Alesis io2/Cubase LE 4/Recording in Mono

[justinthomas]

Hi All,

Just wanna say hi, I have just joined here.

I have been using home recording equipment for a while now, but had taken a few years break and now getting back into it.

I just bought myself an io2 which ships with Cubase LE4. I am running Vista (dare I say it) on a laptop with 4GB RAM and decent hard drive space.

For some reason, I can't seem to record guitar in stereo, or have it playback in stereo via the USB monitoring.

Any idea's?

Cheers
Justin

 

[noisedude]

So you're connecting the left side of your guitar signal to channel 1? And the right side to channel 2?

And you're connecting the left output to your left speaker and the right to your right speaker?

Just checking because a lot of starters don't realise that channels are mono. You're not plugging a 'stereo cable' into one channel are you?

 

[justinthomas]

Hi,

Well the io2 is a 2 channel USB interface, with (I'm assuming) a stereo jack input for guitars, so I only need to put my guitar in 1 channel.

?

Cheers

 

[noisedude]

Hi,

Well the io2 is a 2 channel USB interface, with (I'm assuming) a stereo jack input for guitars, so I only need to put my guitar in 1 channel.

?

Cheers

No. A channel is mono. To get a stereo signal in, plug the left side of your FX/whatever's making the stereo signal into channel 1 and the right into channel 2. Then pan them hard left and hard right in your sequencer to have them spread as wide as you want.

What is putting out a stereo sound? As in, what pedal or processor? Does it output on balanced or unbalanced jacks?

 

[justinthomas]

Hi,

I'm plugging in my guitar to the Alesis io2 USB interface, and plugging the io2 into the USB port into my laptop.

There are 2 channels on the io2, you can switch between guitar and Line/Mic.

Thanks
Justin

 

[noisedude]

Hi,

I'm plugging in my guitar to the Alesis io2 USB interface, and plugging the io2 into the USB port into my laptop.

There are 2 channels on the io2, you can switch between guitar and Line/Mic.

Thanks
Justin

You're plugging the guitar straight into the jack input?

That is a single, mono channel.

Where it sits in the stereo field depends on where you pan it in your recording software.

 

[justinthomas]

Hi,

Where would I have to pan it? And will this be the same for when I record vocals, as each channel has an XLR for a condensor mic.

Many thanks for your help mate.

Cheers
Jus

 

[noisedude]

Hi,

Where would I have to pan it? And will this be the same for when I record vocals, as each channel has an XLR for a condensor mic.

Many thanks for your help mate.

Cheers
Jus

Well, you just have ONE channel of guitar. So if you put it all the way to the left, it's gonna sound weird. If all you're recording is one guitar and one vocal track, leave them both in the middle.

There's controls in Cubase for each channel - volume, pan, plugin effects etc. I don't use Cubase but they'll be easy enough to spot. Have a read of the Cubase manual if you need to brush up on the basics.

Hope that helps!

 

[dgatwood]

Well, you just have ONE channel of guitar. So if you put it all the way to the left, it's gonna sound weird. If all you're recording is one guitar and one vocal track, leave them both in the middle.

More to the point, if you're only recording from input 1, be sure to record on a mono track in Cubase. When you use a stereo track, the left channel comes from input 1 and the right side comes from input 2. With a mono track, you get a single signal from a single input.

With a mono track, your pan knob can pan the mono signal anywhere from left to right, including the center (coming out both speakers equally).

With a stereo track, no matter how you pan it, you'll only have sound on the left channel. A stereo pan control only adjusts the relative gain for the left side versus the right side. If the signal on the right side (from input 2) is silence, it will still contain silence no matter how much you crank up its gain.