Cool Edit Recording question (multitrack)

[feesh]

So here's my situation:

I record either 8 or 16 tracks through optical cables from ADAT many times a day. (old masters stored on these). After I bring them in, i frequently have to do a dynamics processing as well as a hard limiting. So what I'm trying to do is get Cool Edit to apply these effects while bringing in the audio instead of me manually doing it after its been brought in and saved.

Can Cool Edit do this? I only seem to be able to get the effects applied during playback, not during record. I put dynamics processing and hard limiting in the FX rack on the tracks that I'm bringing in, and record, but nothing gets applied to the audio coming in.

Any help with this problem is appreciated, including suggestions for another PC multitrack recording program that can apply these effects real-time as audio is being recorded.

Thanks.

 

[chrisharris]

CEP can't do it.

Here's my question, though...why would you want to hard limit and compress tracks on the way in? I mean, once compression is done, you can't undo it, so I'm just curious as to what the benefit is of recording it with the squisher on as opposed to just applying it nondestructively.

 

[feesh]

Thanks for the reply. It's good to know that I don't need to try to get Cool Edit to do it anymore.

Well, the audio is voice only so we do the squishing and then re-amping in order to get the largest volume possible and minimize peaks and valleys. I would of course test a small portion of it to be sure that settings were correct and then bring it all in. I work for an audio book company, so these files are always 45 mins long, and since we have to bring them in anyway, i'm trying to find a way to do the editing at the same time rather than have that 45 mins doing nothing.

So do you know of another PC program that can do this?

edit: ahh..I may have misread your post. The files are already pre-recorded onto ADAt's by the readers, so we have a master that we can always go back on. it's not like I am trying to record Live audio that can't be undone.

 

[Strryder]

these files are always 45 mins long, and since we have to bring them in anyway, i'm trying to find a way to do the editing at the same time rather than have that 45 mins doing nothing.

So do you know of another PC program that can do this?

SAWStudio Basic ($300.00) can do that, it allows up to 8 stereo inputs at once, so you can bring in 16 mono tracks at a time.

You can record thru the channels on the virtual mixer and use the built in EQ, noise gate/compressor and any plugins inserted into the prefader FX patchpoint to effect the signal as it's being recorded.

When you record enable a track, you have the option of recording directly from the input devices, (like CEP), or thru the mixer channels, the solo and mute switches do not effect the recording, so you can monitor one track at a time while recording 16 seperate tracks of unrelated audio that would sound like crap if all played together.

Check out the Levelizer plugin too, it's a SAWStudio native plugin that is essentially the same as the noise gate/compressor section the the virtual console but with peak limiting and normalizing functions built in, when used as a peak limiter it will NOT flat top your audio, instead it "scales" the peaks down, and is extremely transparent, it can also be used in realtime as you record, you should have no problem running 16 instances of it at once should you need to.

Check out the videos.

http://www.sawstudio.com/

 

[feesh]

You wouldn't happen to be able to tell me how to do this with SawStudio would you? Or point me to a tutorial on how to apply effects to audio coming in? I can't seem to get it to work with the demo I downloaded. I keep having the same problem, the effects only seem to be applied at playback.

Thanks.

 

[Strryder]

You wouldn't happen to be able to tell me how to do this with SawStudio would you? I keep having the same problem, the effects only seem to be applied at playback.

Thanks.

Okay, but it's been a while since I used the demo, and if I remember correctly there are some limitations in the demo, such as how many tracks can be recorded or use plugins, and how many aux's can use plugins.

I would guess that you are trying to record directly from the input devices, doing this bypasses the virtual console, and records "dry", You need to setup the virtual console to be "live" and record from it's input channels instead.

Let's try it with 4 tracks for a test.

1st, Open up the demo, then setup your audio devices in the options section of the menu, since we're only doing 4 tracks, setup 2 device inputs and 1 device output, (you will need to setup your audio device every time you open the demo, after purchasing the program, you can save your audio device settings under preferences in the file menu.)

2nd, In the file menu, hit save, and create a folder for the project, name the project and save it in the folder you just created.

3rd, Go to the top of input channel 1, to the section called I/A, this is the input/attenuator section of the virtual console, set your input source to device 1, then go down to the mono button and click on the word mono, select "L only", this tells the input channel to use only the left side of input device 1 as it's input source. then setup input channel 2 to the same input device, but select "R Only", then setup input channels 3 and 4 the same way, but use device 2 as their input source.

4th, On top of the MultiTrack there is a solo light, if you click on it the light will come on, this is the hot track solo, whatever track/channel is highlighted will now be the only track heard.

5th, In the MultiTrack, click in the track name/label area and name all 4 of your tracks, then hit the record button for track 1, the Record Control Panel and a record meter will pop up, on the record meter you will see an input window, this is what tells the the MultiTrack where to get this track's recording source from, click on it, and select mixer channel 1 as it's recording source, now record arm track 2, it should automatically use the next mixer channel as it's recording source, same for tracks 3 and 4.

6th, Now hit the Record Ready button on the Record Control Panel, this puts the program into live mode, start your adat playing and you should see signals coming in and hear whichever one is selected as the hot track, now scroll the hot track to track 1, and go to the dynamics section of the virtual console, you can now turn on and adjust the channel compressor, as well as the noise gate and EQ if you wish. Scroll thru each of the 4 input channels and make your adjustments to them. When you're finished adjusting things hit the stop button on the Record Control, stop and rewind the ADAT tape.

7th, Hit the Record button on the Record Control Panel and then start your ADAT playing again, you should now be recording 4 seperate tracks thru the input channels with realtime processing being applied to the recordings.

 

[feesh]

Wow, thanks....brilliant explanation. The only step I wasn't figuring out was the I/A step in the mixer panel. It works great!! Thanks again