Recording an Electric Kit through my PC

[BouncingCzech]

Hi I'm trying to record my mates electric kit, he's got a fairly decent Roland. We just tried it, plugging a 1/8" jack straight in to my laptop.

We had some success but when he starts going heavy on the drums and getting fast the results are just... well bizarre. There's distortion, the timing is all wrong.

Software wise I have tried Audacity and the standard Microsoft Sound Recorder and both seem to have similar problems. I don't know whether I can just change the settings in Audacity to deliver a lower quality sound perhaps?

But it does seem like my sound card in my laptop just can't keep up when you give it that much input.

I do have a proper home PC with a beefy soundcard in, I'm hoping that if I plug the kit in to that we'll have no problems at all as its a proper Creative Soundblaster not an on-board thing like my laptop.

But could anybody confirm or deny this?

BC,

 

[suprstar]

Make sure the signal isn't too hot, thats what it sounds like to me. It's impossible for the timing to get off, you're recording a pre-mixed stereo L/R signal. It's an analog signal, there's no such thing as 'too much info'. There's no bitrate, no sample rate, no nothing. Are you plugging into a 'Line In' jack, or a 'Mic' jack? Mic's are way more sensitive, and the Roland modules are giving a line level signal. If you aren't using the 'Line In', start doing that now.

If all you have is a 'Mic' input, then you'll have to turn your module down almost all the way. There may be a switch in the windows volume control, I rememeber having a soundcard with a '-20db' switch on it that changed the sensitivity of the mic jack. If not, like I said, turn the module way down, and play with the mic channel fader on the windows volume control.

 

[horizon_scott]

here's an idea, if you have an amp knocking around, go into the amp then out into your PC, maybe it could work as a makeshift mixer/preamp?

 

[suprstar]

here's an idea, if you have an amp knocking around, go into the amp then out into your PC, maybe it could work as a makeshift mixer/preamp?

To clarift, DO NOT connect the amp output to your computer. Scott means to use a line-out or headphone jack on the amp! I don't see the point tho, the drum module is already putting out a line level signal, which is too hot if my suspicions are correct. The signal a pre-amp puts out is just as hot.