I've recently been having trouble with My friend owns a tascam mixer (US-428) this is connected via firewire into his laptop. We were recording vocals earlier through a shure sm86 (yes I know it's not a suitable recording mic, and I don't want comments pertaining to the mic [unless the mic itself is the problem]) plugged straight into the mixer. When I sang into the mic there would be a delay from the time I sang into the mic until the time it was picked up on the software, and the vocals when recorded seemed very distant, like they were muffled or something. Does the mixer have a preamp, should I get a preamp for it, or is it just the mic? What can I do to 1:fix the delay and 2: fix the sound quality of the vocals.
help w/sound quality
- Thread starter Big Aggy
- Start date
Creamyapples1
www.murphycabs.com
I'd say a pre-amp is a good start to troubleshooting the mic quality. As far as the delay, I experienced something similar when trying to run Cakewalk with a standard 5.1 16bit soundcard. (I was too impatient to wait the day before my M-audio arrived) Once I got the M-audio though, it was gravy. I'm not too experienced with the Firewire interfaces though. Do you know the specs of the laptop right off hand?
altitude909
Best Advice Ever: RTFM
Also consider direct monitoring the input signal
I'm pretty sure we're using a version of Cakewalk sonar (so I'd say were having the same problems) So I can either replace the soundcard, and as for direct monitoring I would just mic the monitor with an instrument mic correct? We have a mackie 406m (I know it doesn't put out alot) but maybe that would be the solution as well. I have a feeling though when we direct mic it's still going to have a delay on the signal, so I'll try a soundcard upgrade. Any recommendations for an inexpensive but effective soundcard?
altitude909
Best Advice Ever: RTFM
No, there should be a way (depending on how your setup) to listen to what is being recorded directly meaning the signal is sent to the record bus AND directly to the outputs at the same time. If u have your monitors connected to the soundcard, then it will be in the software mixer, if you monitors are plugged into the 428, then it will be there somewhere. But the result should be no delay. You can also turn down your buffer to 128 or 256 and see if that helps.
It is also worth mentioning that you might want to try this with headphones instead of monitors
We were trying it w/headphones, the signal was coming out at the same time as I sung into the mic, it's just the software wasn't picking it up at the same time, we would here it but the signal wouldn't get processed by the software for a couple of seconds, and yes I realize the sm86 isn't. I'll try turning down the buffer though thanks.
blazingstrings
dgatwood can **** himself
The problem is latency.
The US-428 is USB (not firewire) and therefore suffers from latency and noticeable lag between your initial sounding(singing) and when it travels down the usb cable to the software and back for monitoring.
Yes direct hardware monitoring will help with it when tracking.
But you have to set the latency and such in your software to make it work.
But USB will always have a certin amout of latency, although my friend works for Cakewalk and worked for tascam. He gets really low latency and has nothing but love for his 428.
Later
-Blaze
The US-428 is USB (not firewire) and therefore suffers from latency and noticeable lag between your initial sounding(singing) and when it travels down the usb cable to the software and back for monitoring.
Yes direct hardware monitoring will help with it when tracking.
But you have to set the latency and such in your software to make it work.
But USB will always have a certin amout of latency, although my friend works for Cakewalk and worked for tascam. He gets really low latency and has nothing but love for his 428.
Later
-Blaze