Can't monitor track while recording a new one

M

mboo42

New member
Howdy,
This is my first post to the site. I have spent the last week just reading what everyone has said in other threads and it has been a very helpful learning tool. I am new and just starting to set up my home studio. I am trying to get a pentium II 350 mhz running win 2000, with soundblaster AWE64 Gold sound card to work with Home Studio 2004. I am not utilizing the midi interface cable. Everything I have tried so far has been using the crappy mic that came with the pc. Like I said I am just starting and wanted to get my feet wet before spending tons of money. I am able to record a track but I can't seem to monitor the first track while recording a second. I have read the manual for the HS2004 and can't find anything. Seems there is a monitor button to click on but when that is activated I can't hear anything thru my speakers or a set of headphones thru the soundcards line out. I have a feeling that I have a meriad of problems. 1. I think I am trying to use too much old and new technology at the same time. 2. It may be the way the soundcard is set up, although it is set to full duplex, I think. 3. I might not have the monitoring chain right. Seems to me that line out would play thru the speakers of my computer, it always has before when I listen to anything else. 4. I may not be utilizing my software correctly. I am only trying to record myself playing guitar and singing, then go back and do another track of just guitar and then another of maybe singing and then a lead track. This is total hobby stuff. A few friends or my wife will be the only ones that hear any of it, if I can get it to work. Any help is appreciated. Let me know if I need to post in the cakewalk forum due to a software issue. Thanks in advance.
 
Is your AWE64 a ISA or PCI card?

Home Studio 2004 needs audio hardware that can handle what it has to throw at it. On top of that you really need to have decent WDM or ASIO drivers as well.

I think your first order of business is to get a better card like an M-Audio Audiophile 2496 for $150 if you can afford it. Its the cheapest "non-gamer" card out there for recording work. If you can't afford that, at least go out and buy a Sound Blaster Live! card for around $50 and use the kxProject Drivers to get better performance.
 
The AWE 64 is an ISA card, It's also not truly full duplex. In that mode what you hear of what was already recorded is an 8-bit playback, technically useable but pretty awful to have to deal with. An SB Live doesn't have this problem, plus it can be used as a Sound Font-based sample playback synth, and you can probably find one for $25 or so these days.

As to not hearing what you have properly, it's probably the Windows mixer is not set up properly. Here's a good article that describes how to do this:

http://www.cakewalk.com/support/lessons/windowsmixer.asp
 
AlChuck had the answer I was gonna give. It's not a full duplex card.

Also, a PII 350 is going to start straining for resources if you plan on doing more than a few tracks, especially since you are running Win2K on a platform that was designed for Win 95/98 OS's.
 
alien said:
AlChuck had the answer I was gonna give. It's not a full duplex card.

Also, a PII 350 is going to start straining for resources if you plan on doing more than a few tracks, especially since you are running Win2K on a platform that was designed for Win 95/98 OS's.
Click to expand...

Not true. My PII-400 running XP kept up with HS2002 once I installed a decent soundcard (Audiophile 2496).
 
Thanks guys, I am at work right now but this gives me a lot of info to work with. It should be interesting. By the way I do not have a mixer, I was hoping to do everything thru the pc (don't have lots of room for clutter!) but I can see that hooking more than one or two inputs will be difficult unless I get a mixer. But I should only need one or two inputs so I will give it a try like this. I definately will get a new card! Thanks again.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top