and the app is very comfortable to use.

It's really criminal - when I think of what I've paid for Cakewalk Pro Audio (including every upgrade, since it came out), and this other stuff for $49 blows it away.

Now I can uninstall Cakewalk and free up disk space...

(and I have to get in a plug for the Line 6 POD - since the amp sim on the MR-8 is ass, I really started using the POD for the first time - what a great little box!)

[darknailblue]

yeah.... its not just u that has had that problem my friend.... I've had similar problems creating drum tracks using midi.... I'm using Cakewalk Home Studio 2002, and love it, but the amount of features that I use on it doesn't justifiy the 100 bones i put down for it... wav files and normalization and sometimes some verb or delay... but anyway what i did was buy a drum machine and samples for the pc called Drums! and Absolute Drum Samples respectively (www.drums.sk). Since the prog drums has adjustable tempo, and key signature and creates wav files just like the mr-8 it works prefectly.... sounds beeeeaaaaautiful too... right now Im using a DI box too... cept Im using the J-Station instead of the POD... why? well two reasons... the Mesa Boogie Rectifier sounds like it was modeled after the MUCH BETTER sounding two chanel dual rec and not the three one... the three one sounds like ass with every guitar cept prs ones... and two... the j station models bass amps... wooohooo! plus its about half as expensive... booya...

~dn

[mrx]

Thanks for the drum link - I'll check that out. I was using my Virtual Sound Canvas to convert MIDI's to WAV to MP3 for live use, so I haven't really looked at replacing samples and tweaking the sound. Converting that stuff to WAV just makes so much sense for work with the MR-8 and nTrack - it's like a whole new world openned up!

[marcacho]

Just a couple of quick questions:

1) is the wav file in the 2mix folder supposed to have such a high file size when exported to computer? My song file is 45.3 MB!

2) I'm playing the song on Windows Media Player and the quality is pretty good, but I think the level is not too high--had to turn up the speaker a bit. Does this have to do with the mastering levels during bouncing or during individual track recording?

**Oh, I'd like to know how to put the song up for you guys to hear (a little constructive criticism maybe)

[darknailblue]

the answers to ur questions are here my friend....

1) Yes its supposed to be that high. why u ask.... well im assuming each wav file (track) u have is about 22.7 mb... and these are all mono wav files.... so when u make a stereo wav file, its like slappin 2 wav files together...

2) The answer to this varries.... it could be both.... when i record on my mr-8 i put my input levels down low so that I get the least possible distortion... then i export all the tracks onto cakewalk home studio and normalize them... what that does it makes all the volume level their loudest before they start clipping, peaking, distorting, whatever u want to call it... look into some computer multi tracking software; then ur mr-8 will become so much sexier looking...

~dn

[marcacho]

Thanks dn. This is the first song I've recorded and then exported, so I'm still feeling this little machine out. So far, I'm impressed.