Guitar Tracks and Aardvark USB3

[Boinie]

I just purchased this bundle (the hardware and software come in the same box), and I am sure that I can't be the only person in the world who has done so, since Sweetwater, Musician's Friend and others sell it for under $250, so it is an inexpensive way to get started in the brave new hard-disk recording world. [I have some prior home recording experience using an old Tascam Portastudio 4-track cassette recorder and some MIDI hardware, including an Alesis HR-16 Drum Machine and a MIDI keyboard.] I have been working with GT and the Aardvark USB for a couple of weeks now [I already have upgraded to Guitar Tracks Pro, which Cakewalk will sell you bundle buyers for $29, and which has much more power than the original GT which comes with the Aardvark USB3], and have learned some stuff, but also have had some problems which plague me. Most of the posts I have seen on this BBS are a bit advanced for me and are only marginally helpful, since everybody seems to be using more powerful software and hardware.

Anyway, I thought I would start this thread to see if I could attract others who want to talk about this setup, exchange information and maybe help each other up the learning curve.

I am running a Win982d 500 mhz PIII with 256 m of RAM, and a 20 G HD with a USB CD burner. In addition to the Aardvark USB3, my rig contains an internal SB AudioPCI 64D sound card.

I have made some rough recordings, so I know it can be done, and have put together some drum patterns with Fruityloops. My primary problems at the moment are 1) I can't get the guitar Tuner to work; 2) I am having Mixer problems (error messages which I can't seem to fix, and other problems); 3) I am having some trouble getting the Fruityloops drum tracks to record to GT Pro. I can see that some of these problems have to do with the relationship between the Aardvark and the SB card, which I may not fully understand.

On the plus side, I have learned [the hard way] how to turn on the autosave, so that when you f**k up and the computer freezes, you don't lose everything--ditto with saving the Fruityloops patterns after you create them.

I am determined to get all this stuff figured out and burn a CD of my magic fingers and golden throat. I also am interested in any war stories about using the SB card as a MIDI interface, when the time comes to upgrade the GTPro software to something that supports MIDI. As you may be able to tell, I like to do things cheap.

In any case, I invite any of you folks out there who are in this boat with me to join this thread. Thanks.

Boinie

 

[Boinie]

Progress report: still having a problem with my original setup. There seems to be a conflict somewhere in my system which is preventing me from getting a Windows USB record mixer to come up. E-mail Tech support from Cakewalk has been slow (and the telephone guy I talked to wanted me to talk to the guy who had originally answered my e-mail, and he was in a meeting. Go figure); Aardvark has yet to reply.

Meanwhile, I installed GTPro on my 200mhz Pentium MMX laptop, 8 G HD, 96 Meg RAM, and it works using the crappy Yamaha sound system which came with this 4 year old Gateway Solo. A little hesitant, but it works. The GT specs call for at least a 233 mhz Pentium, so I am pleasantly surprised. Will mix some stuff using my old Tascam portastudio into the laptop line in and let ya'll know what happens.