Getting highly frustrated.

ThePhoenix

New member
I got into recording a few months back, a few of you may even remember answering a few of my questions. I was using my father's computer that he built at the time. Being that i wanted a computer dedicated to recording, and maybe some schoolwork, i bought a new Dell 4700. It has a pentium 4 with 3.08 ghrz, 512mb of ram and 80gb of hard disk space. I plan on buying a new soundcard after i buy a new guitar, but i figured the one i have would last my a while (my father's did so why wouldn't my newer better computer?)

well here is a few of the problems i've been having:

1) when i plug my keyboard in, and adjust the volume so that it doesnt go above the threshhold, i can't hear what i'm playing! this didn't happen on the old Pc. this won't be a big deal when i'm recording guitar (i'll still be able to hear it) but the keyboard needs the computer speakers to be heard. also, when i play it back, it's not as loud as it should be (judging by my old computer)

2) there is a slight buzzing noise when i turn it up. at first i thought this was my mixer (a berringher mxb1002) because everyone here says beringher sucks. but i plugged my keyboard direectly into the computer and i still had the same problem, so i'm assuming that it's the sound card.

3) when i try to make a click track with drums (my keyboard's), i can't seem to loop the beat over. No matter how on-beat i think i am, there is a slight gap between the end of the loop and the begining. i figured, no big deal, i'll just punch in at the end and keep recording that way. if i do that, i here a minor click where on clip begins and the other ends! I figured this was a latency issue. i had the same problem with my father's PC....i changed the bufffer size and lowered the latency (i'm using cakewalk) and then everything seemed to be a lot better, and therefore the first thing i did with the new Pc was lower the latency and the buffer size, but i'm having the same problem as i did on my father's PC before i changed the values.

#3 is probably the biggest problem, as i could deal with the buzzing until i get a new soundcard, and i can deal with not hearing the keyboard (besides i can plug it into an amp as well as the computer).

it's truly frustratiung me so much than i'm cursing a lot, and getting ready to throw the PC out the window. if it matters, I'm using a Roland Juno-D keyboard plugged directrly into the pc, while using Cakewalk home studio.


thanks for any help!
 
1.) Your probably plugging the keyboard into the line in of your soundcard using the keyboard's headphone out but I'm guessing. Try running the keyboard through the mixer or use the main outs of the keyboard and then into the line level input.

2.) Buzzing is usually a grounding problem. You may be using a mono input when your soundcard is expecting a stereo input, e.g.trs. Again I'm guessing but check out your cables and make sure they are the correct ones.

3.) I can't figure out your problem with cakewalk because I don't use it but could it be the tempos aren't matching up?

You're right, frustrating!
 
Back
Top