Help needed in Cubase LE 6

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morphine.nine

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Hi, I just invested in my first recording equipment and bought myself a Focusrite Scarlette Studio. The problem that I am having is that I can't get clean recording. Pardon my ignorance, but when I record my vocals, acoustic guitar/electric guitar either plugged in directly in the interface or recording through the mic, I get a lot of noise. There is a lot of background noise if I record through mic. And if I record my electric guitar and put on distortion through the plugin in the software I get a lot of noise.

I don't know how to remove the noise and due to this my recordings don't sound any better. The settings on my interface are fine, the sound signals don't go in to the orange or red zone. It stays in the green.

How do I get a crystal clear recording and remove noise in the Cubase LE 6?
 
morphine.nine said:
Hi, I just invested in my first recording equipment and bought myself a Focusrite Scarlette Studio. The problem that I am having is that I can't get clean recording. Pardon my ignorance, but when I record my vocals, acoustic guitar/electric guitar either plugged in directly in the interface or recording through the mic, I get a lot of noise. There is a lot of background noise if I record through mic. And if I record my electric guitar and put on distortion through the plugin in the software I get a lot of noise.

I don't know how to remove the noise and due to this my recordings don't sound any better. The settings on my interface are fine, the sound signals don't go in to the orange or red zone. It stays in the green.

How do I get a crystal clear recording and remove noise in the Cubase LE 6?
Click to expand...

Ah! "Crystal clear recordings".....! What we all would give!.....
Ok sorry, must be kind. Very hard to advise until we can hear things but there are some tests you can do to narrow down the source of the noise*.

Unplug mic and guitar from the Focusrite 2i2, turn gains to min' and then record a one minute track. Play this back and look at the noise levels on the meters and harken unto it. I can't remember what the meters are like on LE6 (I have it but on another machine not available atmo') but I seem to recall that they are hardly "forensic" . Whatever, the noise should be down at -100dBFS that is probably below the Cubase meter range. (if you want some stonking 90dB range meters download the demos of Sony Soundforge or Samplitude ProX.)

If there is significant noise I bet you are running W7? If so get into the Sounds and Devices menus and find the 2i2. and check the record level. It will likely be at 100%. bosh it down to 5% or less.

If the basic rec/play system is silent we need to move onto mic first of all.
NB all this implies recording at 24 bits and 44.1kHz

*"Noise" is an all embracing term. Without a harken so far can you describe it?
Dave.
 
I still don't understand the changing of input level in W7 with an external interface. For myself it does not have any affect on input nor output levels to/from Cubase with Steinberg UR824. Adjusted from 100% to 1% and still have exact same recording levels in Cubase. I even restarted and opened up Cubase again after change to make sure.

Are only some interfaces affected by this?
 
jimmys69 said:
I still don't understand the changing of input level in W7 with an external interface. For myself it does not have any affect on input nor output levels to/from Cubase with Steinberg UR824. Adjusted from 100% to 1% and still have exact same recording levels in Cubase. I even restarted and opened up Cubase again after change to make sure.

Are only some interfaces affected by this?
Click to expand...

Yes, seems to be certain USB interfaces. My KA6 and Scarlet 8i6 are fine but my ZED 10USB was noisy as was my UCA 202 until I backed off the record level in W7. I have not had the problem with XP but I read that W7 handles audio differently?

Probably has to do with drivers but I do not know nearly enough about computers to say, I just follow orders!

Dave.
 
Ah, then a driver issue seems likely. That could really mess with some users.

We should start a running list of which interfaces are affected. Or ones that are not. I would really suck if someone upgraded to a new interface only because of a missed Windows adjustment. :eek:
 
Yes, if the OP is using the scarlet with its ASIO driver, then he won't have to do anything in Win7 control panel. To the o/s, the ASIO stream is just data and not audio. If, however, he is using the WDM or DirectX driver then Windows does come into play. That is most likely the case with ECC's Zed10 and definitely the case with that piece o' crap Behringer UCA thing he keeps on about.

Ecc83... Dave, for the love of queen and country, throw that uca converter in the trash!!!! :D
 
"Ecc83... Dave, for the love of queen and country, throw that uca converter in the trash!!!!"

I do not USE the 202! Nor do I use my ZED 10 as a USB device but Mr C you should not let rabid prejudice cloud your judgement!

The 202 has a dynamic range of around 83dB that is at least 20dB better than the best OR tape and WAY better than practical vinyl. So for duping those two media to hard drive the 202 is perfectly fine. (the distortion of the 202 is of course a couple of orders better than tape or black disc!) .

The biggest failing of the UCA202 is that it is 16bits only but in fact I recorded a jam night a few months ago with a pair of AKG P150s (now the P170) into a KA6* and i3 HP laptop. The noise floor never sank below -60dBFS all night so I could in principle have used the 16bit ZED10 or indeed the 202!

The 202 is way, way better than an onboard sound chip and its PLAYBACK performance is in fact remarkably good. There is an in depth test of this on the web. I shall find it!

It is also a useful "reference" device in the context of (lest we forget!) a HOME recording forum.

*DR 101dB.

Dave.
 
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