where to start?

S

salty09

New member
Okay I have always been used to using a 4 track analog machine and recently when mine blew up I bought another one. Well I am starting to wonder about using my comp to do the work for the simple fact of more tracks available and the loss of tape hiss and such. I only have a sb live card will this card be a better quality sound then my analog machine I know its only 16 bit transfer. Second as far as an external mixer is there anyway I can use my 4 track for this. I know this is probably not the best quality way to do something like this but I am poor of course. I have access to several recording software including cubase, vegas pro , saw pro , cake walk yata yata yata. The thing is I do everything by myself and usually use either acid or my Yamaha djx to create the beats I use in my guitar based music. I'm not looking to make professional sounding recordings. Can I use this stuff in any combination as well as using my effects processors hardware to work together. my 4 track does have a line out for all four tracks and xlr inputs. I'm just getting really tired of ping ponging everything. I am using an amd thunderbird 8oo mhz on an asus a7v mb with 128 mb of memory, my hd is only 5400 rpm's. Is there a solution in the stuff I have that would be workable? Thanks in advance for the help
 
That Soundblaster live will do just fine....as far as external mixing, youd need a souncard with 4 ins/outs and you are starting to get into money there...software mixing can be just fine...you can use the 4 track for its preamps by plugging your guitar, mic, whatever in as normal and taking a stereo line out from the 4 track into the computer....if you have other preamps available ven better.....the only thing I would add is a 7200 rpm hard drive....do a search for better brands...I have a Maxtor Diamond Max and Ive streamed up to 20 tracks with 192 Mb ram, on a 500mhz Celeron......if you are already using Acid, you can just import those tracks into your multitrack software and go from there....just for kicks go ahead and give it a try with what you have now....let us know how it comes out.....
 
So which of the multi track software programs are best and easiest to use. If I under stand it right you cant add effects until after the rcording part is done. Is this correct? second my guitar and bass will be able to record okay through the sound blaster live. Would I be better off getting one of those units like the soloist(I think thats what its called) a piece of hardware that converts the signal and provides a preamp and one or two inputs. Thanks for your help. Im getting tired of the limitations of the 4 track and might just see if I can sell it on ebay. Its only 3 weeks old. but then again Im the type who if it takes alot of work to get the stuff up and going I may never get to it. Thx again for the help
salty
 
Best and easiest are opinion based....Id start of with N-Track at www.fasoft.com and get comfortable on that....for $39 it cant be beat and you can try to shareware free....once the feet are wet, download some demos of products like Cubase, Vegas, Cakewalk, etc (the big boys) and see if they are more tailored to your needs.....

Usually realtime effects arent done on a PC DAW...I think it CAN be done with N-Track, but I dont know of anyone who has....

If you need more than one input at a time and preamps, the soloist is a good way to go....also the Aardvark Direct Pro (which has preamps, and reverb, compression, and EQ that can be used while recording).....

You will need some type of preamp to go into the SB live with guitar or bass or a mic....
 
Thx for the advice. I actually have access to cubase, vegas, cakewalk and saw pro. Not really sure which one to use though. So I can use my 4 track as a preamp for my guitar and base and still use the outboard effects processors I use now right?. This might seem like a silly question but doesnt the sound card take stereo in so I should be able to use stereo effects processors like the line 6 delay pedal I use or is that totaly wrong? I thought I should be able to send one output left and the other right and I guess record it as 2 tracks is that possible? Thx alot for your help and tolerance for my questions hehe.
ps im not spell checking anymore cause I tried to twice and both times it crashed my browser so sorry about any mis-spelled words :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top