arrrggghhhhhh!!!!

  • Thread starter Thread starter jimmylegs2
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jimmylegs2

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well, I feel like a moron... but here goes...

can someone explain to me, in the most basic terms, how do I record a simple track on to my hard drive?

I bought a MAudio Duo USB card, and have tried a bunch of different software, Logic Delta (came with it), Cakewalk and Cubase... all mydrivers are working fine, apparently I'm simply an idiot. I have a condenser mic plugged in, as well as a bass guitar.

I just want to lay down one track to make sure my card is working... I've been playing with the software for about 5 hours total, I just want to record something from my mic that I can play back - just a sound. A 101 lesson would be great, and please don't feel like you're talking down to me, because I haven't been able to even record a sound, and I'm chewing razor blades here...

In a nutshell, I would like to;

1) Record anything through my card (1/4 inch and mic inputs)...
2) Play it back

I deserve to be greased, the most creative flame may just win a $400 sound card ;)

Thanks :)
 
The bass guitar probably needs a DI Box.

The condensor mic needs phantom power and raise the Gain Level setting till you see a signal in your tracking software. Be Sure to use a XLR to XLR cable for the mic.
 
That card should at least give you some mic or bass signal since it has mic preamps and phantom power.

What are your computer specs? Do you have any other soundcards installed? Have you successfully used any USB devices before?

Can you get anything to play back through the DUO? See if you can get a sample song to work. There should be something with one of the programs you have.

Hopefully that will help us narrow down the problem.
 
thks for the replies... but what you have to understand is that i'm an idiot... my hardware seems ok, I guess what i'm looking for is a software tutorial... ANY SOFTWARE...

If I operate the card in "stand alone" mode, I DO get a signal... I can hear the mic through my headphones, I just don;t know how to record...

my 'puter... brand new, P4 1.8 Ghz, 1/2 gig o'ram.. USB is cool too... I actually know a lot about 'puters, I just can't seem to scale the learning curve for the recording software...

I do have another soundcard on the PC, onboard, but it's giving no conflicts...

my email address is wjmd@mail.com... I'd really appreciate an open dialog on this from someone who has a lot of spare time ;)
 
Another possibility:
with my software (Cakewalk Home Studio 2002), you only pick the soundcard in Cakewalk. You have to open up the OS's own little soundcard-mixer program to actually select the mic or line-in, and to set the volume levels for mic or line-in.
- That is, Cakewalk can pick which soundcard to record from, but can't actually directly control the soundcard features itself. To access the soundcard features, I have to use the soundcard's mixing program. Get it? Since your soundcard is a USB, it probably has its own mixing program/driver, I would guess......
- And further, under some circumstances, the soundcard will not play with the inputs armed, so I have to mute them in order to play anything.... so I arm them to record, and then mute them to play.
~
-And don't feel like an idiot, it took me a couple weeks to get Cakewalk to record anything too.
 
thanks for all the replies... I'm actually feeling less like an idiot ;), I took my box and equip. down to the music store where I bought the equip, and 4 experienced pros couldn;t get it working in 3 hours... USB, driver problems, etc...

I finally swapped it for an audiophile 2496 (PCI card) and a Eurorack MX602A mixer... I've been fooling around with it for about half an hour now, and making a little bit of progress. I am able to record, but still can't play back... I figure it's a cabling problem (inputs, outputs, etc.) - I'm still trying to grasp where each goes, what exactly does the mixer and card do for the recording process, etc. It's hard to know the questions to ask this early in the game, but I'm sure you'll be hearing more from me in the (near) future ;).

Thanks again, everyone :)


Jimmy Legs
 
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