Could someone please help me re: Cakewalk Express Gold?

J

Julia

New member
I have an AMD K6-3/350 with 128 megs RAM. My soundcard is the Creative AWE 64 Gold, and I have Cakewalk Express Gold. I also have a Mitsumi rewriteable CD drive.
I would greatly appreciate the answers to the following questions, if anyone would be willing to help me.

First, using the above system, how best to record multi tracks? Is it even possible? I'm reading a lot on this bulletin board about musicians recording directly using their PC's...I'm wondering if I am generally set up to do the same.

My other question is with regard to my thoughts about purchasing a Boss BR-8...would I/could I use this with my current set-up to record onto CD, either using Cakewalk or not?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts/advice.

Julia :)
 
Yes, you should be able to record. Put a line level source (from a mixer, preamp, line out from a guitar amp, whatever) into the Line In of the AWE -- you'll probably need to get adapter cables to connect 1/4" or RCA jacks to the 1/8" stereo minijack on the card. Follow the Cakewalk documentation and you should be recording in no time.

One thiong about the AWE card -- it's not a true full duplex card. Full duplex means that you can hear what was already recorded while you are also recording another track. While recording, the AWE card will play back previously recorded audio but at a lower resolution, so it'll sound poor. But the audio is actually recorded OK; if you play back while not also recording, you'll hear the full fidelity again.

I don't know much about the BR-8 but you can probably transfer the audio data to the PC for making CDs...

-AlChuck
 
I used a Soundblaster Live card which has analog and digital ins, with Cakewalk XP Gold and Sound Forge XP, which I used for recording a stereo dump from my VS machines for burning CDs. I see no problem doing this from the BR 8, which I believe has the same type of master outs. I will however warn you that if you are planning to dump multiple audio tracks from an external recorder such as the BR 8, it can only be done two tracks at a time and to do more, you would have to use midi sync, with the BR 8 as master. It is my understanding that Cakewalk XP Gold will NOT sync to an external device, so therefore you would either have to use Cakewalk exclusively for mulitracking, or upgrade to a Cakewalk Pro so that the external source will sync. The BR 8 would make a fine addition to your present set-up as long as you just used it for stereo mix-down into the pc. Hope this helps.
 
It's nice to see you guys are so polite today!!
by the way Julia - what al said about playing back at low resolution is important but you must deselect record on your tracks before it will play back correctly. I've got a pentium II 350 and it plays back up to 12 - 13 tracks so go for it.

[Edited by John Sayers on 08-09-2000 at 18:38]
 
You have everything you need. I started on a AMD k6 233 with 64 mb RAM and a 20 dollar sound card. I used the computer mic and it sounded awful, but I learned alot and have upgraded some. If you can get a mixer and nice mics, go for it. If not, go for it, but know that your sound will not be great. A computer mic is about two step up from the kind you find on a boombox...but it is fun anyway, and it will give you experience recording, mixing, editing and burning digital audio. knock yourself out!
 
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